Budget list

 

When you tap the Budgets section, you’ll see all the budgets that you have in the current time period.

Each budget has its own progress bar and shows how much of the budget is used and left this month. That way, you can quickly monitor the current state of all your budgets at once.

If you use monthly budgets, you’ll notice that budgets are displayed in two ways:

 

Monthly budgets for all expenses and monthly budgets for categories

The top budget is your general monthly budget for all expenses. The category budgets below each represent a percentage of the total monthly budget.

If you added up all the category budgets, they add up to the monthly budget for all expenses. That’s why the little progress bars beneath each category budget are of different lengths. Together, they would be the full length of the progress bar for the monthly budget for all expenses.

The categories for which you have not yet made a budget are covered in the “Remaining budgets” section. That way you get a picture of how your monthly budget for all expenses is distributed among all the categories.

 

All other budgets

All the budgets which are not monthly for all expenses, or monthly for a category, are displayed as individual budgets. They cannot be displayed in the upper part of the list as they don’t necessarily match up in time or scope with the other budgets. Such budgets can be interesting in their own right, but not immediately comparable to monthly budgets for all expenses or categories.

 

Filtering

 

Budgets displayed in the list are filtered just like any other content on Toshl.
Only budgets that have a budget period in the currently chosen time span will be displayed.
If you used the filtering option on the top right, only the budgets that fit those criteria will be displayed. For example, if you filtered to display only one category, only the budgets that track that category will be displayed. Same goes for tags and other filtering options, except accounts.

 

Don’t forget about the “Planned” ON/OFF setting in the time span settings in the right sidebar.

If it’s set to ON, the budgets will already include your planned expenses which aren’t yet due this month. If planned is set to OFF, only expenses that happened until today will be displayed.

 

Budget details

 

Let’s take a look into the details of an individual budget. We’ll take a look at a monthly budget for all expenses and see what all the graphs and data mean.

Title & budget amount

The title is pretty self evident, but it’s worth mentioning that they are generated automatically, based on the type of budget you created. If you want you can change it by clicking Edit in the top right corner of the screen.

The amount shown on top is the total amount for the budget for the given time period. You can use your main currency for the budget (recommended) or a foreign one, if it’s your travel budget while you’re abroad, for example.

 

Budget statistics for the current period

Used & planned: the amount of money that was already spent from this budget in the displayed time period. If it mentions “planned” it also includes the expenses that you have already added in the future of this time period, but weren’t due yet. For example, bills that haven’t arrived yet this month. If you want to see just the expenses until today, click the time span setting at the top of the screen and set the “Show planned expenses in graphs” setting to OFF.

Left: The amount of money remaining in this budget, that you have not spent yet.

Left per day: The amount of money remaining, divided by the number of days remaining in the budget period.

 

Budget overview graph

This graph takes a little bit of getting used to all the elements of it, but once you get the hang of it, you get a great feel for the real state of your budget in a single glance.

 

Progress bar and the blue/red lollipop

The blue-coloured background tells you how much of your budget still remains. In the beginning of the period it’s all blue, but as you add more expenses things heat up and it starts shrinking towards the right side. Kind of like a glacier. The blue lollipop shows the end of the progress bar and displays how much money is left in the budget.
If you surpass the budget amount you have set for yourself, the progress bar will start appearing from the left in red colour, with the red lollipop up front, displaying how much did you go over your budgeted amount.

 

The today lollipop

In the budget graph for the current period you’ll also see an upside-down lollipop in dark grey with “today” written on it. This lollipop shows current time compared to the whole budget period. The entire length of the graph is the entire amount of time in the budget period and the lollipop displays where you are now.

 

The red columns

These columns are daily sums of expenses. They show how much you spent on a given day in the budget period, telling you when you spent the most and helping you to find the main culprit of overspending. Click and hold the cursor over the graph to see the daily details. The taller and darker the column, the more was spent.

 

Compare the “money left” and “today” lollipops

Comparing the lollipops quickly tells you how you’re doing with your current budget. The blue lollipop tells you how much money you have left in the budget, the grey one tells you how much time you have left.

If they’re aligned or almost aligned, you’re right on track so far. You’re on the way to spend the almost exact amount of money you budgeted in this period.

If the today lollipop (grey) is way ahead of the money left lollipop (blue), then you’re doing great with your budget. You’ve spent less than you thought you will in this amount of time. If this happens a lot, perhaps it’s time to lower the budget amount.

If the money left lollipop (blue) is way ahead of the today lollipop (grey), then you’re not doing so well with your budget. You’re spending more than was expected. Time to reduce your spending, or if that’s not possible, make the budget amount larger next time.

If the lollipop has already turned to red, you have already spent more than the money you had put in the budget amount. The lollipop simply tells you by how much.

 

Budget type

 

Time period, Accounts Tracked, Budget Type

The 3 basic settings of the budget.
Time period: shows what kind of period of time does it track and how quickly it transitions to the next period, e.g. daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or one time. You can set a budget to a custom time period: e.g. every 2 weeks, every 3 months etc.

