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
  • Work with the budget
• Budgets list
• Completing, duplicating and archiving a budget
• Shared access

Note To plan several months at once instead of one at a time, switch the budget to its Plan view — the same budget laid out as a month-by-month sheet.

Budget creation #

Open Settings → Budgets & Plans and press Create budget (on mobile, the + button in the header). Give the budget a name, pick its base currency, and switch on the accounts that take part in it — the counter above the list keeps track (“3 of 5 included”).

Note Account membership is an explicit list, and a new budget starts with every switch off — turn on the accounts you actually budget from, and leave out the ones you don’t, such as a long-term savings account. Budgets start from the current month.

Update budget details #

Open your budget, press Configure, and choose Budget details. In the dialog you can rename the budget, change its currency, and add or remove accounts:

An account that already carries transactions in past months of this budget cannot be removed from it — taking it out would rewrite months you have already closed. The dialog says so under the list.

Note On desktop and tablet, Configure sits in the top-right corner of the budget page; on a phone it is the icon in the same corner. Besides Budget details it holds Edit structure, Open budget list, and — on a phone and a tablet — the Budget / Plan switch.

Manage your budget #

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

• Budget Folders — to organize your spending conveniently (in the screenshots: Essentials, Lifestyle, Vacations).
• Categories — your Econumo categories.
• Tags — your budget tags. These aggregate spending across categories (e.g. the whole Italy 2026 vacation). Reporting tags are not budgeted; they get their own block at the foot of the page.
• Envelopes — these group several categories into one limit (e.g. an envelope for Food could contain 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 months bar at the top switches between periods — on desktop the ‹ and › arrows beside it step one month at a time — and the budget shows how much money remains in your virtual envelopes. The bar is clamped to the budget’s own lifetime: an open budget runs well into the future, while a completed one stops just past its final month.

Each row has three columns:

1. Budget — the amount you plan to spend or save.
2. Spent — the amount you have actually spent.
3. Available — what is left: the budgeted amount plus anything carried over from previous months.

Click a number in the Budget column to adjust it — changes apply instantly. Overspent elements are highlighted in red (like Groceries in the screenshots above).

If a transaction has no category, its amount still counts: it appears at the bottom of the budget as a read-only Uncategorized element — no Budget or Available figure, just the Spent total — instead of being silently left out.

Organizing your budget #

The default structure of your budget may not be optimal. To change it, press Configure and select Edit structure. In this mode you can create folders and envelopes, drag elements between folders, and change element currencies. Once you are finished, press Done editing.

Folders. Press Create folder to add one. The three-dots menu on a folder lets you rename it (an empty folder can also be deleted there). Drag folders and elements around using the dots handle. The built-in Default folder is always last: it cannot be renamed or removed, and when it is empty it just shows a hint inviting you to move elements into it.

Envelopes. To create an envelope, press the + button on the folder header. Choose a name, currency, icon, and the categories you want to include:

Deleting an envelope releases its categories back into the budget.

Element currency. Each element can be budgeted in its own currency: open the element’s three-dots menu and choose Change currency. Amounts spent and available for that element are converted automatically.

Work with the budget #

Tag and envelope breakdown #

Tags and envelopes aggregate several categories. Expand one with the chevron next to its name to see where the money actually went:

Spending details #

To see the transactions behind any number, click the amount in the Spent column:

Reporting tags #

Below the folders — under the Uncategorized row — sits a separate Reporting tags block. It totals what you spent per reporting tag in the month: people, pets, places. Expand the block with the chevron beside its title, and expand a single tag to see the categories behind its total.

These rows show a Spent figure only — no Budget, no Available — and they sit outside the budget’s totals. That is deliberate: a transaction can carry several reporting tags at once, so its full amount counts under each of them, and adding the block into the budget maths would count the same money twice. Use it to answer “what did the dog cost us this month?”, not “how much is left to spend?”.

Multi-currency budgets #

If your accounts use several currencies, the budget header shows a per-currency switcher (in the screenshots: $ and €), and elements in foreign currencies are converted to the budget’s currency for folder totals. Select a currency in the switcher to see its spending progress for the month and the average exchange rate used for the period. See Multi-Currency for the full picture.

Budgets list #

You can access your budgets list at Settings → Budgets & Plans or via Configure → Open budget list. Shared budgets show the avatars of everyone who uses them, and the bookmark icon marks your default budget — the one that opens from Budget & Plan in the sidebar. Budgets you have archived collapse into an Archived (N) group at the bottom of the list:

Completing, duplicating and archiving a budget #

A budget does not have to run forever. Every budget’s three-dots menu in Settings → Budgets & Plans carries its whole life cycle: Open budget, Access control, Duplicate…, Complete…, Archive, and Delete.

Complete a budget #

Complete… closes a budget off at a chosen month. Pick the Last month it covers; leave Continue in a copy starting this month on to name and start its successor in the same step, with Copy plans deciding whether the planned amounts come along. Turn that switch off and the Copy plans and Name fields disappear — the budget is simply closed, with no successor. Press SAVE and the budget is archived straight away: it leaves the active list immediately and joins the Archived group below it.

Duplicate a budget #

Duplicate… copies a budget on its own, without closing the original: its structure, folders, envelopes, member accounts and sharing all come across. The copy is pre-named after the original with “(copy)” appended, keeps Copy plans on, and can Start from this month instead of the original’s first month.

Archive and unarchive #

Archive files a budget away without completing it. An archived budget stays in the list under Archived (N) and stays fully browsable — opening it shows a banner reading “This budget is archived and read-only”, and its numbers stay exactly as they were. Its menu offers Unarchive in place of Archive, which brings it back to the active list.

Shared access #

To budget together with your partner, you first need to connect with them. Then open the budgets list, click the three dots on the budget you wish to share, and select Access control. Pick the person and the access level:

Econumo supports the following access levels for budgets:

• View only — you share your budget only for viewing.
• Manage budget — you and your partner can collaboratively manage this budget and contribute to it together.
• Full control — like Manage budget, but your partner can also delete and rename the budget.

As with accounts, this sends a pending invite rather than sharing the budget outright — your partner accepts or declines it from the Sharing requests panel described in Shared Access. Once accepted, your partner sees the budget in their own budget list, and you budget the same envelopes together — as John and Megan do with the “Family budget” in the screenshots throughout this page.