A budget is a first draft. The amounts are meant to be nudged as you learn what a category really costs, and every change takes effect immediately. There's no save step and nothing to publish to the rest of your household.
Changing a budgeted amount
Select the amount in the Budget column and type a new one. Press Enter or click away to save it, or Esc to cancel. You can type it however you like: "1,200" and "$1200" both work.
While you're editing, a suggestion appears beneath the box: Avg $412/mo, your average spending in that category over the last 6 completed months. Click it to use that figure.
Tap a category to open its amount, type a new one, and tap Save.
The sheet also offers Use average $412/mo. Your average spending in that category over the last 6 completed months, if you'd rather budget what you actually spend.
Subtotal rows can't be edited. A parent on a Detailed budget, or a Needs / Wants / Savings bucket, is the total of the lines beneath it, so change those and the subtotal follows.
The new amount applies to every period, past and future, budgeted amounts don't vary period to period.
Setting expected income
Expected income starts as your average income over the last 6 completed months, marked "6-month average" on the income row. That's a reasonable default, but it's an average of the past rather than a statement about your pay, so it's worth replacing with a real figure, particularly if your income changed recently or varies a lot.
Select the amount on the Income row and type what you expect to earn this period.
Tap the Income row and enter what you expect to earn this period.
Once you've set a figure, the "6-month average" label disappears and your number is used from then on. To hand it back to the average, choose Use average while editing.
Expected income drives the Left to budget line: it doesn't change what you've actually received, which always comes from your transactions.
Renaming a budget or changing its period
Select Manage Budget, beside the period arrows. You can change the name, the period, and (for custom cycles) how often it repeats and when it starts. Select Save changes.
Tap ••• in the top right and choose Budget settings. You can change the name, the period, and (for custom cycles) how often it repeats and when it starts. Tap Save.
Your budgeted amounts are kept. Changing the period does change what a period covers, so the actuals will be recalculated for the new window. See Periods and Start Dates.
Changing which categories roll over
Budget settings also lists every category that holds an amount, with a switch for rollover. Switch one on and its unspent budget starts carrying into the next period; switch one off and it drops whatever it had carried, starting the next period on its budgeted amount alone.
Select Manage Budget, scroll to Rollover, flip the switches you want, and select Save changes.
Tap ••• in the top right, choose Budget settings, flip the switches under Rollover, then tap Save.
Understanding Budgets explains how the carried amount is worked out.
Starting over
The budget type and its category selection are fixed after setup. To change either: a different type, or a different set of categories, delete the budget and create a new one.
Select Manage Budget, then Start over in the panel footer, and confirm.
Tap ••• in the top right, choose Delete budget, then confirm.
Deleting removes the budget and its amounts for everyone in the household. Your transactions, categories and goals are untouched, but the amounts are gone, so note anything you'd want to type back in.
Changing categories afterwards
A new category joins the budget automatically, at $0 with rollover off, so spending in it is counted from the day you create it. Where it lands depends on your budget type:
- Basic and Needs / Wants / Savings budget top-level categories, so a new top-level category gets its own line: on an NWS budget it's placed in the bucket its name suggests, and you can move it in settings. A new subcategory doesn't need a line: its spending already rolls up into its parent's.
- Detailed budgets the subcategories, so a new subcategory gets a line as long as its parent is budgeted, and a new top-level category gets one of its own.
It arrives at $0, which means it reads as over budget the moment you spend in it: that's deliberate, so it asks to be given a real number rather than sitting unnoticed.
If you rename a category, the budget follows it. If you delete one, its budget line goes with it. Applying a different category preset rebuilds your budget lines against the new categories where the names still match, and drops the ones that don't. See Category Presets.