Getting started with Assigned

Zero-based budgeting is a way of planning your money where every dollar you have gets a job before you spend it. Rent, groceries, the car insurance due in March, a holiday next summer, savings: each one is a job. You keep putting money into categories until there is nothing left without one.

The "zero" is about money without a job, not money in your bank account. A zero-based budget can hold thousands in savings. What reaches zero is the amount still waiting to be planned, which Assigned calls Ready to Assign.

Tracking tells you afterwards where the money went. A zero-based budget decides beforehand where it will go, so each time you spend, you already know whether the money is there.

Picture your budget as a row of buckets, one for each thing your money is for: Rent, Groceries, Holiday.

1. Put your money in buckets until there is nothing left to put away. Money that is not in a bucket yet is your Ready to Assign. When it reaches zero, all your money is in a bucket.
2. Spend from the buckets. Buy groceries for $60 and the Groceries bucket has $60 less in it.
3. Move money between buckets when plans change. If Groceries runs low, take some from Eating out.

The budget screen is where you will spend most of your time.

• The month sits at the top. Move back to review a past month, or forward to plan ahead.
• The Ready to Assign card shows the money that has no job yet. It says To assign while there is money to hand out, All planned at zero, and Overassigned if you have assigned more than you have.
• Category groups and categories fill the rest of the screen. Each row has three columns: Assigned (what you gave the category this month), Activity (what you spent or received) and Available (what is left to spend).
• The status filter above the list shows all categories, or only the ones that are Funded, Underfunded or Overspent.

Click any category to open its detail: its target, its balance, and the transactions behind it.

To assign money, type an amount into a category's Assigned column. Ready to Assign goes down by the same amount.

Keep going until Ready to Assign reaches zero. A good order is:

1. Bills that must be paid this month, such as rent, utilities and minimum debt payments.
2. Everyday spending until your next payday, such as groceries and transport.
3. Costs that come less often, such as insurance, gifts and car repairs.
4. Goals, such as a holiday, an emergency fund or paying debt off faster.

Assign only money you actually have, not money you expect to receive. When your next paycheck arrives, it goes into Ready to Assign and you assign it then.

The Assign button on the Ready to Assign card has shortcuts:

• Underfunded gives every category what its target still needs this month, for as long as there is money in Ready to Assign.
• Reduce Overfunding returns anything above a category's target to Ready to Assign.
• Reset Available Amounts and Reset Assigned Amounts return this month's money to Ready to Assign when you want to start again.

Tick categories on the list first to have a shortcut work on those categories only.

Your categories should match your life, so add, rename, rearrange and remove them freely. Groups keep related categories together, such as Bills, Everyday and Goals.

• Add a group with Add group above the list.
• Add a category with the + beside a group's name, or Add Category in the group's right-click menu.
• Rearrange by dragging. Drag a category to move it up or down, or into another group. Drag a group to move it with all its categories.
• Rename a category or a group from its right-click menu.
• Hide a category you no longer use but want to keep, with Hide Category. It moves to a hidden group, and any money in it still counts. Unhide Category puts it back where it was.
• Delete a category with Delete Category in the right-click menu. If it has transactions, you choose another category to take them, together with its assigned amounts and whatever is left in it. If it has none, its money returns to Ready to Assign.
• Delete a group by opening the right-click menu on the group and selecting Delete Group. Move its categories to other groups first.

If you are not sure where to begin, start with a handful of categories: rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries, transport, eating out, one for irregular costs, and one for savings. You can split them up and add more later as you learn where your money goes.

A target tells Assigned how much a category needs, and by when. Open a category and choose Set target, or Edit target (the pencil) to change one it already has.

First choose how often it comes round:

• Weekly, on a day of the week. A target of $50 every Friday asks for $250 in a month with five Fridays.
• Monthly, on a day of the month.
• Yearly, on a date. A $600 insurance bill due once a year is spread over the months before it is due.
• Custom, for a date of your own, repeating every so many weeks, months or years, or only once.

Then choose how it fills:

• Refill up to tops the category up to the amount each time. Money left over from last time counts towards it. Good for groceries or fuel.
• Set aside another asks for the full amount each time, on top of what the category already holds. Good for saving up for something, such as $75 a month towards a holiday.
• Have a balance of builds the category up to a total and keeps it there. It uses a custom date, and without a date it only tracks how close you are. Good for an emergency fund.

Each month, a target works out what the category still needs this month. A target due in a few months spreads what is left over the months remaining, so if you fall behind or move money out, the amount it asks for goes up to catch up.

The progress bar on each row shows how a category is doing: green when it has what it needs this month, amber while it still needs money, and red when it is overspent. If you don't want to fund a target this month, choose Snooze on it. The target comes back next month.

The Underfunded shortcut uses your targets. When there is not enough to cover them all, it fills the ones due soonest first.

Every time you spend or receive money, add a transaction. You can add one from a category's detail with Add transaction, from an account's page, or with the + button at the bottom of the screen on a phone.

A transaction has a date, a payee, a category, an amount going out or coming in, and an optional memo. The category is where the money is spent from.

• Getting paid. Add the paycheck as money coming in and choose Ready to Assign as its category. It is then ready for you to assign.
• Moving money between your own accounts. Choose the other account under Transfer in the payee list. A transfer is not spending, so it needs no category.
• Bills that come on a schedule. Set the transaction to Repeat, and Assigned enters it for you when it is due. You approve each one when it appears.
• Checking against your bank. Use Reconcile on an account to confirm its balance matches your statement.

