8. Budgets

A budget defines a cap (or target) for one category over a period of time. CaeliBudget continuously shows where you stand against it.

When to use it

• Cap monthly groceries.
• Allocate a yearly travel budget.
• Track an income goal (e.g. quarterly revenue).

Creating a budget

In Budgets, click + New budget:

• Category — every budget is bound to one specific category (or sub-category).
• Amount — the target amount (stored in cents, formatted on display).
• Period — one of:

• Start date — the start of the first period; subsequent ones follow from the chosen period.
• End date (optional) — if empty, the budget rolls forward indefinitely.

Actual vs planned

Each budget card shows:

• planned amount,
• actual amount in this period for the chosen category,
• progress bar with the percentage,
• remaining amount or overspend.

The bar colour gives quick feedback:

• ≤ 60 % — green (comfortable),
• 60–80 % — yellow (watch),
• 80–100 % — orange,

• 100 % — red (over budget).

Where else it appears

• Dashboard — primary budgets and any warning (>80 %) are surfaced.
• Transactions filter — one click filters the transaction list to the matching category for the budget's current period.

Edit and delete

Budgets can be edited freely (amount, period, dates). Deleting a budget does not affect any transactions — only the tracking is removed.

Typical pattern

Monthly groceries cap:

1. Make sure Groceries is an expense category.
2. + New budget → category Groceries, amount e.g. 400, period Monthly, start date the 1st of the month.
3. The dashboard resets the counter automatically each month.

Related chapters

5. Categories, 9. Dashboard & statistics