Budgets #

This section introduces the basics of ‘Budgets’ in Econumo.

Budgets enable you to implement a “Cash Stuffing” method, also known as the envelope budgeting approach, which uses envelopes to manage spending.

The concept is straightforward: Take a few envelopes, label each with an expense category—such as groceries, rent, or car loan—and place the amount of money you plan to spend in each envelope. This way, you set limits on your spending for each category.

Econumo allows you to create virtual envelopes and allocate your funds accordingly, so you can easily track how much money remains for each specific category.

In this section #

• Budget creation
• Update budget details
• Manage your budget
  • Budgeting
  • Organizing your budget
    • Managing budget folders
    • Managing budget elements
  • Work with the budget
    • Folder statistics
    • Envelope, category, and tag spending
    • Changing currency for budget elements
• Budgets list
• Shared access

Budget creation #

You can create a budget in two places:

1. From the Budget page in the left sidebar.
2. From the Settings -> Budgets page

Click on Create a budget.

Enter a name for the budget and select any accounts you wish to exclude from budgeting, then click Create.

Note
All new accounts will be included in your budgets by default, but you can exclude them later in the budget settings.

After creating the budget, you can begin managing it!

Note
Budgets are created in the user’s default currency and start from the current month.

Update budget details #

Click the Configure button in the top left corner and select Budget Details to update your budget:

In the modal window, you can rename your budget and include or exclude accounts:

Manage your budget #

In your budget, you will work with the following entities:

• Budget Folders - To organize your spending conveniently.
• Categories - Your Econumo categories.
• Tags - Your Econumo tags. These aggregate your spending (e.g., you might plan to fly to Europe on vacation).
• Envelopes - These allow you to group categories (e.g., an envelope for Food could contain categories like Groceries, Drinks, and Restaurants).

Budgeting #

The goal of budgeting is to maintain your monthly budget. Ideally, you should prepare your budget before the month starts and make minor adjustments during the month as needed. The budget will indicate how much money remains in your virtual envelopes.

Your budget consists of four columns:

1. Category/Tag/Envelope Name
2. Budgeted Amount - The amount of money you plan to spend or save.
3. Spending Amount - The amount you have actually spent.
4. Available Amount - The total available, which includes funds transferred from previous months combined with the budgeted amount.

You can adjust the numbers in the budgeted amount, as shown in the picture below:

Organizing your budget #

The default structure of your budget may not be optimal. To change it, click on Configure in the top right corner and select Edit Structure.

You can create new folders, reorder items, and move elements between folders. All changes apply instantly. Once you are finished, click on Done Editing in the top right corner.

Managing budget folders #

To create a folder, click on Create a Folder and enter its name.

You can delete only empty folders by clicking on the three dots on the right and choosing Delete from the menu.

To reorder your folders, use the folders menu by clicking the three dots on the folder and selecting Move Up or Move Down.

Managing budget elements #

Simply drag and drop budget elements to move them between folders. Once the Default Folder is empty, it will disappear.

You can organize your categories into envelopes. To create a new envelope, press the + button to the right of the specific folder.

A dialog will appear:

Choose the name, currency, icon, and any categories you want to include in the envelope (optional).

After creating the envelope, you will see it in the budget:

To delete the envelope, click Delete from its menu. All included categories will then reappear in the budget.

Work with the budget #

Folder statistics #

Hover over the folder (on the desktop client) to see the statistics for that folder.

If you have elements in different currencies, they will be automatically converted to your budget’s currency.

Envelope, category, and tag spending #

To see how much you’ve spent in an envelope, category, or tag, click on the amount spent to view the details:

Changing currency for budget elements #

You can change the currency of a specific element by clicking its three dots icon and selecting Change Currency.

A dialog with all available currencies will appear:

After saving, the amounts spent and available for the chosen element will be converted.

Budgets list #

You can access your budgets list by going to Settings -> Budgets or by clicking Configure -> Open Budget List.

You will see all available budgets here:

Shared access #

To share your budget with your partner, open the budget list, click the three dots on the budget you wish to share, and select Access Control.

A dialog will open showing your connections and their access levels:

Click on a user’s name to choose the access level.

Econumo supports the following access levels for budgets:

• View Only - You share your budget only for viewing.
• Regular Access - You and your partner can collaboratively manage this budget and contribute to it together.
• Full Control - Similar to Regular Access, but your partner can delete and rename the budget.

Once the appropriate access level is selected, your partner must go to their budget list to accept your budget:

Now you can update the shared budget. You will see your names and avatars as owners of categories and tags: