Getting Started
Budget is built around one idea: every dollar you have should be assigned a job before you spend it. This guide walks you through your first session.
Your first five minutes
Create your account
Sign up at the Budget web app. No installation required — Budget runs entirely in your browser.
Add a budget account
Go to Accounts in the left sidebar and click + Add Account. Add your main checking account with its current balance. This is the money you have available to budget right now.
Repeat for any other spending accounts (savings, credit cards).
Assign your money
Navigate to Budget. The Ready to Assign banner at the top shows the total unassigned balance across your accounts — every dollar that hasn't been given a job yet.
Click any category row in the Assigned column and type an amount to assign money to it. Keep going until Ready to Assign reaches $0. Every dollar should have a purpose.
Record your spending
When you spend money, go to Accounts, open the account you spent from, and add a transaction. Select the category it belongs to. The category's Available balance decreases automatically.
If you connect your bank, transactions import automatically and you just confirm or categorize them.
Connect your bank (optional)
Go to Settings → Connect a Bank to link your financial institution via Plaid. Transactions import automatically after each sync. See Connect Your Bank for the full walkthrough.
What's in the sidebar
| Section | What it does |
|---|---|
| Budget | Assign money to categories, track spending month by month |
| Accounts | Transaction register for each linked or manual account |
| Upcoming | Scheduled bills, recurring transactions, and 90-day cash flow forecast |
| Net Worth | Full balance sheet, investment panel, asset allocation, and milestone tracking |
| Reports | Spending by category and income vs expense charts |
| Settings | Bank connections, payee rules, account preferences |
The Net Worth summary card at the bottom of the sidebar shows your combined net worth at a glance and links to the full Net Worth page.
Core concepts
Zero-based budgeting — every dollar you have is assigned to a category. "Ready to Assign" should always be $0. If it's negative, you've over-assigned and need to move money.
Available balance — how much is left in a category this month after subtracting spending. Green means funded. Red means overspent.
Rollover — unspent category balances carry forward to the next month automatically.
Tracking accounts — assets and liabilities that don't connect to a bank (home value, 401k, car, personal loan). You manually update their value; Budget uses them in your net worth calculation.
Insights — Budget monitors your spending patterns and surfaces plain-English callouts on the budget page: pacing warnings, overspend streaks, idle money, and progress toward milestones.
Age of Money — a metric shown in the budget header that tells you how many days old the money you're spending is. Higher is better — it means you're spending money you earned weeks ago, not days ago.