Understand Left to plan¶
Left to plan is the cash remaining after the projection considers your funding-enabled envelopes and their dated spending needs. It helps you decide what else your money needs to cover.
It is different from an account balance and from the Available funds shown when moving money.
To see assignments over time and inspect daily funding needs, open the chart icon beside Move Funds. See Explore the funding forecast.
Follow a simple example¶
Suppose you have $1,000 in bank and cash accounts, $100 already in envelopes, and $50 reserved for card payments.
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cash in bank and cash accounts | $1,000 |
| Less cash already in envelopes | -$100 |
| Less cash reserved for card payments | -$50 |
| Available funds before future funding | $850 |
| Further funding needed by the active plans | -$600 |
| Left to plan | $250 |
This example assumes those further funding needs can all be covered. The $250 is what remains after the forecast gives the $600 a future purpose.
The $850 in Available funds is cash not yet assigned in the current records. Moving some of it now can affect plans that were expecting to use it later.
When the amount is positive¶
Review whether you have included your next bills, everyday allowances, and longer-term needs. Add dated expenses or targets for spending you expect.
For cash you want to hold as a reserve without a spending date, you can assign it to an envelope using Move Funds. Naming an envelope alone does not assign money to it.
Also check paused envelopes and card debt Still to cover. Neither should be overlooked just because the header shows cash left over.
When the amount is zero¶
Zero means the projection is showing no cash left to plan. It can mean either that the plans use all available cash or that cash ran short during funding.
Look for the Available funds run out here flag and review the card-payment summary. The header's checkmark is not a guarantee that every obligation is covered.
When a funding step cannot be completed, the projection reports zero remaining even if a smaller amount of cash was left before that step. The flag's details show that amount. The header does not display a negative total for all unfunded needs.
The forecast chart can still show that smaller amount remaining, because it tracks the allocations that succeeded. It does not treat the unassignable remainder as spent.
If a card has a positive balance¶
The browser starts with bank and cash balances, less positive envelope balances and card reserves. Its timeline, forecast chart, Move Funds, and Set aside money use that starting amount without adding positive card credit. Nightly funding also includes positive card balances as prepaid spending value.
As a result, the nightly process can have more funding capacity than the browser forecast shows when a card has credit. The credit stays on the card; it is not bank cash. Check which account can actually pay for a purchase or card payment. See Positive card balances and available funds.
Why the amount changes¶
Left to plan can change when you:
- Record or correct income and spending.
- Add, edit, delete, or reconcile plans.
- Change a target's remaining allowance.
- Move funds between purposes or set aside cash for a card.
- Pause or resume an envelope's funding.
The direction depends on the whole plan. Moving $100 into an envelope that already needed that $100 can reduce current available funds and future funding needs together, leaving Left to plan unchanged.
The calculation includes later active plans, not just the dates currently visible on your screen. Scroll ahead before assuming a distant plan was ignored.
For the arithmetic, continue with Funding calculations.