Projection rules and edge cases

The timeline answers a specific question: how can the currently available cash fund the recorded plan? Understanding its assumptions helps explain results that might otherwise look surprising.

What the forecast uses

The browser projection uses recorded available cash, envelope balances, funding status, dated targets, and unresolved planned expenses. It does not assume future income or purchases that are absent from those records.

Today's column shows current envelope balances. Future funding begins tomorrow. The view normally includes about two months and extends for later dated plans.

Opening or scrolling the timeline does not record funding or spending. Nightly funding records actual envelope allocations separately, using the funding day's balances and plans. Changes before that run can change the result.

Expenses and targets on the same date

Expenses in the same envelope on the same day add together. A $40 bill and a $25 bill need $65.

A target on that date adds its allowance too. A $100 target alongside those bills creates a $165 need. Use separate entries only when they represent separate spending.

The app permits one target per envelope per date. In older data containing multiple same-day targets, the funding calculation uses the largest target amount rather than adding them.

Successive dates are separate spending periods

A $300 target followed by a $400 target represents $700 in total spending. The forecast funds the nearest date first, assumes its spending occurs, then begins funding the next date on the following day.

If the first date becomes fully funded early, the forecast still waits until after that date to start allocating toward the next one. Existing surplus can carry forward.

Minimum spending floors

Open My Account, then Settings, select Budget view, and turn on Show minimum spending floors. Select Save settings to see the controls, indicators, and floor purchase projections. This preference is off by default. Turning it off keeps saved floors but ignores them in projections, and hides floor details on the timeline and envelope page. Normal target-date and planned-expense deductions still apply.

Set Minimum spend (optional) when adding or editing a target to forecast purchases in fixed amounts. Blank keeps the usual target behavior.

For a $100 target over five days with a $30 minimum and no starting balance, the projection sets aside $20 each day. It assumes $30 purchases on days 2, 3, and 5, leaving $10 in the envelope. Saving days have faded green lines; days with an assumed purchase have the normal dark green line, including days funded entirely by an existing balance.

Each qualifying day spends the minimum once, counts that purchase against the target's remaining allowance, and carries the balance forward. Expenses on the same milestone date stay reserved. The forecast does not force a purchase below the minimum at the target date; leftover money can fund the next target. A minimum larger than the remaining allowance produces no purchase for that period. The floor applies while that target is the nearest funding milestone.

The day hover shows the minimum, accrued spending money, assumed purchase, and balance after spending. These purchases are forecast assumptions only and do not create transactions. When spending floors are shown, Plan next starts with the source target's floor and lets you change or clear it. When they are hidden, the next target has no floor. This also applies to Choose a date instead. The source target stays unchanged.

Plans due today or earlier

Before projecting tomorrow, the browser subtracts unresolved expenses and remaining dated targets due today or earlier from the working envelope balance. This prevents the same assigned money from being reused for later plans.

These are forecast assumptions, not account transactions. An unresolved bill still needs your attention, even though the projection has treated its date as passed.

For a paid bill, reconcile it or remove the obsolete plan if the actual payment is already recorded. For an allowance, check what remains and update its amount and date as needed.

Negative balances, paused funding, and undated targets

A funding-enabled envelope with a negative working balance has an immediate need to reach zero. Its next allocation is the larger of the amount needed to reach zero and the normal daily allocation toward its nearest bill or target, calculated from the negative balance. Without a future dated plan, it receives only enough to reach zero. These allocations still require sufficient available cash.

Paused envelopes are excluded from projected allocations and spending simulation. Their existing positive balances still count as assigned cash. Pausing therefore does not return their funds to the available pool.

Hidden envelopes are different from paused envelopes. A name in the Hidden category changes its display location; it does not exclude the envelope from funding or spending simulation. Collapsing any category also leaves its funding unchanged.

Targets without dates do not contribute to dated funding. The browser's target form requires a date; an undated target already in the data needs a date before it can participate.

Which envelope receives funding first?

For each projection day, funding candidates are ordered by:

1. Funding priority date: the current projection day for a negative balance; otherwise, the nearest planned date.
2. Larger required daily allocation when dates match.
3. Envelope name, ignoring case, when both match.
4. A stable internal identifier if names also match.

The Alphabetical and Next Expense screen controls do not change this funding order.

What happens when cash runs short?

If a daily allocation requires $33 and only $20 remains, that step does not receive a partial $20 allocation. The forecast records the limit, shows zero cash left to plan, and stops making further positive allocations.

Already-funded needs that require no additional money can still be processed. The flag marks the first failed allocation, which can be earlier than the expense's due date. Its numbers describe that step, not the sum of every remaining shortfall.

The Daily funding pressure chart deliberately continues calculating demand as if sufficient funds existed. It can show allocations beyond this limit; they are funding needs, not allocations the current cash can actually cover. See Explore the funding forecast.

Rounding and calendar dates

Amounts are tracked in cents. The first allocation prefers to restore a whole-dollar envelope balance. Later allocations generally use whole dollars, with exact cents for the final remainder. Daily amounts do not increase while funding the same planned date. See Funding calculations.

Projection dates are calendar dates, so daylight saving changes do not create an extra or missing funding day.

Plan next has its own date offset rules: a monthly offset keeps a month-end source at month-end, while other day numbers are limited to the destination month's last day. Check its displayed date before saving.

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