How Ahead works

When money comes into an on budget account, such as your bank account or your cash, Ahead adds it to Left to assign at the top of the Budget screen. It is money you have not planned for yet.

Your salary, interest from the bank, money a relative gives you: all of it goes to Left to assign first.

On the Budget screen, you move money from Left to assign into categories, such as Rent, Groceries and School fees. This is called assigning. You type the amount in the category's Assigned column.

The aim is to bring Left to assign to ₹0. That does not mean spending everything. Money in Savings is planned too: it is there to stay saved.

Each time you spend, you record it against a category. The category's Available figure goes down by that amount. Available is what you can still spend in that category.

You do not need to work out what is left. Available always shows it.

Money you do not spend stays in its category. If ₹6,500 is left in Groceries at the end of the month, Groceries starts next month with ₹6,500. Anything you assign next month is added on top.

A category below ₹0 is shown in red, and the Budget screen lists it at the top with a Cover it button. Press it to choose where the money comes from: another category, or Left to assign.

If you leave it, what happens next month depends on a setting in Settings → Household → Overspending. Either the category makes up the difference next month, or your spare money in Left to assign covers it. Both, with examples.