 

Accounts tracked: Whether the budget is set to track the expenses noted on all financial accounts or only some.
Budget type: Whether it tracks all expenses, those in specific categories, those using specific tags or excluding expenses some categories or tags.

 

Included expenses: Shows all the expenses that are counted in this budget. Which expenses are included of course depends on how you set the budget in the properties above.

 

The budget history graph

This graph shows the previous budget periods and the total amount of money that was spent in the period. By tapping and holding over the budget history graph you can also see more details for the period, including the amount of the budget, amount spent and how much was saved or lacking in the period.

 

The budget history list

Here you can see each one of your past budget periods. You can easily tell how much you exceeded or saved on a budget in a given period on the list. Tapping on one of the periods will take you to the budget details in that past period of the budget.

 

Toshl Pro budget limitations

People using the free Toshl are limited to adding 2 budgets, with Toshl Pro you can add as many as you like. If your Toshl Pro subscription expires, the extra budgets will be deactivated. The data will not be deleted, if you extend your Toshl Pro subscription you can continue using them normally.

Toshl Pro is available as one of these plans:

$1.99 / month
$19.99 / year
$59.99 / 3 years + free T-shirt

Learn more about Toshl Pro

 

Want to start budgeting, but don’t know where to start? Read our tutorial “How to Set Up Your Budgets and Control Your Spending” and you’ll be set up in a heartbeat. Maybe two heartbeats. It will be a few more heartbeats really. It’s just a figure of speech, get of my back, will you!? ;)

Listing your expenses and incomes. Here’s how it works.

Expense in the list

The category, the tag(s), optional info like repeats and reminders followed by amount and currency.
Tap on it and you get to expense details where you can view, edit or delete the expense.

Pretty straightforward.

If you’re wondering about the icons on the expenses and incomes here’s what they are:
– Repeating expense. It will repeat automatically based on a setting of your choice. Open expense details or edit to find out more about the specific type of repeat.
– You can set to be reminded when your expenses come up, or some time before. Once the expense is due, the bell icon will be replaced by a red dot, warning you that the expense is still unpaid.
– Speaking of the devil… The red dot, warns you that the expense is still unpaid. Go into expense details, tap “mark as paid” and it shall go away.

 

Swipe for quick actions

Swipe an expense or income on the list from right to left. You can use these buttons to quickly delete or edit an expense. If the expense has a reminder, you can also mark it as paid or unpaid, straight from the list.

 

Planned expenses

If you have any expenses entered on future dates this month, a special row will be shown on top of the list called “planned expenses”. You can open it to reveal which expenses are coming up this month. To add an expense into planned expenses, enter it is you would any expense, just set the date in the future of that month.

You can also choose to include these planned expenses into graphs or not.

 

Sorting by date, by category and search

Open the expense list. Collect your thoughts, gather courage, pull the expenses down with your finger. A previously hidden top of the list will reveal itself in all its glory. Indiana Jones would be proud.

 

You will find the option to search your expenses. Tap inside the field and search for pretty much any expense attribute.

A bit higher still are the tabs to choose sorting by date or by category.
By default, the expenses are listed by date. When listed by date, the expenses are listed chronologically, with the latest ones on top.

When listed by category, a list of all categories is shown. Categories with the highest sum of expenses are shown on top. This way, you’ll be able to locate your largest money sinkholes quickly.

 

Filtering data

As everywhere in the app, you can filter your data. Use the time span options to filter by time, or filter by accounts. You can find both types of filtering in the right sidebar. Tap on the time and account preview on the top right, or swipe from anywhere on the rightmost edge of the screen to activate it.

The web app offers a few more options for filtering. Use the web app to also filter by category, tag or location. More on this here.

A sense of proportion is a terrible thing to lack. Some call it the 7th sense. Somewhat ironically, these people who call it the 7th sense are precisely the ones who don’t have it. Toshl’s duty is to bring some sense of proportion to our finances, for our memories are feeble and don’t do numbers justice.

 

Category donut

Expense and income graphs are here to help your memory. The upper part, that’s shaped like a Tokamak reactor from above (or a donut), represents the categories. Each part of the circle is a category and its size represents its portion of all the expenses. Just like any pie chart. The number in the middle of the circle is the sum of all the expenses.

You can tap the categories to select them. More than one category can be selected at once. As you select them, the details below the chart change to reflect the full name of the categories and their details. You can see the total amount of a category, its percentage of the total amount and how many expenses contributed to that sum. Select multiple categories and it will add them all up.

Hint: if you tap the centre of the circle, all of the categories will be selected. If you tap again, none will be selected.

 

Tag bubbles

A bit lower is the tags graph, where the size of the bubble gives a sense of proportion. This graph responds to the categories graph above. If all the categories are selected, all the tags will be displayed. Tags will then display the sums for the entire tag, no matter which category they were used with.

