Keep smaller limits inside the bigger one
A parent category can hold one overall cap, with optional limits for its subcategories. Spending directly in the parent and in all its subcategories counts toward the parent cap.
For a hypothetical food budget, a $600 parent limit might contain a $400 groceries limit and a $150 eating-out limit. Those smaller limits sit inside the $600; they do not turn the overall budget into $1,150. They help you notice where the money is going while keeping one overall boundary.
Clearing a parent cap preserves the subcategory limits you saved. That makes it possible to change the structure of your plan without rebuilding every smaller budget.
Set up a month
- Open Budgets and select the month you want to plan.
- Choose Add Budget, find a category and set its limit. Add subcategory limits when that extra detail helps.
- Use Set Income Plan to enter income-category estimates for the selected month. Review the plan before saving it.
- Record your transactions during the month, then return to compare spending with the limits. Copy Last Month gives you a starting point for the next month’s plan.
You can edit a budget as circumstances change. If a number looks unexpected, inspect the transactions and categories behind it before adjusting the limit simply to make the total look better.
Separate expected income from money received
An income estimate is your plan for the month. Entering or changing it does not create an income transaction. Recorded income comes from actual entries, so the two figures can differ when a payment arrives early, late or in a different amount.
That distinction is especially useful with recurring income: an expected date helps you plan, while recording the receipt tells Penniva what happened. Category budgets, subcategory limits, monthly income estimates and the basic dashboard remain free for Free, Founder and Pro users in 1.1.