Traditional budgets often focus on strict limits for everything. Category-based approaches let you assign money to broader groups first, then adjust within those groups as life happens.

The main difference is flexibility. If you spend less on groceries one week, that money can shift to dining out without throwing your whole budget off. You're working with allocations rather than rigid rules.

Learn more about our budgeting philosophy

Most people spend between 15 and 30 minutes on their first setup. That includes naming categories, setting rough allocations, and connecting any accounts they want to track.

You don't need to get everything perfect immediately. Start with 5-7 broad categories and refine as you go. After a month or two, you'll have a clearer picture of what works for your situation.

Yes, you can invite other users to view or edit your budget. Each person gets their own login but sees the same data in real time.

You control permission levels, so someone can have view-only access if you prefer. Changes sync immediately across devices, which helps when you're both out shopping or paying bills.

Nothing breaks. You can catch up whenever you have time. Most people find a rhythm where they check in every few days rather than logging every transaction immediately.

If you've connected bank accounts, transactions import automatically anyway. Manual entries can be added in batches, and the system will sort them by date to keep your history accurate.

Create a category for annual or quarterly expenses and set aside a portion each month. If your car insurance is 600 dollars annually, you'd allocate 50 dollars monthly to that category.

When the bill comes due, the money's already there. This approach prevents those surprise expenses from disrupting your regular monthly budget.

Yes, you can export transaction data as CSV files or PDFs. Filter by date range, category, or specific accounts before exporting.

Many people export quarterly or annually to share with accountants. The reports include all the details you've logged, organized by your category structure.

Contact us for export format questions

Actually, category budgeting works particularly well with variable income. Instead of setting fixed amounts, you allocate percentages or prioritize categories in order of importance.

During higher-income months, you can fund lower-priority categories or build reserves. In leaner months, you focus on essentials first. The system adapts to what's actually available.

Somewhere between 8 and 15 tends to work for most households. Fewer than that and you lose useful detail. More than that and tracking becomes tedious.

Start broad and split categories only when you need more insight. For example, "Food" might be fine initially, but you might later divide it into "Groceries" and "Dining Out" if those patterns differ significantly.