Step 2 / Build Your Financial Base
Review your financial records
Check your records so the same purchase is not counted twice and your budget starts with real numbers.
Imagine a fictional household checking its accounts. One line shows a card purchase. Another shows the payment of that card bill. Did the household spend the money twice?
This review helps answer questions like that before the numbers reach Budget. Take the time your records need. You can save unfinished finances and return.
Choose the months you will review
Start in Planning, then open Finances. Gather records of pay, bills, spending, accounts, and debts. You are finding out what came in, what went out, what you have, and what you owe.
Finances has three steps: review transactions, add accounts and debts, then check the totals. You can use a bank connection where available, upload a file, or enter transactions yourself. If you already have reliable monthly totals, you can enter them directly in Budget instead.
Under Review period, choose one, two, or three months and the last month to include. A new blank review starts with three completed months. Check the dates yourself, and confirm them with Use this review period when asked.
Include complete records for the months used in the average. Missing records can make income or spending look too low. You can add the missing records, change the period, or mark a month incomplete to leave it out of the average. Keep a month with truly no activity included.
You can also inspect the current month's totals so far. Because that month is unfinished, choose completed months before using a monthly budget baseline. A baseline is the checked starting set of numbers your plan will use.
Check what each transaction means
Choose a route for bringing in records. Bank connections are available with Genesis, Premium, and VIP, where the provider and institution support them. File imports, manual entry, and saving are available with every account.
For a bank connection, use Bank connections or Manage banks, then Connect a bank. Complete the provider's steps yourself. Return through Import and review, import the records, and check the preview. Add to review accepts that preview; Discard preview leaves those records out of the draft.
For a file, choose Upload CSV, PDF or photo. A CSV is a table saved as a text file, often available from a bank. Open CSV format & example if needed. Check dates, money coming in, and money going out in the preview. If the app asks how the file shows spending, choose the direction that matches your statement. Then choose Add transactions.
For a missing entry, use Add a transaction manually and check its date, description, amount, and direction. Imports and manual changes need a confirmed save. Watch the save status before leaving.
Genesis, Premium, and VIP include automatic categories; Free accounts can choose categories manually. Start with Need your decision, then check categories already filled in. A description alone may not show what really happened.
A $500 transfer between your own accounts is not new income. Paying a card bill is not another purchase if you already counted the purchases. A refund reduces the related spending. Selling something once is one-time income, not a paycheck you can expect each month.
The card is owed $60.
The same purchase is paid for once.
Net spending becomes $50; the repaid card receives a credit.
A $60 card purchase creates $60 of spending. The card provider is still owed $60 for this purchase.
Re-importing the same bank records uses their bank IDs to avoid adding them twice. CSV imports also check for repeated entries. Still review possible duplicates across files and manual entries; two purchases with similar amounts can both be real.
After either import route, check the draft. Bringing records into Planning does not move money, pay a debt, or change your bank account.
Keep debt and monthly payments separate
Now add accounts and debts, with balances and dates. Use Add account or debt for anything missing. If an account was imported, do not add the same balance again by hand.
The debt balance shows what is still owed. The required monthly payment shows what must fit into cash flow. Check both against your records. A bank connection may not supply every detail.
For each debt, tell the app whether its required payment is already in the reviewed transactions. It adds required payments you mark as missing. Count each payment once, and do not add it again under Other monthly commitments in Budget.
A household can have debt and still spend less than it earns each month. It can also have no debt and spend more than it earns. The debt balance alone cannot tell you which is true.
Total liquid cash means money in cash accounts, such as checking and savings. Planning does not include investment balances, retirement accounts, or unused credit limits in that cash total. Net worth is another measure: what you own minus what you owe.
Follow the totals into Budget
In Check your numbers, resolve entries that still need a decision. Then confirm two things: the included months have complete records without double counting, and the accounts and debts are complete and current. Check the boxes only after doing that review.
The app averages recurring income and reviewed expenses across the included months. It subtracts refunds from spending and adds required debt payments marked as missing. Transfers and one-time income do not raise the recurring-income average.
An average describes the months you reviewed. It does not promise next month's income. If work varies, compare quieter months with the bills due in them. Include taxes and costly months in that review, rather than assuming the best month will repeat.
Here is the household we will follow through Planning. Each month it brings home $4,800 and records $3,400 of expenses. It also has $100 of expense refunds and a $200 required loan payment missing from those records. Its monthly expenses are $3,400 − $100 + $200 = $3,500.
It has $6,000 in checking and $20,000 in savings: $26,000 of liquid cash. A separate $10,000 investment account and $2,000 debt belong in the wider picture. Neither replaces the monthly income-and-expense calculation.
Save finances can keep unfinished records. When the checks are complete, Save and continue to Budget saves the reviewed finances and applies their income, expense, and liquid-cash totals to the plan. Wait for confirmation. Then review the reserve settings and chosen amounts that remain in place.
You may spot an unused $25 subscription during this check. Check what it provides, the cancellation terms, and any replacement cost. If you decide to stop it, cancel with the provider and keep the confirmation.
A note in Cancel & save does not cancel the service. Check the next bill before treating the $25 as a real saving.
Continue in Budget to decide what to protect and what amounts to choose. Applying reviewed totals updates the plan’s numbers and suggestions, while preserving amounts you already chose. Review those choices and Allocation, then save any later changes.
The idea to keep
Review complete months and check what each entry means. Keep transfers, refunds, one-time income, purchases, and debt payments in their proper places so each amount is counted once.
Check current accounts and debts, then confirm the two review checks. Save and continue to Budget keeps the reviewed records and puts their totals into your plan. Your chosen amounts still need your attention.