Monthly budgets

How to do it

1. Open Budgets. On your first visit, type amounts beside the categories already listed, or select Suggest a budget. A blank field means no budget at all, while 0 means a deliberate zero.
2. Suggestions average your eligible posted spending over the previous three calendar months. They are drafts you can edit, and they say nothing about what you can afford. A missing import drags the average down. Look them over, then select Use this budget.
3. Groups come first in the list. Break down swaps the group amount for one input per child, and the group then shows their total, so enter the child amounts before you save. Use one group budget clears that breakdown and gives you a single group amount again. Add another category opens the Nora category picker.
4. Save changes sets your usual budget from the selected month onwards, and leaves earlier months, later scheduled changes and month-only exceptions alone. Edit budget changes the amounts where they are. Choose Only this month to make an exception instead.
5. Use my usual budget drops a month-only exception when you save. With no usual budget, that month simply has no targets. Copy last month loads last month’s resolved amounts as a month-only draft.
6. Click a category to see its transactions. Open one to change its category, its effective date or Exclude from budgets. Calculation details holds the exclusions, the coverage information and Refresh. Transaction rows show the merchant logo where there is one and initials where there is not, and category labels show the category icon, falling back to a neutral one.
7. The compact summary and the category cards show spending as a percentage. Needs attention lists up to three categories that are over budget or at least 80% used. A parent card previews its two largest child spending branches, and clicking anywhere on the card opens the evidence. Recent spending opens individual transactions. Review in Not budgeted shows only eligible posted spending that falls outside your category budgets. On desktop the monthly summary sits at the top of the right column. On smaller screens the order is summary, Needs attention, Your budget, Upcoming, Recent spending, then Not budgeted.
8. Upcoming lists confirmed recurring expenses still due in the selected month, including anything past due and unpaid. Open a category for its pending amount, its accepted allocations and an estimate of what is left once the known bills are paid. Select a bill to open its recurring details. A CAD 150 expectation with CAD 100 accepted leaves CAD 50 upcoming, unless the accepted match closes the obligation outright. Occurrences you skipped, cancelled or paid by hand add nothing to the upcoming amount.
9. On the Budget card, pick a currency if you need to, then read your spending, what is left and the categories needing attention. Open a category, or View budget, to land on the same plan and month. If you have no plan yet, choose Create budget. The information icon explains how the numbers are worked out.
10. Ask Nora how much is left in a category, which categories are over budget or closest to it, why a category is over, or how last month went. Nora reads your saved targets and the results calculated on the server. Name a currency if you keep more than one plan. Open the evidence panel, then View budget, to check the same month yourself.
11. In Settings > Notifications, turn Budget alerts on or off. An alert fires on posted spending at 80% and 100% of a category’s budget for the current month, in the plan’s timezone. Open an alert to go to that category and month.