15-minute monthly budget review: 4-step checklist

For a monthly budget review, check last month’s spending, review subscriptions and bills, compare your balances and budget limits, then choose one specific change. Allow about 15 minutes if your transactions are already synced and mostly categorised.

A monthly review helps you spot patterns. If money is tight or payment dates vary, also check your available cash and upcoming bills during the month. Our guide to budgeting with irregular income includes an example of why a healthy monthly total can still leave you short on rent day.

Minutes 1–5: look back at last month

Open your spending overview for the last completed month. Before interpreting the totals, check that your main accounts have synced and that large transactions are categorised correctly. An internal transfer counted as an expense can distort the whole review.

• What were your largest spending categories?
• Was spending higher or lower than usual, and which transactions explain the change?
• Was an unusual cost genuinely a one-off, or will you need to cover it again?

Bilance connects to supported banks and categorises transactions automatically, so you can start with the transactions already in the app. Leave time to correct categories or investigate a missing account before relying on the numbers.

Minutes 5–9: check subscriptions and upcoming bills

Open Recurring payments and review the services you still pay for. Check the latest amount, whether you still use the service and when it renews. If you decide to cancel, do that with the provider. Archiving a recurring payment in Bilance only changes its tracking in the app.

Also look ahead for costs that will not appear every month, such as annual insurance or a yearly subscription. If you have €240 due in six months and nothing set aside, the amount to reserve is €40 per month. The subscription cost calculator helps compare monthly and yearly charges.

Investigate a transaction you do not recognise with your bank or the merchant. Do not wait for the next monthly review to deal with a suspected unauthorised payment.

Minutes 9–13: check balances and budget limits

Review your net worth, including debts and assets you track manually. A change may reflect market values or an old manual balance, so check the reason before treating it as a change in spending habits.

Then look at your budgets. If groceries exceeded the limit, decide whether the limit was unrealistic, prices changed or you bought more. Those explanations call for different decisions. Adjust a future month’s limit when you have a reason, and check what that leaves for your other expenses.

Minutes 13–15: choose one action

Write down one action you can complete and when you will do it. For example:

• Cancel an unused service before its renewal date.
• Set aside €40 for that annual bill when the next payment arrives.
• Review the grocery transactions with your partner before changing the limit.

At the next review, check whether you did it and whether it helped. A useful review ends with a decision you can follow through on.

For the next month, keep the same review date and the same accounts in view so the comparison is useful. If you are setting up automatic tracking for the first time, how bank sync works in Bilance explains the connection and its limits.