Budget

The Budget widget allows you to set budgets for each spending category and track progress towards these categories each month. As each month progresses, this widget provides visual clues to show how close you may be to hitting the assigned thresholds. This widget is available in online and mobile banking, however, functionality is limited in mobile banking.

The first time you use the Budget widget, you have the option to Start from scratch or have PFM Auto-generate budgets based on your spending history.

If you choose Start from scratch, a menu of categories appears. Choose a category, then set the budget amount.

If you choose Auto-generate budgets, a list of budget categories and amounts based on your spending history appears. Scroll through the list and edit the amounts, if necessary. If you do not want a specific budget tracked, click the Delete icon (), then click Delete This Budget. Click Save Budgets to save all changes.

Note:  To minimize manual rework, aggregate all of the accounts that could affect your budget, and review Categorizing transactions before using the auto-generate budget features.

Bubble budgets view

After your budgets are created, they appear in the "bubble" form. The bubbles view allows you to see both the health and the importance of your budgets simultaneously.

  • Green – less than 80% of the budget spent.
  • Yellow – between 80% and 100% of the budget spent.
  • Red – more than 100% of the budget spent.

The size of the bubble is relative to the amount, and exact progress displays on the outside rim of the bubble. Bubbles can also be dragged and dropped.

You can view and edit your projected income within each budget widget, helping you make decisions that balance with your income. Projected income is calculated based on transaction history, however, you can edit this number manually.

To edit the projected income

  1. In the Budget widget, expand the bar at the bottom of the bubble view and click the Projected Income field.
  2. Enter the projected income amount, then click Save.

Child budgets

Click a bubble to display current child budgets. You can add additional child budgets (if more are available) or even delete the parent budget.

Clicking a child budget allows you to delete the budget, edit the amount, or view associated transactions.

Note:  To help you make more informed budgeting decisions, you can see your historical spending while creating or editing a budget.

List view

Click the View as list icon () in the upper-left corner to view your budget in list form. The colored bars represent the status of your budget:

  • Green – less than 80% of the budget spent.
  • Yellow – between 80% and 100% of the budget spent.
  • Red – more than 100% of the budget spent.

Note:  List view is currently only supported in the desktop view of the application.

The Overall Budget bar at the top displays monthly progress for the sum of all budgets.

The left side of the screen displays a list of budget categories and the progress towards hitting each goal.

To edit or delete a budget

  1. Click a parent category to display a list of child budgets, along with your monthly progress.
  2. Click on the edit icon () to edit the budgeted amount and click Save.
  3. Click the Delete icon () to delete the budget, then click Delete.

To edit a budget transaction

  1. Click a budget to display a list of all transactions within the related category. Here, you can access transaction details and re-categorize transactions.
  2. Click the Overall Budget bar in the list view to see all of your budget category transactions.
  3. Click an individual transaction to view and edit the transaction details.

To add a budget

  1. In the Budget widget, click the Manage Budgets icon ().
  2. Select a category from the budget categories available.
  3. Enter an amount in the Budgeted Amount field. Click or tap Save or Cancel.

To add a sub-budget

  1. In the Budget widget, click on the budget category for which you would like to add a sub-budget.
  2. In the Add Sub-budget over-panel, select the desired category.
  3. (Optional) to create a custom sub-category click Add a Sub-category.
  4. Enter the name of the subcategory you want to create, then click Add or press Enter.

To view individual transactions

  1. In the Budget widget, click a bubble budget.
  2. Click or tap View Transactions below the bubble to see transactions for the relevant month. All individual transactions for the selected month appear.
  3. Click an individual transaction to view the transaction details.