Envelope budgeting is a simple tool to help you better plan for expenses and track how much money you have available to spend by assigning money to real or virtual envelopes. Chronicle’s built-in Forecast tool, combined with Tags, help you create and fund an envelope budget.
For this example, lets say you want to budget for car related expenses. How much should you put in your car envelope, or budget, each month? Here’s how Chronicle can help you figure it out, even accounting for bills that don’t occur every month:
Step 1: Add Tags
To add a tag to a bill, edit it, scroll down to the bottom under the Tags header, and type a tag name. For this example, we’ll add a Car tag to each bill related to our car, like Oil Changes, Car Payments, and Insurance.
Step 2: Filter the Forecast
Tap the Forecast button on the bottom toolbar, and then tap the Tag icon in the top-left, and select a tag. For this example, select the Car tag to see all car-related bills.
Step 3: Check the Forecast Balance
The Balance includes monthly bills, plus the amount you need to save each month for occassional bills like oil changes and car registration. In this example, you’d want to put at least $305.28 into your Car budget each month to make sure your car-related bills are always covered.
There may be more expenses that need to factor into your envelope budget. For example, you may want to add gas expenses to your total Car bucket. But Chronicle will give you a good baseline minimum amount that you need, and then you can factor in additional expenses.