Budgets
A budget in Bilance is a monthly spending limit for the categories you choose, with live progress through the month. Because your transactions are already categorized automatically, the budget fills itself in — you set the limit once and the app does the counting.
How it works
A budget takes one or more categories, and can be narrowed further: only certain accounts, or tag rules that include or exclude labelled spending. That lets one category serve several budgets — groceries on the shared card, travel spending tagged for one trip. Any single month's limit can be overridden without changing the base cap, and changing a budget's scope recomputes its history so past months stay comparable. Each month's outcome lands in the Monthly report, and everything follows your financial month, which can start on payday instead of the 1st.
Budgets live in the Planning tab next to Recurring payments — limits for the variable spending, one list for the fixed costs.
Why it works
A budget is permission as much as restriction. €140 of €200 left means the takeaway is guilt-free. Knowing you can spend is as valuable as knowing when to stop.
The warning comes while it is still fixable. Over halfway through the grocery budget on the 10th is information you can act on. Discovering the overrun next month is just a bad memory.
One unusual month does not kill the system. December or the summer trip would blow any static budget. A one-month override absorbs it, and the budget survives to January instead of being abandoned.
The background worry goes quiet. Most money stress is not a number, it is not knowing — the vague "am I overspending?" hum. A budget replaces the hum with a plan: you know what is allowed, what is left, and that checking will not hurt.
Honest limits
Budgets are monthly: limits and progress live inside the financial month, with per-month overrides as the flexibility mechanism. Budgets are not yet shared in Shared Finances — each partner plans their own.
Frequently asked questions
Can I budget more in one month without changing every month?
Yes. Any month’s limit can be overridden without touching the base cap: a holiday month can budget more for eating out, and in January the budget is back to normal on its own.
Can a budget cover only some accounts or only tagged spending?
Yes. A budget takes one or more categories and can be narrowed to specific accounts or tag include/exclude rules — groceries on the shared card only, or travel spending tagged for one trip.
Are there weekly or yearly budgets?
Not today — budgets are monthly, following your financial month (which can start on payday instead of the 1st). Per-month overrides are the flexibility mechanism.
Set a limit that fits your life
Connect your banks, see where the money goes, and give the categories that need it a cap.
