Know what's in your bank account every day, four weeks ahead

Home Help

Getting Started

A new budget starts at $0, so the first time it opens (your first sign-in, or right after you make a new budget), the Welcome card at the top asks what's in your bank account now (and, if you like, in savings). Your bank balance goes on today as a ⭕️ Starting Balance entry, which you can change like any entry, and savings becomes your Savings account's balance (on Other Accounts). Then add your paychecks and bills on Recurring Entries. The card goes away once both are done, or tap × to hide it, and it doesn't come back the next time you sign in.

Your Budgets

The name above Settings, Menu, and Logout is the budget that's open. Tap it to open another one, make a New Budget, or Join one someone shared with you (a pink dot means an invitation is waiting). Tap Share beside a budget of yours and type the other person's username or email: once they join, you each see the other's changes within a few seconds, and you each keep your own budgets too. Only a budget's owner can share it. Settings, under Budgets, renames, deletes, and leaves them.

Viewing The Calendar

• Tap a day to zoom in on it, over a dimmed page. On a phone, every day grows to the same size, nearly the screen's width and as tall as its entries need, sharp and easy to read; on a computer, it doubles in size. In its top right corner are two round buttons: + opens New Entry with that day already in its date box, and × zooms back out (so does a tap anywhere outside the day). A zoomed day is part of the page: scroll the page, or pinch it with two fingers, and the day moves and zooms with it.
• Swipe a zoomed day left or right to slide over to the next day or the day before (on a computer, press the → and ← keys). It keeps going past the calendar's ends, without leaving Home: before its first day come History's days, and after its last day the 28 days after the calendar. On a phone, the day moves with your finger; let go after only a little, or slide it back, and it stays.
• If you've zoomed the whole page in, tapping a day zooms the page back out first. Where your browser keeps the page zoomed, the day still zooms to the page's full size, across the page, with its middle where the middle of your screen is: pinch back out to see all of it.
• Entries stay on one line. A long one is cut short with "..." at the day's edge (on a computer, a zoomed day lets them run past its edge, over the dimmed page). To read the whole title, tap the entry: its options show it all. On a phone, a zoomed day with more entries than fit on the screen runs past the screen's bottom: scroll the page to see the rest.
• On a zoomed day, tap an entry to change its title, refraction type, Other Account, or amount, move it to another day, turn its Placeholder switch on or off, pick its Wavelength (once Wavelength Planning is on, on Bob's page), give it a note, or delete it. Any entry on a day before today can get a new title; from today on, one that comes from a recurring entry, a connected spreadsheet, or a connected calendar keeps its title (change it on the Recurring Entries or Spreadsheets & Calendars page). A new title or type that matches an entry already on the day adds the two together, since a day has one of each.
• Colors: a cost's words are red, a gain's green, a $0.00 entry's a darker grey, and a placeholder's yellow. In Bank, Gains, and Costs stay light grey (a day below $0 turns red itself).
• On a zoomed day, tap In Bank and type what your bank says for that day (tap Negative if it's below zero). The difference goes on it as a ❗️ Regular entry titled Catchup, so the purchases (or gains) that slipped by count like any others, and the days after it follow.
• Search finds entries by title: any title with what you type in it, or with Exact on, only that title. The little ? just left of All says what All, Costs, Gains, and Tracker find. It can keep to one refraction type or one Other Account. With no To date, it looks a month ahead too (recurring entries, and connected spreadsheets' and calendars' entries, included), and what's after today shows first, apart from the rest. Tap any result to change it, like an entry on a zoomed day: one still to come from a recurring entry or a spreadsheet (not on your calendar yet) is kept in Upcoming for its day once you change it.
• Pinch or stretch with two fingers on one day to zoom just that day out or in (it turns and moves with your fingers too). Let go, and it settles back. Two fingers across different days (or on a zoomed day) zoom the whole page, like anywhere else.
• On a computer, hold the mouse button down on a day to magnify it, and keep holding while you slide across the days to magnify each one you pass.
• To zoom the whole page, pinch with two fingers on a phone (anywhere but a single day), or press Ctrl and + (⌘ and + on a Mac) on a computer.

Picking Dates

Type a date in any date box (on a phone's number pad, just the digits work, like 10052026 for 10/05/2026), or tap the calendar button beside it to pick one from a small calendar. At its top, the month and the year each have a box: tap one to pick from a list (scroll it with your finger), or type in it (like "jun" or "1990"), and ‹ and › step a month at a time. The calendar stays open on the month or year you pick; tap a day to fill it in. While the big calendar has a dashed outline around it, you can also tap a day on it to fill in the date box.

