Budgeting

Plan every rupee before you spend it.

Money without a plan gets spent without you noticing. With envelope budgeting, you decide in advance what each rupee is for. Ahead also helps with what comes after: overspending, credit cards and bills that do not come every month.

21 categories are ready on day one. Change any of them.

The month

Money you do not spend stays in its category.

Available is what a category has now, including what was left from earlier months. If you put too little in a category in July, it starts August short. If you have been saving in it, it starts August with extra. Most spreadsheets do not do this.

₹3,792available in Electricity: ₹3,200 put in this month, ₹2,291 spent, and ₹2,883 left over from August.

The budget table with Immediate Obligations open and the other four groups folded to their totals. Available is green where a category has money, amber where it is running low, grey at zero and red where it is overspent. — Green means there is money, amber means it is running low, and red means overspent. Each group closes to one line with its total, so a long budget stays short until you open a group.

The same budget on a phone, with Immediate Obligations open and the other groups folded. — On a phone, each category is a row: what it has, what went in, and what was spent.

If you overspend

When you overspend, you choose what happens next.

Cooking Gas is ₹820 over, because the cylinder came before you had put money aside for it. You can choose one of two options.

Cooking Gas makes it up

−₹820

Cooking Gas starts next month ₹820 short, and stays short until you add money to it. The category that overspent is the one that makes it up.

Spare money covers it

₹820

Cooking Gas starts next month at zero. The ₹820 comes out of next month’s money left to assign instead.

Two option cards, Groceries makes it up and Your spare money covers it, each finishing the same ₹460 overspend as a worked sum. — Each option shows you the result before you choose, and you can change it later.

Entering transactions

You enter transactions yourself, on purpose.

Ahead does not connect to your bank. When you type in what you spend, you notice where your money goes. And an app with no bank logins has nothing worth stealing.

So adding a transaction is quick. Start typing a payee and Ahead fills it in. Find a category by searching. Ahead works out whether it is money in, money out or a transfer from what you entered.

An account register with filters, a search box, a running balance column and a row being edited in place. — The running balance stays correct when you search or filter, so you can still see what the account held on each day.

A few days of an account register on a phone: each payee with its category, the latest spend in each category with what that category has left, and the running balance. — The latest spend in each category shows what that category has left, and every row shows the account's balance.

Targets

Set a target once.

A target can be monthly (“₹9,000 for groceries”) or by a date (“₹60,000 for the trip, by March”). One button works out what each target still needs this month and shows you what it has, what it will get and where it ends up. Nothing moves until you confirm.

If there is not enough money for every target, it fills categories from the top of your budget down, so the ones at the top are filled first. Untick anything you want to skip this month, and its share goes to the next one.

Try it: untick Trip to Kerala, and watch Diwali gifts fill up →

Fund the targets

Here is where the money goes. Nothing moves until you confirm.

₹32,000

across 5 categories · 1 part-funded

All categories5 of 5

Immediate obligations

Rent+₹18,000Monthly target ₹18,000₹0 assigned so far · ₹18,000 after this
Electricity+₹1,243Keep ₹3,500 in it₹2,257 in it now · ₹3,500 after this
Groceries+₹3,000Monthly target ₹9,000₹6,000 assigned so far · ₹9,000 after this

True expenses

Trip to Kerala+₹6,000Target ₹60,000 by March · 6 months left₹24,000 saved so far · ₹30,000 after this
Diwali gifts+₹3,757Target ₹15,000 by November · 2 months left₹0 saved so far · ₹3,757 after this₹3,743 short

₹3,743 of this month’s targets stays unfunded. The money fills categories in budget order — top to bottom — so the ones at the top come out whole.

Left to assign now: ₹32,000
Being assigned: − ₹32,000
Left to assign after: ₹0

Reports

Every report says what it left out.

A report with a hidden rule can mislead you without looking wrong. So every report tells you what it counted and what it left out. None of them gives you a score. They show the numbers, and you decide what they mean.

How long your money would last if your income stopped.

Left out

Investments are not counted as cash, and this month is not counted until it is over.

The Cash runway report in Ahead. How long your money would last if your income stopped.

The Cash runway report in Ahead on a phone. How long your money would last if your income stopped.

Wishlist

Wait before you buy.

Put something you want on the list and choose how long to wait, such as 30 days. When the time is up, you decide: buy it, or let it go.

Ahead adds up everything you decided not to buy, so you can see how much waiting has saved you.

Let go

₹55,900

2 wanted and not bought

Bought

₹6,500

1 after waiting

Still deciding

₹32,499

2 on the list

Ready to decide

Kindle
Wanted 30 days
₹13,999

Still cooling

Office chair
12 of 30 days
₹18,500

Decided

Smartwatch
Let go after 45 days
₹31,000
Noise-cancelling headphones
Let go after 30 days
₹24,900
Mixer grinder
Bought after 30 days
₹6,500

Next: loans and EMIs

Sixty days is two full months.

Enough time to try Ahead through a good month and a bad one.

Start free for 60 days

No card: Nothing starts charging when the trial ends.
Nothing to connect: No bank login, and nothing reads your SMS.
Download any time: All your data as spreadsheet files, paid or not.