Budget tracking and finance management

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Budget overview

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Setting up your budget

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Multi-currency conversion

1. System detects all currencies used in your expenses
2. Displays conversion rate inputs for each foreign currency
3. Converts each expense to base currency: expense.amount * exchangeRate
4. Sums all converted expenses for budget totals

const toBaseCurrency = React.useCallback(
  (expense: Pick<TripExpense, "amount" | "currency">): number => {
    const expenseCurrency = (expense.currency || finance.currency).toUpperCase()
    const rate = finance.exchangeRates[expenseCurrency] || 1
    return expense.amount * rate
  },
  [finance.currency, finance.exchangeRates]
)

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Tracking expenses

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Adding an expense (quick mode)

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Adding an expense (advanced mode)

• Payer: Name of person who paid
• Currency: Expense currency (if different from base)
• Split mode: Equal or Custom
• Notes: Optional context (e.g., “Includes tip”)
• Custom splits: Allocate exact amounts per traveler (only if split mode = Custom)

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Expense validation

• Date is not empty
• Title is not empty
• Payer name is not empty
• Currency is not empty
• Amount is greater than 0
• Custom split sum equals total amount (within 1 cent)

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Major expense categories

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Budget share visualization

• Progress bar: Visual representation of category spend vs total budget
• Spent amount: Total in base currency
• Percentage: Share of total budget

const majorCategoryTotals = React.useMemo(() => {
  return majorExpenseCategories.map((category) => {
    const spent = finance.expenses
      .filter((expense) => expense.category === category.value)
      .reduce((sum, expense) => sum + toBaseCurrency(expense), 0)
    const share = summary.budgetTotal > 0 ? Math.min(100, (spent / summary.budgetTotal) * 100) : 0
    return { ...category, spent, share }
  })
}, [finance.expenses, summary.budgetTotal, toBaseCurrency])

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Automation guardrails

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Guardrail status

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Enabling guardrails

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How guardrails calculate status

1. Planned daily pace: budgetTotal / totalDays
2. Actual daily pace: totalSpent / daysElapsed
3. Pace ratio: actualDaily / plannedDaily
4. Status:
   • on_track: Pace ratio < warnAtPercent / 100
   • watch: Pace ratio >= warnAtPercent / 100 and < criticalAtPercent / 100
   • over: Pace ratio >= criticalAtPercent / 100

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Projected exceed day

{guardrail.projectedExceedDay
  ? `May exceed by Day ${guardrail.projectedExceedDay}.`
  : "Pace is within budget range."}

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Guardrail insights

• On Track: “Pace is healthy. Consider setting aside buffer for unexpected costs.”
• Watch: “Daily spending is 15% above plan. Review food and activities categories.”
• Over: “Budget exceeded by $200. Suggest cutbacks: reduce dining budget by$50/day.”

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Hotel cost allocator

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Use case

1. Divides $600 into 5 equal daily expenses ($120/night)
2. Creates one expense per day with proper date offsets
3. Labels each as “Hotel stay 1/5”, “Hotel stay 2/5”, etc.

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How to use

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Allocation logic

const totalCents = Math.round(bookingTotal * 100)
const baseCents = Math.floor(totalCents / splitCount)
const remainder = totalCents - baseCents * splitCount

for (let index = 0; index < splitCount; index++) {
  const cents = baseCents + (index < remainder ? 1 : 0)
  const amount = cents / 100
  // Create expense with amount
}

• Total split exactly equals booking total (no rounding loss)
• Remainder cents are distributed to first N expenses

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Expense ledger

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Table columns

• Date: Expense date (short format)
• Title: Expense description
• Category: Flights, Hotels, Transit, Food, Activities
• Payer: Name of person who paid
• Split: Equal or Custom (with split count)
• Status: Normal or High-impact (if expense exceeds daily budget)
• Amount: Cost in original currency
• Actions: Edit and Delete buttons

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Day subtotals

Jun 15, 2025 • Day subtotal $245.00

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High-impact expenses

const impact =
  expense.category !== "flights" &&
  summary.plannedDaily > 0 &&
  expense.amount > summary.plannedDaily

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Editing and deleting expenses

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Edit workflow

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Delete workflow

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AI finance guidance

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Finance-specific AI behavior

Finance: Focus on budget adherence, major cost drivers, and practical cutback levers. Quantify impact when possible; avoid vague financial advice.

• “Am I over budget?”
• “Which category is driving my spending?”
• “How can I cut $100/day?”

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AI context for finance

• Trip budget total and currency
• All expenses with amounts and categories
• Current spending pace (actual vs planned)
• Guardrail status and projected exceed day

case "finance":
    sources = append(sources, Source{Name: "finance_guardrail", Status: "ok", FetchedAt: now, Detail: "Computed from DB trip totals in this phase."})
    data["financeGuardrail"] = map[string]any{"status": "watch", "note": "Placeholder until full finance tables are integrated."}

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Best practices

• Set budget early: Establish your budget and currency before adding expenses
• Configure exchange rates immediately: Avoid 1:1 defaults by setting rates as soon as you use a foreign currency
• Use hotel allocator for multi-day stays: Saves time and ensures accurate daily splits
• Enable guardrails from day 1: Proactive monitoring prevents budget overruns
• Review high-impact expenses weekly: Identify and adjust overspending categories
• Leverage AI for cutback suggestions: Ask the AI which categories have the most reduction potential
• Keep payer names consistent: Use the same name format (e.g., “Sarah” not “Sarah K.” then “Sarah”) for easier settlement tracking

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Technical details

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Expense data structure

type TripExpense = {
  id: string
  tripId: string
  date: string // YYYY-MM-DD
  title: string
  amount: number
  category: ExpenseCategory
  payerName: string
  currency: string
  splitMode: SplitMode
  splits?: TripExpenseSplit[]
  notes?: string
  createdAt: string // ISO 8601
  updatedAt: string // ISO 8601
}

type TripExpenseSplit = {
  travelerId: string
  amount: number
}

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Finance summary calculation

• budgetTotal: From trip finance settings
• spent: Sum of all expenses converted to base currency
• remaining: budgetTotal - spent
• plannedDaily: budgetTotal / totalDays
• actualDaily: spent / daysElapsed
• perPersonEstimate: budgetTotal / travelerCount
• missingRateCurrencies: List of currencies without conversion rates

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Guardrail automation triggers

1. On every expense save: Recalculates status and projected exceed day
2. On manual check: User clicks “Run Check Now”
3. Status change detection: Compares previous status to new status, triggers toast if changed

React.useEffect(() => {
  const prev = previousStatusRef.current
  const next = finance.automation.lastStatus
  previousStatusRef.current = next
  if (!finance.automation.showDailyPaceAlerts || !prev || !next || prev === next) return
  if (next === "watch") {
    toast.warning("Budget pacing moved to Watch.")
    return
  }
  if (next === "over") {
    toast.error("Budget pacing moved to Over.")
    return
  }
  toast.success("Budget pacing is back on track.")
}, [finance.automation.lastStatus, finance.automation.showDailyPaceAlerts])