Finance
Current Version: 10.1.1
Works with: macOS 14.0+ & iOS / iPadOS 17.0+
Divide and conquer
Set up your budget funds based on your expenses. Do you have a particular bill that comes in each month that requires a fixed amount of money? Enter that amount. Do you get paid every week? Every other week? You can use the divide by feature to take out a smaller portion of your income as you build toward the total due or you can take it all out at once.
Set goals
Once you cover all of your expenses, perhaps you would like to save a bit out for something special. Don’t have a particular deduction in mind? No problem. You can set up a fund to take out a percent of whatever remains (100% of what’s left) after going through your expenses. You can set an amount as a goal you would like to reach over time, and can also set a cap on the total the fund can hold.
There’s always a cache
When you create your budget, Finance will automatically add a “General Funds” budget item and place the total spending amount currently available in the linked checking or savings account into it. This fund is a catch-all for any money added to the holding account (either the remainder after applying to your budget or the entire amount if not).
Set priorities
Your budget fund rules will run in the order they appear. To rearrange the order in macOS, simply click-and-drag your budget funds into the order you wish. In iOS and iPadOS, tap-and-hold on the budget fund and then drag it into the order you wish. You cannot move the “General Funds” item as that is always run after all other budget rules when you apply a credit to your budget.
Cash flow
Once your funds are set up, for the most part, you will be adding or removing money in your budget from the credit and debit transactions you make in the holding account you linked the budget to. When adding a credit transaction, you can choose to apply the amount to your budget (which will automatically distribute that money into your funds) or not (which will place the entire amount into “General Funds”). When adding a debit transaction, you can choose which fund the money will come from (or if you are itemizing the debit transaction you can even designate multiple funds to take the money out of).
Status at-a-glance
Finance can display a chart illustrating the current distribution of funds within your budget (accessible via the account info pop-up menu in the toolbar). Additionally, the overview list provides a snapshot of the current value and various status icons representing the options you set within your funds. A solid dot signifies funds that are currently withdrawing an amount. A target icon indicates funds where you have set a specific goal. A half-dot represents funds with a cap, while a half-target icon signifies funds with a goal that are also capped. The status dots are color-coded to provide a quick visual assessment of each fund’s current state. Red indicates funds with no money. Yellow signifies funds that have some money but have not reached a required amount or goal. Green represents funds that have reached an amount or goal or that simply have some money in them if no amount or goal is set. If you open a fund to see the transactions within it, a convenient section below the transaction list also shows your current balance info.
Transfers
What if you just set up the budget and bills are already coming in before enough money is available in your dedicated funds? What if one of your expenses unexpectedly increased? In the short-term, you can go into “General Funds” (or any other fund that might contain a surplus amount) and add a transfer transaction to move money into the approrpriate fund to cover it.
Life happens
Things change. Priorities change. Goals change. Nothing in your budget is set in stone. If an expense increases you can change your budget to reflect that. If you no longer need a particular fund you can delete it and any remaining amount will be placed into “General Funds”. If you have new expenses, you can easily add new budget funds. Any rule changes you make take effect starting with the next credit transaction in the holding account for your budget.