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CashCat uses zero-based budgeting, a proven financial method that helps you be intentional with every dollar you earn.

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What is zero-based budgeting?

Zero-based budgeting means that every dollar of income gets assigned to a specific category before the month begins. Your income minus your assignments should equal zero—not because you’re spending everything, but because every dollar has a job. This approach differs from traditional budgeting where you might set limits but not actively allocate funds. With zero-based budgeting, you decide what each dollar will do ahead of time.

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CashCat’s philosophy

CashCat is built around four core principles:

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Every penny has a purpose

When income comes in, you assign all of it into categories with clear intention. This could be groceries, rent, savings, or emergency funds—each dollar knows where it’s going.
Categories can have different goal types: spending for regular expenses, savings for building funds, or emergency_fund for safety nets.

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Money you don’t spend rolls forward

Unspent budget doesn’t disappear at the end of the month. It seamlessly carries into future months, letting you build up categories over time without any manual work.
This is especially powerful for irregular expenses like car maintenance or annual subscriptions. Budget a little each month, and the funds accumulate automatically.

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Stay flexible

Life changes, and your budget should adapt. You can edit past transactions and CashCat automatically recalculates your entire budget forward—no spreadsheet gymnastics required.

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Full control

Your budget, your rules. CashCat gives you complete ownership of your financial data with no ads, no tracking, and transparent pricing.

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How it works in practice

  1. Income arrives — Record income transactions in your account
  2. Assign every dollar — Create assignments that distribute your income across categories
  3. Track spending — Record payment transactions as you spend from categories
  4. Watch rollover — Unspent amounts automatically carry forward to next month
Starting balance transactions help you begin with accurate account balances. These are one-time entries that don’t affect your category budgets.

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Getting started

To implement zero-based budgeting in CashCat:
  1. Set up your accounts (checking, savings, etc.)
  2. Create category groups to organize your budget (e.g., “Monthly Bills”, “Living Expenses”, “Savings Goals”)
  3. Add categories within each group
  4. Record your income
  5. Assign that income across your categories until you reach zero
Once your budget is set up, you’ll track transactions and adjust assignments as needed. The system handles all the math, including rollover calculations across months.

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