The category itself
Start from a category set that reflects how you actually spend, not a chart of accounts. Rename, merge, split or nest. A category can sit under a parent so a department rolls up from the lines inside it.
Module 01
A budget is a limit per category, read live.
Tracking only means something if the number in front of you is current. Every categorized expense moves its category against its limit the moment it settles, so the reading you get on day 11 is the reading, not an estimate waiting for month-end confirmation.
Unit of controlThe category
RefreshOn settlement
StatesUnder, near, over
Setting the limits
How a category budget gets defined.
Four decisions per category, made once, revisited whenever the business changes. Everything after that is reading, not maintaining.
The limit and the cycle
An amount and the period it applies to: monthly, quarterly, annual with monthly checkpoints, or project-scoped with a fixed end. Limits can carry unspent room forward or reset clean, per category.
The near-limit threshold
The percentage at which the category turns amber. Payroll might warrant 98 percent because it is predictable. Marketing might warrant 70 percent because it is not. The default is 85 and you should change it.
The owner
Who gets the flag and who approves a reallocation touching this line. One person for a small business, a department head and a finance reviewer for a larger one.
Live tracking view
What the tracker reads mid-cycle.
One row per category. Committed spend, room remaining, percentage of limit and state. Travel has already breached, and the room to cover it is sitting two rows below.
| Category | Limit | Committed | Room left | Of limit | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | 1,20,000 | 93,600 | 26,400 | 78% | Under budget |
| Payroll | 4,80,000 | 4,56,000 | 24,000 | 95% | Near limit |
| Software | 85,000 | 57,800 | 27,200 | 68% | Under budget |
| Travel | 1,50,000 | 1,68,000 | -18,000 | 112% | Overspent |
| Supplies | 60,000 | 36,600 | 23,400 | 61% | Under budget |
| Contractors | 2,10,000 | 1,65,900 | 44,100 | 79% | Under budget |
Travel is at 112 percent. Supplies has 23,400 free. Here is the suggestion.
The engine does not stop at naming the problem. It identifies which under-spent category can absorb the gap without creating a second one, states the exact amount, and shows what both lines read afterwards. Then it waits.
Move fromSupplies, 18,000
Move toTravel
Reads afterTravel 100%, Supplies 91%
Approval sits with the Travel budget owner. Declining is a one-click action and leaves the flag standing.
Reading a state correctly
Under budget
Below the near-limit threshold you set.
Near limit
Past your threshold, still inside the limit. Nothing is wrong yet, but the room is nearly gone.
Overspent
Committed spend exceeds the limit. The figure shown is the shortfall, not a projection.
Committed, not just settled
A category reads against what it has already committed, which includes authorized card holds and recurring charges with a known date inside the cycle. A subscription billing on the 28th is visible on the 4th rather than arriving as a surprise at the end.
- Settled transactions, counted at face value
- Pending authorizations, flagged as pending
- Known recurring charges inside the cycle
Rollups without double counting
Nest categories under a parent and the parent reads the sum of its children against its own limit. A transaction only ever lands in one leaf category, so a department total is the arithmetic of its lines and nothing else.
Operations, parent limit3,55,000
Supplies and Contractors2,02,500 committed
Parent state57% of limit
Elsewhere in the engine
Expense Categorization
Transactions sorted into your categories as they settle, with override control.
OpenCash Flow Forecasting
Where the month lands if current spend velocity holds.
OpenApproval Workflows
Route spend and reallocation decisions to the person who owns the budget.
OpenSpend Reports
Variance to budget by category, period over period, export ready.
OpenPick your month end
There are only two ways to find out you went over budget.
One of them still lets you do something about it.
The statement routeDay 31
You read the number after it is spent
The category closed at 112 percent. The money left the account three weeks ago. The only decision available now is which line to explain it against.
- Overage discovered at close
- Reallocation window already gone
- Next cycle starts on the same blind footing
The BudgetGaga routeDay 11
You read the pace while it still bends
At 74 percent on day 11 the category is flagged as trending over, with an under-spent line named as the source. You approve the shift, or you tighten the spend. Either way you chose.
- Flagged the moment the pace breaks
- Reallocation source named, not hunted for
- Every move still waits on your approval