Budgets

Budgets help you plan spending and track whether you’re living within your means. Sure makes budgeting simple with automatic category tracking, rollover suggestions, and visual progress indicators.

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How Budgets Work

Sure uses a monthly budgeting system where you:

1. Set your expected income for the month
2. Allocate spending budgets across expense categories
3. Track actual spending throughout the month
4. Review available funds and adjust as needed

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Budget Period

Budgets operate on monthly cycles:

• Standard months - Budget period runs from the 1st to the last day of the month
• Custom start dates - Set your budget month to start on any day (e.g., 15th to 14th to align with payday)

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Creating Your First Budget

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Set Up Income & Total Budget

1. Navigate to Budgets from the main menu
2. Sure shows the current month’s budget
3. Click Edit Budget (or the wizard icon for first-time setup)
4. Enter:
   • Expected Income - How much you expect to earn this month
   • Total Spending Budget - How much you plan to spend
5. Save to continue

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Allocate to Categories

After setting your total budget, allocate it across categories:

1. Sure shows all your expense categories
2. For each category, enter your budget amount:
   • Groceries - $600
   • Dining - $200
   • Transportation - $150
   • Utilities - $120
   • And so on…
3. Watch the allocation progress donut chart
4. Allocate until you’ve distributed your total budget

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Use Smart Suggestions

Sure helps you allocate efficiently:

• Historical averages - See typical spending for each category
• Median spending - Month-by-month median to avoid outliers
• One-click estimate - Apply the median to set a realistic budget

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Tracking Budget Progress

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Budget Overview

The main budget page shows:

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Income Progress

• Expected Income - Your income goal
• Actual Income - What you’ve earned so far
• Remaining - How much more you expect to earn
• Progress bar - Visual indicator of income vs goal

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Spending Progress

• Budgeted Spending - Your total spending budget
• Actual Spending - How much you’ve spent
• Available to Spend - Budget remaining
• Progress bar - Visual indicator (green = on track, red = over budget)

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Allocation Status

• Donut chart - Shows spending by category with unallocated funds
• Color-coded - Each category has a distinct color
• Interactive - Click segments to see category details

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Category-Level Tracking

For each budget category, see: Categories show progress bars:

• Green - Under budget (healthy)
• Yellow - Near budget limit (80-100%)
• Red - Over budget (exceeded 100%)

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Subcategories

If you use subcategories (e.g., “Groceries” under “Food & Dining”):

• Set budgets at the parent category level
• Spending in subcategories rolls up to the parent
• Expand categories to see subcategory breakdowns

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Managing Budgets

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Copy Previous Budget

When starting a new month:

1. Sure creates an empty budget automatically
2. Click Copy from Previous Month
3. Sure imports:
   • Expected income
   • Total spending budget
   • All category allocations
4. Adjust as needed for the new month

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Adjust During the Month

Reallocate budget as needed:

1. Click Edit Allocations
2. Increase/decrease category amounts
3. Move funds from underutilized categories to ones where you’re over budget
4. Save changes

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Navigate Between Months

View past or future budgets:

• Click the month selector at the top
• Choose any month from the past 2 years or up to the current month
• Review actual vs budgeted spending
• See trends in budget performance

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Budget Analytics

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What’s Included

Budgets track:

• ✅ Standard transactions - Regular income and expenses
• ✅ Loan payments - Mortgage, auto, student loans
• ✅ Investment contributions - Transfers to investment accounts
• ❌ Transfers - Money moved between accounts (excluded to avoid double-counting)
• ❌ Credit card payments - The expenses are already counted
• ❌ One-time transactions - Large irregular items you mark to exclude

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Refunds & Returns

Income transactions in expense categories (like a refund for “Groceries”) reduce your spending in that category:

• Spent $500 on groceries
• Returned $50 worth
• Net spending: $450

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Multi-Currency

For transactions in foreign currencies:

• Sure converts amounts to your base currency
• Uses the exchange rate from the transaction date
• All budget amounts display in your base currency

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Budget Performance Metrics

Track key metrics:

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Savings Rate

Calculated as: (Expected Income - Budgeted Spending) / Expected Income Example:

• Expected Income: $5,000
• Budgeted Spending: $4,000
• Savings Rate: 20%

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Budget Adherence

Percentage of budget spent: Actual Spending / Budgeted Spending Examples:

• 85% - Under budget (great!)
• 100% - Right on budget
• 115% - Over budget by 15%

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Category Performance

For each category:

• Under budget - Healthy spending
• On target - Using allocated funds as planned
• Over budget - Exceeded allocation

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Budget Best Practices

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50/30/20 Rule

A popular budgeting framework:

• 50% - Needs (housing, groceries, utilities, insurance)
• 30% - Wants (dining, entertainment, hobbies)
• 20% - Savings & debt payoff

Set your category budgets to roughly follow these percentages.

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Zero-Based Budgeting

Allocate every dollar:

• Total Budget = Sum of all category budgets
• No “Available to Allocate” remaining
• Forces intentional spending decisions

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Rolling Adjustments

Monthly review cycle:

1. Review previous month’s performance
2. Identify categories consistently over/under budget
3. Adjust next month’s allocations accordingly
4. Copy adjusted budget going forward

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