> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.finta.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Budgets

> Set a budget for each category, then ask your AI tool what's left to spend. How plans, monthly amounts, rollover, targets, and the envelope method work.

Your transactions already say what you spent. A budget adds what you meant to spend, so you can ask Claude or any other [MCP](https://docs.finta.io/mcp/overview.md) client "how much is left in dining?" and get an answer Finta worked out from your stored transactions.

Budgets work through [MCP](https://docs.finta.io/mcp/tools.md#budget-tools) and the [API](https://docs.finta.io/api/v2/budgets.md), and they require [storage mode](#storage-mode).

> [!NOTE]
>
> Budgets are rolling out account by account. Until yours has them, your AI tool won't list the budget tools and the API returns `404`.

## What to ask

You don't need to set anything up first. Your first budget creates everything it needs.

| Ask your AI tool | What happens |
| - | - |
| "Dining should be \$650 a month" | Sets dining's monthly amount from now on |
| "How much is left in dining?" | Returns what you planned, spent, and have left this month |
| "Am I on pace with groceries?" | Compares how much of the month has passed with how much of the budget you've spent |
| "Bump dining to \$700 this month" | Changes this month only |
| "Move \$50 from dining to groceries" | Lowers one budget and raises the other for this month |
| "Keep a separate budget for my business accounts" | Creates a second plan over those accounts |
| "Switch my budget to the envelope method" | Plans only the money you assign |
| "Assign \$400 to groceries" | Assigns money from Ready to Assign in an envelope plan |
| "Set aside \$200 for my Visa" | Assigns money to the card's payment envelope in an envelope plan |

The [tools page](https://docs.finta.io/mcp/tools.md#budget-tools) lists every budget tool with a prompt.

## The numbers

Finta works out every number when you ask, so your assistant reports them instead of adding up transactions.

* **Planned** is the amount for that month.
* **Spent** is what your transactions in that category or group add up to that month. It includes pending transactions, skips hidden ones, and nets out refunds.
* **Rollover** is what carried in from earlier months, if [rollover](#rollover) is on.
* **Available** is what's left: planned plus rollover minus spent.
* **Pace** compares the share of the month that has passed with the share of the budget you've spent. Within 5 percentage points counts as on track.

Status also reports what your budgets don't cover: spending in categories with no budget, and spending with no category at all. Give a category a budget to track it, and use a [rule](https://docs.finta.io/your-data/rules.md) to fill in missing categories.

Bank data arrives late sometimes. A June transaction that shows up in July changes June's spent, and every later month's rollover, the next time you ask.

## Plans and accounts

A plan is a named set of budgets over some or all of your accounts. Your first budget creates a default plan called **My Budget** over every account, and if that's all you need, you never have to mention plans.

Add a plan when you keep separate books, like a business budget and a household one. Each plan has its own budgets, and every number in it counts only that plan's accounts. Your categories are shared, so dining can have a different budget in each plan.

* **The default plan** is the one your assistant uses when you don't name a plan. You can make any plan the default.
* **Changing a plan's accounts changes past months too.** Finta reads the plan's accounts when you ask, so every month is recalculated with the new list.
* **Money can't move between plans.** Moving money only works between budgets in the same plan.

If you limited an AI tool or API key to some accounts, it can still read every plan and its totals. Transactions stay limited to the accounts you granted. When a plan's totals include other accounts, status names them, so your assistant can explain why it can show the dining total but not the transactions behind it. For an AI tool, you can grant them under **AI tools** in Finta.

## Categories and groups

A budget targets one [category or category group](https://docs.finta.io/your-data/categories.md). You can budget a category and its group at the same time. The group's budget covers all its categories' spending, so a group can be over while each category inside it is under. Totals count that spending once.

Only expense categories count as spending, so income and transfer categories can't have a budget of their own. Finta's Savings and Investments categories are transfers. For a savings goal, create an expense category and give it a [target](#targets).

