Manage Budgets

Use this window to add, edit, archive, and delete budgets. Budgets are identified by a name and a year. You must create a new budget each year, as most data associated with a budget—like transactions—are specific to that year.
See Why do I need to create a new budget every year? in the FAQ section.

Adding a New Budget

A budget is the foundation for everything else in the app. To get a complete picture of your financial status—and the numbers that matter—you’ll also need to create accounts, category groups, categories, and transactions. All of these are tied to a specific budget.

To begin, click the + Add a new Budget link at the bottom of the budgets list.

• Name: Enter a name to identify the budget.
• Year: Select the year from the dropdown.
• Emoji or Symbol: Add an emoji or symbol to represent the budget’s year. Open the Character Viewer by selecting Edit > Emoji & Symbols in the menu. Double-click any character to insert it into the Emoji field. Although you can enter more than one, only the last one will be used.
• Copy from Existing Budget: If you want to copy from a previous budget, select it from the dropdown. This will copy the following items: Accounts; Category Groups; Categories (including keywords, if it’s not a sample budget); Scheduled Transactions (definitions only, not generated transactions).

  Note: If you selected a sample budget, these option will not be available. Also, Category’s Keywords and Scheduled Transactions, if available, will no t be copied.

  • Remove stale keywords: If categories have keywords that were defined but never used, you can choose to skip copying them by turning on this option.
  • Deactivate empty categories: If some categories in the selected budget have no transactions, they can be set as inactive to reduce clutter. You can always activate them later.
• Use Standard Category Groups and Categories: If you prefer to start fresh, you can skip copying from another budget and use the default set provided by the app. This includes three category groups—Needs, Wants, and Savings—with common, active categories already assigned. You can later refine the list by adding, removing, or editing these categories.

Editing Existing Budgets

You can rename budgets, change their emoji, or adjust other non-structural details. However, changing the year of a budget is allowed only if there are no transactions in any of its accounts.

Archiving a Budget

Click the Archive Budget… button to archive a budget. A confirmation message will appear before the budget is archived.

Archiving a budget does not delete its data. It simply removes the budget from the list of active budgets. When archived, only the budget’s table will be visible. To view more—like charts—you can unarchive it at any time using the button in the budget section toolbar.

NOTE: Archiving is only available for user-created budgets. Sample budgets cannot be archived.

Deleting a Budget

To delete a budget, select it and click the Delete Budget… button. A confirmation dialog will appear, warning you that this action is permanent.

Warning: Deleting a budget will permanently remove all data associated with it, including accounts, category groups, categories, transactions and scheduled transactions. This action cannot be undone.

Only delete a budget if you’re absolutely sure you no longer need any of its data. For older budgets you want to keep but no longer use, consider archiving instead.