A goal watches your transactions and tells you if you're on pace, no manual updates. You set what you want your money to do, and Financio measures your real activity against it every time a transaction is added, imported or edited.
The two kinds of goals
Every goal is one of two kinds, chosen when you create it:
| Limit | Target | |
|---|---|---|
| What it means | Stay under an amount | Reach an amount |
| Example | "Spend less than $50,000 on Travel this year" | "Put $10,000 toward #house-fund" or "pay the card down to $0" |
| Dates | Runs over a period you choose (end date required) | Open-ended, or with an optional aim date |
| How it ends | The window closes: under the limit is Achieved, over is Exceeded | Runs until you get there, then it's Achieved |
A limit only makes sense over a period: spending only accumulates, so an open-ended limit could only ever be exceeded. That's why limits always have an end date. Targets are the opposite: "run until the number reaches the goal" is perfectly meaningful, so an end date is optional ambition rather than a requirement.
What a goal can track
- A category, all spending in that category between your dates. Choosing a parent category (like Travel) automatically includes every subcategory (Flights, Accommodation, and so on).
- A tag: every transaction carrying that tag, across all of your accounts. Great for cross-account projects like a house deposit or a renovation.
- An account balance: the real balance of one account, from where it is now to where you want it. Available for targets only, and it works in both directions: growing savings to $20,000, or paying a credit card up to $0. See Account Balance Goals.
Statuses at a glance
Financio paces your goal against a straight line from the start to the end date and reports where you stand:
- On Track. You're at or ahead of the pace you need
- Behind Pace. You're behind the line (for limits: spending faster than the safe pace)
- Achieved. You got there 🎉
- Exceeded, a limit has gone over its cap
- Missed, a dated target's end date passed before the amount was reached
Open-ended targets simply show On Track until they're Achieved: with no deadline, there's no pace to violate.
Where goals appear
Your goals live in Planning › Goals as a list of goal cards. Finished goals you've archived sit behind an Archived goals (N) section at the bottom of the list, select it to expand. Up to three goals also appear on your Home dashboard, ordered attention-first, whichever goals most need a look come first. Selecting any goal opens its detail page with a full progress chart; see Tracking Progress.
Goals are shared with your household: everyone can see them, and members with Full Access or Owner roles can create and edit them. See Understanding Roles.