## Just this month or from now on

Every budget has a default amount for every month, and any month can have its own amount. Your assistant picks one from how you phrase it and tells you which it used.

| You say | What changes |
| - | - |
| "Dining should be \$650 a month" | **From now on.** The default changes from the current month forward. Past months keep the amount they had, and a month with its own amount keeps it until you set that month again. |
| "Bump dining to \$700 this month" | **Just this month.** That month changes and nothing else. The budget has to exist already, so set a default amount first. |

Moving money is a just-this-month change on both budgets. "Move \$50 from dining to groceries" changes planned amounts in Finta, not money at your bank, and it can't move more than the source budget has planned that month.

A budget starts in the current month unless you name another. In months before its start, its category's spending shows up as unbudgeted.

## Rollover

Rollover is off until you turn it on for a budget. With it off, each month starts from that month's planned amount. With it on, what's left at the end of a month carries into the next.

Ask for it when you set the budget: "Set car repairs to \$100 a month and roll over what I don't spend."

In a standard plan, rollover carries overspending too, so going $40 over this month leaves next month $40 short. An envelope plan [resets overspending to zero](#ready-to-assign) instead, and with rollover off, what you didn't spend goes back to Ready to Assign next month.

## Targets

A target is a goal amount for a budget, with an optional date: "Save for a vacation with $200 a month, a $1,200 target by December, and rollover on."

Status shows how far along you are, what remains, and, with a date, how much you need per month to get there. Progress is measured against what's available, so turn rollover on to let the money build up from month to month.

## Envelope method

Plans start on the standard method, which compares your spending with a monthly plan. The envelope method is zero-based. You assign real dollars to budgets, and nothing is planned until you assign it.

Ask your assistant to switch a plan to envelope. Switching changes the numbers for past months too, because each month's planned becomes only what you assigned that month.

### Ready to Assign

Ready to Assign is the current balances of the plan's depository accounts, minus what's available in its envelopes, minus what's available in its card payment envelopes. When income lands, your balance rises and so does Ready to Assign.

* **Assigning sets the month's total.** "Assign $400 to groceries" makes groceries $400 for the month, and "add $50 to groceries" raises it by $50.
* **A category needs a budget before its first assignment.** Its default amount is only a suggestion in an envelope plan, shown next to what you've assigned.
* **If a group has a budget, assign to the group.** Assigning to a category inside it doesn't change Ready to Assign, because the group's budget holds that money.
* **Over-assigning is allowed.** Ready to Assign goes negative and nothing is blocked. Lower an assignment this month to bring it back up.
* **Overspending resets at month roll.** An overspent envelope shows a negative amount this month and goes back to zero next month. The shortfall comes out of Ready to Assign.

Ready to Assign exists only for the current month, and it's only as right as your account coverage. A cash account you haven't connected isn't counted, and balances are as fresh as your last sync. Status gives the time of the oldest balance behind the number.

### Credit card payments

Every credit card in an envelope plan has a payment envelope. When you make a budgeted purchase on a card, the full amount moves from the spending envelope to the card's payment envelope, so the money for the bill is already set aside.

To set aside more, such as for a balance you already carried, ask: "Set aside \$200 for my Visa." Status shows what's set aside next to what you owe. What you owe isn't subtracted from Ready to Assign, so older card debt only reduces it when you assign money to pay it down.

Finta sorts inflows on a card by category type:

| Inflow category | Counts as |
| - | - |
| Expense | A refund, which nets out of that category's spending |
| Transfer | A payment to the card |
| Income, or no category | Neither. Status reports these so you can fix them, and a [rule](https://docs.finta.io/your-data/rules.md) that puts them in a transfer category makes them payments. |

## Deleting

Neither delete can be undone.

* **Deleting a budget** removes it and all its monthly amounts. Its spending shows up as unbudgeted again, unless a budget on the category's group still covers it.
* **Deleting a plan** removes its budgets and their monthly amounts. Your transactions and accounts aren't touched. If it was the default, your oldest remaining plan becomes the default. If it was your last plan, your next budget creates a new default.
* **Deleting a category or group** also deletes the budgets on it, in every plan.

## Storage mode

Spent comes from the transactions Finta stores, so budgets need [storage mode](https://docs.finta.io/getting-started/storage-mode.md). Connecting an AI tool or creating an API key turns it on. With it off, budget tools and endpoints return an error rather than zeros.

Turning storage mode off deletes your stored categories, which also deletes the budgets on them.


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