Plans change. Groceries cost more than expected, or the car needs a repair. When you spend more than a category holds, its Available goes below zero and the category shows as Overspent.

To fix it, open the category and choose Cover Overspending. You can cover it from Ready to Assign if there is money there, or from another category that has some to spare.

To move money at any other time, use Move Money by right-clicking the available amount. Pick where the money should go and how much, and it moves in one step.

Moving money is not a failure. It is the budget doing its job: you decide what to give up instead of finding out at the end of the month.

Money you didn't spend stays where it is. A category that has $40 left at the end of October starts November with $40, before you assign anything new. Nothing goes back to Ready to Assign on its own.

A category can't start a month below zero. If a category is still overspent when the month ends, it starts the new month at zero, and the overspending is handled like this:

• What you overspent in cash or from a bank account comes out of the next month's Ready to Assign.
• What you overspent on a credit card becomes debt on that card.

Covering overspending before the month ends keeps both from happening.

A Refill up to target counts what is left in the category towards this month. A Set aside another target asks for its full amount again.

A simple monthly routine:

1. Add any income that has arrived, with Ready to Assign as its category.
2. Assign it until Ready to Assign reaches zero, starting with Underfunded.
3. Log spending as it happens, or every few days.
4. Cover any overspending as soon as you see it.

Each credit card has its own row on the budget, in the Credit Card Payments group. Its column reads Ready to pay: the money set aside to pay the card.

When you buy something on the card, record it on the card with the category it was for, such as Groceries. If Groceries has the money, that amount moves from Groceries to the card's Ready to pay, so the money for the bill is set aside as you spend.

When the category doesn't have the money, the category goes overspent. Cover it before the month ends and the money still moves to the card. If you don't, the uncovered part becomes card debt on the 1st: money you owe with nothing set aside for it.

To pay the card, open its row and choose Pay card. Enter the amount and the account you pay from, and it records the payment as a transfer. If you pay more than Ready to pay, Assigned offers to move the difference from Ready to Assign or another category.

A card that already has a balance when you add it asks how to handle it:

• Pay it all now sets aside what Ready to Assign can cover, up to what you owe.
• Pay it off over time puts the card on a payoff plan with a set amount each month.
• Decide later leaves the balance as card debt on the card's row until you cover it or make a plan.

The card's detail shows You owe (the card's balance), Ready to pay and Card debt, and says why the row looks the way it does.

Add a loan or mortgage as an account with the amount you owe, its interest rate and its minimum payment. Assigned adds the interest to the balance on the 1st of each month.

Budget for the payment with a category. On the loan's page, choose the category you pay it from under Linked to. Add a category such as "Car loan" first if you don't have one. Give that category a target of your monthly payment and the day it is due. Each month, assign the payment to it.

Record the payment as a transfer from your checking account to the loan. The payment comes out of the linked category and brings the loan's balance down.

Keep the balance right with Sync balance on the loan's page. Type in what your lender says you owe, and Assigned corrects the balance and charges next month's interest on the right amount.

The Debts page plans how to pay off your loans and cards. Choose an order:

• Highest interest pays off the debt with the highest rate first, so you pay the least interest overall.
• Smallest balance clears the smallest debt first, so whole debts disappear sooner.
• Your own order, where you drag the debts into the order you want.

Choose how much to pay each month in total, and the page shows the month you will be debt-free and the interest you will pay on the way. Start plan sets each debt's monthly amount as its category's target, so Underfunded funds your plan along with everything else. When a debt is paid off, its payment moves on to the next one.

A budget can be shared by up to 5 people, each with their own login. Everyone sees changes as they happen in the budget.

Each account and category is either shared or private. Shared ones are visible to everyone in the budget. Private ones are visible only to you. Choose Share or Make private from a category's menu, or the sharing button on an account's page. A credit card's row is shared or private along with the card.

Ready to Assign is split in two. Once a budget has more than one person, the Ready to Assign card shows a Shared amount and a Private amount:

• Income on a shared account goes to the shared amount. Income on your private account goes to your private amount.
• Assigning to a shared category takes money from the shared amount. Assigning to a private category takes it from your private amount.
• Covering overspending and moving money only work between categories on the same side: shared with shared, or your private with your private.
• A shared category can only be used on a shared account, and a private category on your own private account.

To move money from your side to the shared side, transfer it from your private account to a shared account. Paying a shared credit card from your private checking account does the same.

Everyone arranges their own groups. The groups and the order you see are yours: rearranging them changes nothing for anyone else.

The Shared and Private filters above the list show one side at a time, with its own Ready to Assign. In Settings, Share new items by default decides whether new accounts and categories start out shared or private.

No. Assigned never asks for your bank login. You enter transactions yourself, which takes a few seconds each and keeps you close to where your money goes.

No. Saving is a job too. Money in a savings or emergency fund category counts as assigned, so you can reach zero in Ready to Assign with plenty put aside.

Assign only the money you have today. When the next payment lands, assign that too. Targets help here: Underfunded fills the categories due soonest first, so a smaller month still covers the essentials.

Yes. On a computer, open the menu under your budget's name in the top left of the app, choose Import and upload your YNAB export. Your accounts, categories and transactions come across.

Your first 45 days are free. After that, Assigned is $30 a year plus tax for the whole household.

If something here doesn't match what you see, or you are stuck, email hello@assigned.money. A person reads every message.