Budgets

A budget says how much the team means to spend each month on a category or on a tag, in one currency. As the month goes on, Contamos shows how much of it has been spent and how much is left. Budgets need Pro.

#What a budget follows

Every budget follows exactly one of two things:

• A category, to cap an area of spending, such as Food or Housing.
• A tag, to follow something across categories, such as a trip or a renovation.

A budget is always in one currency and only counts transactions in that currency. Nothing is converted, so a team that spends in pesos and dollars can budget the same category in each currency separately.

#Creating a budget

Open Budgets and choose Create budget. Choose what the budget follows, then set:

• Currency: any currency the team holds on an active account.
• Monthly amount: how much may be spent each month.
• First month: the month the budget starts.
• Last month: leave it empty to keep the budget running, or set it to the first month for a one-off goal.

Two budgets for the same category or tag in the same currency cannot cover the same month.

You can also give a tag a Monthly budget in each currency straight from the tag's form. A new amount applies from the current month on, and past months keep the amount they had.

#How progress is counted

Progress is shown for the budget running this month. It counts the month's expenses in the budget's currency, on active accounts, that are filed under its category or carry its tag. Income filed under the same category or tag during the month adds to what can be spent.

A transaction counts under its category and under each of its tags, so one expense can move several budgets. Transfers and opening balances never count.

When spending passes the amount, the bar turns red and shows how much it is over by. The Monthly page shows the same progress next to each category and tag.

#Statuses

Status	Meaning
Running	The budget covers the current month.
Scheduled	The budget starts in a later month.
Ended	The budget's months are over, as planned or because a newer budget replaced it.
Paused	The budget's months are over and nothing followed it.

#Changing, pausing and deleting

From a budget's menu:

• Edit changes its amount, currency or months. What it follows cannot change.
• Pause stops a running budget at the end of the current month. Resume starts it again from the current month with the same amount.
• Delete removes it, and the months it covered are left without a budget.

#On the Free plan

A Free team sees the Budgets page locked. Any budget set while the team was on Pro is kept, not deleted, and comes back as it was when the team returns to Pro. See Plans and limits.