 

If you select one of the categories, only the tags used on expenses together with that category will be displayed. The sum of the tag will also be filtered and display only the sum of the tag when used together with that category.

Another important thing to remember is that you can use more than one tag on an expense. That means that the same expense could be counted in more than one tag bubble if you used more than one tag on an expense.

Just like with categories, tags can be selected and summed up. There is also a per day average and you can click & drag them around to relieve the stress of financial issues.

Once in a while, one needs to take a broader look of things, even personal finances. To help you see your monthly flow of finances from a higher ground, we made the “river flow” graph.

Imagine the money that you earn and spend each month as a system of rivers. It flows in, hopefully rests a bit in a lake of your making, then most of it flows out again to replenish the fields – or yourself and your phone bill. With some good planning you can build yourself a dam and some accumulation lakes on the side, just to be safe if a dry season ever hits you.

The number at the very top is your income, your main inbound stream. If you set up your monthly budget for all expenses, that will be the dam that you constructed. Income flows in and hits the dam. If the income amount is larger than the budget amount, the difference will flow into your savings for the dry months. It’s good to grow an “accumulation lake” or your “savings account” as your less poetic banker would call it.

If the budget is larger than the income, you’re living beyond your means and need to readjust the budget. Or, even better, increase the income if possible.

Beyond your budget dam and monthly money lake, your expenses flow out. The width of the flow represents its size.
The flow in dark red are expenses that have already been made.
The orange flow are your planned expenses, the ones which are coming this month, but have not been due yet.
The green flow is your “left to spend” money. The money that you have already budgeted for, so it should hold by the end of the month, but you have yet to let it flow out of the dam.

If you have not built your dam yet (set up a monthly budget for all expenses), then the flows will simply be going straight down, but their width still representing their size.

 

If your expense flow is much stronger than the income one, you know the lakes will run dry rather quickly. It’s a situation that should be quickly fixed. Hopefully you’ve accumulated enough in the past to weather through this dry season.

Hopefully, the river flow graph will help you get a good understanding of your money flows and you’ll be able to avoid the dire situations before they occur.

While it’s great seeing these rivers from the top down to manage your money better, it’s even better in first person, leaping down those rapids as the Toshl Monsters see them…

To learn more, check out the Monthly overview and Left to spend blog posts.

Getting a complete sense of your personal finances is important, even when you just open the app for a quick peek. That’s why we made the Monthly Overview graph. We included the information you need right away and made it easy to go deeper when you need more details.

It’s true that this graph contains a few more elements than usual, so there is a bit of a learning curve. But give it a chance, it will make the quick looks at your finances a lot more effective. Here are the main elements:

 

The “Left to spend” number
As the name implies, this big green number tells you how much money is remaining for you to spend this month. If you have set up a monthly budget, all the expenses in this month will be deducted from the budget amount and what you get is the “Left to spend” number.

For more details on how this number is calculated read the Left to spend blog post, or go to the “River Flow” section in the app menu.

 

The “Left to spend” progress bar
The green-coloured background of the graph is a progress bar that tells you how much money you have “left to spend”. The length of the graph represents all the money you have “left to spend” in the month. In the beginning of the month, the whole graph is green. But as you add more expenses, it starts shrinking from left towards the right side. Kind of like a glacier. The green lollipop shows you where it ends and tells you how much you have left to spend.

If you surpass the budget amount you have set for yourself, or spend more than you earn, the progress bar will start appearing from the left in red colour, with the red lollipop up front. In that case it will display how much you went over your budget, or overspent your earnings.

 

The “today” lollipop
You can also see an upside-down lollipop in dark grey with “today” written on it. This lollipop shows current day compared to the time of the entire month. The entire length of the graph represents all the time in the month and the “today” lollipop displays where you are now.

 

The expense columns
These red columns are daily sums of expenses. They show how much you spent on a given day in the month, telling you when you spent the most and helping you to find the main culprit of overspending. The taller and darker the column, the more was spent.

Quick tip: Tap and hold with your finger on the graph to see the daily details.

 

Compare the “left to spend” and “today” lollipops
To quickly size up your financial health this month, look at the two lollipops on the graph. The green lollipop tells you how much money you have left to spend, while the grey – today lollipop tells you how much time you have left.

If they’re aligned or almost aligned, you’re right on track so far. You’re on the way to spend the almost exact amount of money you budgeted or earned in this period.

If the today lollipop (grey) is way ahead of the money left lollipop (green), then you’re doing great this month. You’ve spent less than you thought you will in this amount of time. If this happens a lot, perhaps it’s time to lower the budget amount.

 

If the money left lollipop (green) is way ahead of the today lollipop (grey), then you’re not doing so well with your budget. You’re spending more than was expected. Time to reduce your spending, or if that’s not possible, make the budget amount larger next time.

If the lollipop has already turned to red, you have already spent more than the money you had put in the budget amount. The lollipop simply tells you by how much.

 

To learn more, check out the Left to spend and River flow graph blog posts.