A budget for a category is the expected expenditure for that category over a period. Setting budgets reflects the actual spending situation, helping you predict and control better in the future.
Here's a detailed guide on how to set up budgets using Money Lover, especially with many changes in version 8.0.
I. Creating a budget
Step 1: Creating a new budget
Go to the Budgets tab and click on the "Create a budget" button.
Step 2: Enter budget details
On the Add Budget screen, you need to enter the following information:
+) Select category: Note that you can only select categories belonging to the "Expenses" .
+) Amount: Enter the expected amount for this category.
+) Time range: You can choose time range such as This week, This month, This quarter, or a custom time period according to your preference.
+) Wallet: You can choose individual wallets or "All wallets" if you want to set a budget for that category across all wallets.
+) Repeating budgets: You can choose to have your budgets repeat for this week/month/quarter. They will automatically renew on the first day of the next week, month, or quarter. Please note: This feature is not available for other time-specific custom budgets.
Step 3: Save the budget information
After entering all the budget information, the "Save" button will appear. Click "Save" to save the budget information.
Select the "Save" button to save budget information.
Step 4: Check the newly created budget
After clicking "Save", the app will open the Budget List screen with a notification of successfully creating a new budget. At this point, you can see the newly created budget right here.
The newly created budget is displayed on the Budget List screen.
Note: Budgets can only be created for the following 3 types of wallets: Basic Wallet, Linked Wallet, Credit Wallet. Also, these wallets must be active, not archived (like the image below).
II. Budget List
- Step 1: View the budget list
On the Budget List screen, under the "Running" tab, budgets will be grouped by time periods, allowing you to:
+) View the budgets for each category for this week, this month, this quarter, or custom time periods.
+) View the remaining budget/excess spending for each category within the specified time period.
+) Check the status bar of the category within the specified time period.
If there are no transactions in that category, the status bar will appear in gray.
If the total amount of transactions in that category is <75% of the set budget, the status bar will appear in green.
If the amount of the total transactions in that category >=75% but hasn't exceeded the budget, the status bar will appear in orange.
If the amount of the total transactions in that category reaches or exceeds the budget, the status bar will appear in red.
To review budgets that have ended, tap ā® on the right corner. Then you select "Finished budgets".
Step 2: Change the wallet to view the budget list
With Money Lover version 8.0 attached with the Global category function, you can view budgets on "All wallets" or individual wallets. To view budgets for individual wallets, select the wallet icon, then choose the wallet you want to view the budget list for.
III. Budget Details
Step 1: Select the budget you want to view details
To view the details of a budget, click on that budget on the Budget List screen.
Select the budget you want to view details.
Step 2: View budget details
At this point, the app displays the detailed budget information you've created. From here, you can track information about the budget you've created, including:
+) Budget name: ~ category name
+) Amount set for the budget.
+) Spent: The actual amount spent for the category within the budget period.
+) Left: The remaining amount within the budget period that is recommended for you to spend, so that you will not exceed the budget.
+) Overspent: The amount spent beyond the budget for the budget within the time frame.
+) Time: Displays the duration of that budget.
+) Wallet: Displays the name of the wallet you set the budget for, which can be "All wallets" (total wallets) or a specific wallet.
+) Status bar: Displays the actual spending ratio compared to the budget you set for that category.
+) Daily spending recommendation: The amount recommended for you to spend each day to meet your budget goal.
+) Expected spending: The total estimated spending at the end of the period based on the current actual daily spending.
+) Actual daily spending: The actual daily spending amount.
+) Chart: this shows the Daily recommended spending, Expected spending, and Actual daily spending for the category.
Note: For budgets that have ended, you can only delete the budget; you cannot edit it.
IV. Editing a Budget
For ongoing budgets, you can edit them.
Step 1: Select the budget you want to edit
On the Budget List screen, click on the budget you want to edit.
Step 2: Click the "Edit" button
On the Budget Details screen, click the "Edit" button to edit the budget.
Step 3: Edit budget information
On the Edit Budget screen, you can edit the following budget information:
+) Category: The expense you want to designate as a budget, e.g., from "Food & Beverage" to "Transportation".
+) Goal: The amount (budget) you want to change for your category, e.g., from 1,100,000 to 1,200,000 VND.
+) Applicable period: You can change time periods like: This week, This month, This quarter, or another custom time period.
+) Wallet: You can select the wallet you want to change for the budget.
Step 4: Save edited budget information
After editing budget information, the "Save" button will appear. Click this button to save all the edited budget information.
Step 5: Check the edited information
After successfully editing the budget, the app will display the Budget Details screen with a notification of successfully editing the new budget. The edited budget information will be updated on the Budget Details screen.
Note: When editing a budget, you cannot edit it to overlap with an existing budget. A budget is considered overlapping if the following information is identical at the same time:
+) Category.
+) Time frame.
+) Wallet.
V. View Transaction List for the Budget
To get specific details of your spending, you can track the details of transactions within the budget.
Step 1: Select "Transaction List" on the detailed budget screen.
On the detailed budget screen, select the "Transaction List" button to view the transactions within your budget.
Step 2: Track transactions within your budget.
You can track transactions related to your budget, such as eating out within Food & Beverage category, on the Transaction List screen.
VI. Delete a Budget
You can delete budgets for both ongoing and finished budgets.
Step 1: Select the budget you want to delete
On the Budget List screen, under the "Running" tab or "Finished" tab, click on the budget you want to delete.
Step 2: Delete the Budget
On the Budget Details screen, select the "Delete" button to delete the budget.
Step 3: Confirm the Budget Deletion
When you choose to delete the budget, you need to confirm that you want to delete that budget. Once deleted, you cannot recover it.
To confirm that you want to delete the budget, select the "Confirm" button on the Delete Budget popup.
Step 4: Check the budget list
After clicking "Delete," the app will display an updated budget list screen with a notification that the budget has been successfully deleted.
Small reminder: When updating to 8.0, all the budgets in former versions will be lost. So you'll need to create new ones to replace them.
These are all the instructions for using budgets in the Money Lover app ver 8.0. We hope this helps you manage your personal finances effectively! Don't hesitate to reach us at [email protected] if you have any questions. Thank you very much for choosing Money Lover as your financial management companionš.