Monthly Budget Dashboard

The Budget Dashboard helps you plan monthly budgets, track actual spending against goals, monitor bank accounts, and see your financial trends over time.

Start by going to the Setup tab to configure your budget year, income, expense categories, and savings goals.

The summary at the top shows your Income - Expenses - Savings = Leftover so you can see if your budget balances. Both monthly and annual totals are shown.

The Monthly Tracker is where you log your actual spending and compare it to your budget.

Add transactions: Click "+ Add" to manually enter an expense with date, category, description, payment method, and amount.

Import statements: Click "Upload Statement" to import transactions from your bank (CSV, PDF, or Excel). Name the source (e.g., "Chase Sapphire") during review.

Budget vs Actual: The dashboard shows a comparison of your budgeted amount vs. actual spending for each category, with color-coded progress bars (green = under budget, red = over).

Edit or delete: Click "Edit" on any transaction to modify it, or "X" to delete it.

Track all your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and investment accounts.

Add accounts: Click "+ Add Account" and enter the account name, type (Checking, Savings, Investing, Credit Card, Loan), current balance, interest rate, and notes.

Monthly snapshots: Account balances are stored per month. Update them each month to track growth over time.

Copy from previous month: Click "Copy Previous Month" to bring forward your account list — then just update the balances.

Setup — Configure your budget year, income, expense categories, savings goals, and big expenses.

Monthly Tracker — Log expenses, import statements, view budget vs. actual spending, see category breakdowns.

Bank Accounts — Track checking, savings, investing, credit card, and loan balances each month.

Annual Overview — See a 12-month grid of income and expenses, with trend charts across the year.

Trends — Daily spending charts, cumulative pace vs. budget, category trends, spending by day of week, anomaly detection, and recurring expense identification.

Net Worth — Net worth trend over time, investment growth, assets vs. liabilities breakdown with KPI cards.

Supported formats: CSV, PDF (bank statement PDFs), Excel (.xlsx, .xls).

How it works:
• Choose the file format, then drag and drop your file
• The dashboard auto-detects the bank (Chase, Wells Fargo, Capital One, etc.) and extracts transactions
• Name the source so you can tell which account transactions came from
• Review the preview and click "Import Transactions"

Bulk upload: From the Setup tab, use "Upload Statements" to import multiple files at once.

Credits/payments: Automatically detected and shown in green with negative amounts. Categorized as "Income" (rewards, payroll) or "Payment" (returns, credits).

Each transaction has these columns in the table:

Date — Transaction date
Category — Auto-assigned or manually set expense category
Description — Merchant or payee name (cleaned up automatically)
Method — Payment method (Credit, Debit, Cash, Transfer, Other)
Source — The account name you entered during import (e.g., "Chase Sapphire")
Import — How the transaction was imported (CSV, PDF, XLSX, or manual entry)
Amount — Transaction amount (negative/green for credits)

To act on multiple transactions at once, click the "Select" button above the transaction table to enter selection mode.

• Checkboxes will appear next to each row — check individual items or use the header checkbox to select all
• A floating action bar appears at the bottom showing how many are selected
• Change Category — Re-categorize all selected transactions at once
• Delete — Remove all selected transactions

Click "Cancel" to exit selection mode and hide the checkboxes.

Add months: Click "+ Add Month" to create a new month. Your budget setup carries over but transactions start fresh.

Delete months: Use the delete option to remove a month and all its transactions and account data.

Export to Excel: Export your entire budget setup (income, categories, goals) to an Excel file for sharing or backup.

Import from Excel: Restore a budget setup from a previously exported Excel file.

Data storage: All data is stored locally in your browser. Use export regularly to back up your work.

Q: How is this different from the Expenses dashboard?
The Expenses dashboard tracks spending after-the-fact from bank statements. The Budget dashboard lets you plan your spending with goals and then compare actual vs. budgeted amounts. It also tracks bank accounts and net worth.

Q: Do I need to enter every transaction manually?
No. Import bank statements (CSV, PDF, Excel) to automatically populate your transactions. You can also add manual entries for cash expenses.

Q: Can I customize the expense categories?
Yes. The Setup tab has 25 extra category slots you can name however you like. Imported transactions are auto-categorized, and you can always edit them.

Q: What banks are supported for statement import?
Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Capital One, Citi, and most banks that offer CSV or PDF statement downloads.

Q: How do I track investments?
Add investment accounts in the Bank Accounts tab with type "Investing". Update balances monthly. The Net Worth tab will chart your investment growth over time.

Q: Where is my data stored?
Everything is stored locally in your browser (localStorage). No data is sent to any server. Export regularly for backup.

Q: Can I use this on mobile?
Yes. The dashboard is fully responsive and works on phones and tablets.