Get Started in 4 Steps

1. Set your pay schedule. Open Account (your initials, top right) and choose how often you're paid. The app then places each paycheck on your budget and calendar.
2. Start this month's budget. On Budget, tap Start This Month. Type a planned amount next to each line. Delete any line you don't need, and tap ＋ Add a Line for anything missing.
3. Pay yourself first. Put an amount on the Mastering Inflation Savings Account (pay yourself first) line. When you move the money, tap the circle to mark it paid. The deposit is logged in your Savings Account app for you.
4. Track what really happens. Add entries on Cashflow, or bring in your bank's file with Smart Import. Your actual amounts fill in on the Budget automatically.

Each Tab

• Home: your month at a glance. Safe-to-Spend and Danger Day, planned vs. actual, your money goals, earnings with the 25% tax reminder, and your badges.
• Budget: your Budget Sheet. Switch to By Paycheck to see which paycheck covers which bills. Tap the circle on any line to mark it paid or received. Copy to Next Month saves time.
• Cashflow: every dollar in and out. Add, edit, or delete entries. Smart Import reads your bank file. Where It Went shows your spending by store or company. The count under the totals shows how many transactions you had that month.
• Calendar: the Actual calendar shows paydays, bills, and your running balance. The What-If calendar lets you move a bill to a new day and see what changes, without touching your real budget. Tap List for the same month as a list.
• Inflation Watch: after 3 months of entries, compare each category with your own 3-month average.
• Reports: Year at a Glance (12 months side by side, with the number of transactions), your Monthly Report Card, Spending Reports for Subscriptions, Entertainment and Dining Out (each store or service, how many times, and the total, by month or for the year), and Category Reports for every bills and spending category: one category or all of them, by month or year, planned vs. spent, and each category's share of your spending. Print them (a summary page, then each category on its own page with lines for your notes) or download a CSV.
• Lessons: five short how-tos, each with a Try It Now button.
• Account: your access, codes, pay schedule, categories, import rules, backups, and password.

Safe-to-Spend and Danger Day

Enter your checking balance on the 1st of the month (on the Calendar tab). The app adds your paychecks and subtracts your bills on their days. Danger Day is the day your balance would dip lowest. Safe to spend is how much you could spend today and still stay above $0 for the rest of the month, based on your plan. Give a spending line a day (Edit ✎) if you want it on the calendar too.

Smart Import: Bring In Your Bank File

1. Sign in to your bank's website and download your transactions as a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) file. Most banks call this "Export" or "Download."
2. On Cashflow, tap Smart Import and choose the file.
3. The app reads the columns, picks a category for each entry, and flags anything that looks like a duplicate.
4. Check every entry on the review screen. Change any category, uncheck anything you don't want, and tap Save Checked Entries.
5. Changed a category? Check Remember and the app uses it next time. Made a mistake? Tap Undo This Import.

Your bank file is read on your own device. Only the entries you save are stored in your account.

Cash

• Cash counts when it leaves the bank. An ATM or cash withdrawal is spending in the Cash category. Smart Import does this for you.
• Want to show what the cash was for? Tap ✂ on the entry and split it, for example $60 into $20 Groceries and $40 Dining Out. The parts must add up to the whole amount. You can split any entry this way.
• Got paid in cash? Tap ＋ Add an Entry, choose Money In, and pick the income category.
• Deposited cash at the bank? When you import that bank file, the app asks "Did you already add this cash as income?" Yes skips it, so it isn't counted twice. No counts it as income.
• Moved money to savings? Smart Import counts a transfer to savings as saving (Pay Yourself First or Emergency Fund), not spending.

Earnings and Taxes

Income from Side Income, Digital Product Sales, and Skool Commissions counts as earnings. You can mark any income category as earnings in Account. Tap Save Some to My Savings Account on Home to log part of your earnings as an earned deposit, which powers the Income Stacking bar in your Savings Account app.

Premium Meet-ups

Premium members can bring their budget to the Money Management meet-ups, held at least monthly in Skool. Meet-ups are education, not personal tax or financial advice.

Add the App to Your Home Screen

Practice Mode: Try It with Sample Data

• Open it: tap ▦ at the top, then Practice Mode. You can also tap Try it with sample data on the sign-in screen.
• It works like the real app. A made-up household fills all four Mastering Inflation apps, and they work together. Add, edit, and delete anything. Mark your pay-yourself-first line paid and the deposit shows up in the Savings Account app. Smart Import, Inflation Watch, and the badges all work.
• It stays on this device. Practice entries are saved in this browser only. They never go to your account, never count toward your real badges or totals, and no one else sees them.
• The orange bar at the top means you're practicing. Reset sample data starts the sample household over. Leave Practice Mode takes you back to your own entries.

Whole Dollars

Every amount is in whole dollars: type 43, not 42.50. The arrows in an amount box move $1 at a time. Bank files (Smart Import) are rounded to the nearest dollar, row by row (50¢ and up rounds up). A charge under 50¢ rounds to $0 and is left out.

Private and Secure

Your entries are private to your account. We never sell or share them. Use a password you don't use anywhere else.

Print and Back Up

• Print: tap 🖨 at the top. It prints only the tab you're on.
• Back up: open Account, then Export Backup. Keep the file somewhere safe. Export Cashflow and Export Budget give you CSV files for Excel or Google Sheets.
• Restore: open Account, then Import Backup. It also accepts backup files from the older Paycheck Budget and Bill Calendar app.
• If your access ends: your data is never deleted. You can still view and export everything. Enter the current code to pick up where you left off.
• Light or dark: tap ☾ / ☀ at the top.

Money Manager tracks the amounts you enter. It does not hold, move, or invest money, and it is not financial or tax advice.