Budget Management

Budget Management is a full-width, 12-month budget editor for both envelope and tracking budgets. It behaves like a spreadsheet: select ranges, paste from Excel or Google Sheets, fill values, and review everything in a draft panel before you Save.

Open it from the Budget item in the sidebar (under Data Management), or go to /budget-management.

Staged like the rest of the app

Budget cell edits are staged locally and only written to your Actual Server when you Save. See Core Concepts for the staging model.

Understand the workspace

The workspace shows a grid with one row per category (grouped under category groups) and one column per month in a 12-month window:

• A budget mode badge (Envelope, Tracking, or Unknown) sits at the top-left.
• The category name column and the month header row stay pinned while you scroll.
• Group rows show per-month aggregate totals; collapsing a group hides its categories but keeps the group total.
• A Budget Details panel on the right shows details for the current selection and your staged changes.

Choose Budget, Actuals, or Balance

Use the cell-view toggle in the toolbar (also the V key) to switch what every month cell displays:

• Budget — the budgeted amount.
• Actuals — actual activity.
• Balance — the running balance.

Navigate months and years

• Move the 12-month window back/forward by one month with ‹ / ›, or by a year with « / ».
• Use the calendar button to jump to the current year.
• The [ and ] keys pan the window backward/forward by one month.

Expand, collapse, and hide

• Expand or collapse all groups with the toolbar buttons, or E / Shift+E.
• Toggle a single group with Space on its label.
• Show or hide hidden categories with the toolbar toggle, or the H key.

Edit one budget cell

1. Select a cell and press Enter, F2, or start typing (a digit, +, -, ., or ().
2. Type an amount or an arithmetic expression — +, -, *, /, and parentheses are supported (for example 1200/12).
3. Press Enter to commit (and move down), Tab to commit sideways, or Escape to cancel.

Staged edits show in amber. Reverting a cell to its original value removes the staged edit automatically. Delete or Backspace sets a focused cell to zero.

Income in envelope mode

In envelope mode, income categories are not editable in the grid.

Select multiple cells

• Click a cell to select it; Shift+click or drag to extend a rectangular selection.
• Extend with Shift+Arrow, Shift+PageUp/Down, and Shift+Home/End.
• The first column (category/group label) is selectable for row-aggregate views in the details panel.

Copy and paste

• Ctrl/Cmd+C copies the selection as tab-delimited text that round-trips through Excel / Google Sheets.
• Ctrl/Cmd+V fills the selection from a single value, or expands a multi-cell paste from the top-left cell.

Fill values

With a range selected:

• Ctrl/Cmd+Enter — fill the whole selection with the anchor cell’s value.
• Ctrl/Cmd+D — fill down.
• Ctrl/Cmd+R — fill right.
• Alt+L — fill each row with its previous-month value.
• Alt+A — fill each row with its 3-month average.

Right-click bulk actions

Right-click a category budget cell for a context menu:

• Cell actions (mode-aware): in tracking mode, enable/disable rollover from that month forward; in envelope mode, Cover Overspending or Transfer to Another Category.
• Set Budget: Copy previous month, Copy specific month…, Set to zero, Set to fixed amount…, Apply % change…, and 3-, 6-, or 12-month averages (averages use each prior month’s budgeted amount).

No-input actions run immediately as one undo step; actions that need input open a two-step (parameters → preview) dialog.

Review staged changes and Save

• The Budget Details panel shows a “N changes” badge; open it for a list of staged changes grouped by month (transfer pairs appear as a single linked row).
• Save opens a review summary (change count, affected months, net delta), then a progress dialog that sends changes sequentially. Transfer pairs post atomically; standalone edits and holds are sent individually.
• Partial failures are reported with a Retry Failed option; only changes the server accepted are cleared.
• Undo/redo works across staged edits (Ctrl/Cmd+Z, Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z / Ctrl+Y), up to 50 steps.

Use notes

The details panel has an editable Note section for the current selection — a category, group, category × month cell, or a whole budget month (selected from its column header).

Notes save immediately

Note edits save to the server right away, independently of your staged budget edits and the Save button. See Core Concepts.

Envelope budget actions

• Hold for next month — each To Budget cell shows the held amount; the toggle opens a dialog to stage a hold (or clears an existing one). Holds are staged and saved with your other changes.
• Cover Overspending / Transfer to Another Category — stage a category-to-category transfer; both legs stage together as one undo step and post atomically on save.

Holds and transfers are envelope-mode only.

Tracking budget behavior

In tracking mode the workspace uses planning language rather than envelope balances. Past months show actual performance, the current month is marked partial, and future months show budgeted context instead of a zero-actual result. Rollover (carryover) is toggled per category from the right-click menu.

Import and export

• Export opens a dialog with month-selection modes (Quick Range, Date Range, or Select), options to include hidden categories / income groups / staged values, and a blank-template download. Files are UTF-8 CSV with a BOM.
• Import parses a CSV, lets you review exact / suggested / unmatched rows, previews before/after values, and stages all changes as one undo step. Near-miss category names get fuzzy-match suggestions; out-of-range months can extend the visible window.

Back up before large imports

A budget CSV import can stage many changes at once. Consider exporting your current budget first so you have a known-good snapshot to re-import if needed.

Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? (or F1, Ctrl/Cmd+/, or the toolbar Shortcuts button) to open the full cheatsheet, generated from the app’s keymap. Bare-letter shortcuts (V, F, H, E, [, ]) don’t fire while you’re typing in a cell.

Safety and limitations

• Carryover is toggled via the right-click menu (tracking mode); it is shown but not directly editable as a grid cell.
• Category-to-pool transfers (omitting a source or destination category) are not supported.
• The grid is not virtualized, so very large category lists may scroll more slowly.

Troubleshooting

• Paste didn’t apply — make sure a cell is selected first; paste fills from the top-left cell.
• A value isn’t visible — check the cell-view toggle (Budget / Actuals / Balance) and whether the month is inside the current 12-month window.
• A category is missing — it may be hidden; toggle hidden categories with H.
• Changes didn’t save — failed cells stay staged with a red indicator; use Retry Failed.
• A note “won’t discard” — notes save immediately and are not part of the staged Save.

Related pages

• Core Concepts
• Categories — budget the categories you manage there