Typing Amounts

Amounts fill in from the cents, like a cash register, so there's no decimal point to type: 5 is $0.05, and 1234 is $12.34. A blank amount is $0.00. Cost and Gain (or Negative and Positive, for a balance) pick its sign. With Hidden or Transfer and an Other Account picked, a $ / % switch shows at the amount's left: % makes the amount a percent of that account's balance (see Other Accounts, below).

Pages

The tabs at the top open your budget's four pages: Home, Recurring Entries, History, and Other Accounts (the one you're on glows). Going from one of them to another, the top of the page stays put while the rest slides down and the next page slides up, and the glow slides over to the tab you tapped. Menu, at the top right, has the rest: Bob, Spreadsheets & Calendars, Tracker, Paycheck Calculator, and Change Logs (each of those has a Back button instead of Menu).

Entry Types

The emojis at the start of each entry show what kind of entry it is.

• Recurring entries (✔️, ✔️✖️, ✔️⭕️) always start with a checkmark. They come from your Recurring Entries page (like paychecks and bills), and are added for you on today and every day after. Once a day passes, its recurring entries turn into unique entries, so later changes to a recurring entry never change days that already happened.
• Unique entries (❗️, ✖️, ⭕️, ❗️✔️, ✖️✔️, ⭕️✔️) are the ones you add or change yourself, like fast food, or an electric bill that's higher than normal. Most don't have a checkmark, but when one does, the checkmark is always second.
• Temporary recurring entries (❗️✔️, ✖️✔️, ⭕️✔️) are unique entries made from a recurring entry: one on a day that passed, or one you changed for just that day. Changing a recurring entry on the calendar only changes that one day. Moving or deleting it leaves a $0.00 entry on its day, which keeps the recurring entry from coming back there.
• If a recurring entry's End Date moves before a day you changed (or you delete the recurring entry), that day's temporary entry from today on becomes a plain unique entry, like ❗️, since there's nothing left for it to hold back. A $0.00 one just goes away.
• Spreadsheet and calendar entries (➕❗️, ➕✖️, ➕⭕️) start with a yellow plus. They come from spreadsheets you connect on the Spreadsheets & Calendars page in the menu (once your email is verified), or from a calendar of your work shifts connected there with your pay (its paychecks, on their paydays). They land on today and every day after, and follow the spreadsheet or calendar when it changes. They work just like recurring entries: change one for its day and it becomes ❗️➕ (the plus second), which keeps your change, and once a day passes its entries stay as they were. That page's Help has more.
• A day has one entry per title, refraction type, and Other Account. So when New Entry's title, type, account, and day match an entry already there (a recurring or spreadsheet entry landing there too), it shows that entry and asks whether to add to it or set it to the new amount. Changing a recurring or spreadsheet entry that way makes it a temporary entry for that day, like ❗️✔️.
• Notes: any entry can have a note, as long as you like. At the very bottom of New Entry or an entry's options (and the Recurring Entries form), under the buttons, tap Add A Note (Show Note when there's one) to open it, and Hide Note to close it again; Save keeps it. An entry with a note is underlined. A note goes wherever its entry goes (another day, title, type, or account), and goes when the entry does.
• Placeholders (in yellow) stand in for entries you expect but don't know yet, like an estimate for groceries. Turn on Placeholder in New Entry, or in an entry's options, for a day from today on (recurring entries, Quick Entry prisms, and connected spreadsheets and calendars have the switch too). A placeholder counts like any entry until its day passes; then it's deleted the next time your budget opens, and In Bank follows without it. With Placeholder on, Delete it after can pick another day (any day, before or after its own): it's deleted once that day passes instead. A recurring entry asks how many days before or after each day it lands on. When a placeholder and a real entry with the same title and type become one on a day, it's a real entry, so real money is never deleted with a placeholder.

Refraction Types

Besides the checkmark (or plus), an entry's emoji is its refraction type (a recurring entry with only ✔️ is Regular):

• ❗️ Regular: a normal cost or gain. It changes In Bank, and the tracker counts it.
• ✖️ Hidden: money spent or received outside your budget's account, like spending cash. It's a cost or gain (the day's Gains and Costs show it, and the tracker counts it), but In Bank stays the same.
• ⭕️ Transfer: money moving between your own accounts without really being gained or lost, like depositing cash. It changes In Bank, but it isn't a cost or gain: the day's Gains and Costs leave it out, and in the tracker, only its Transfers row (and rows set to count transfers) count it.
• Auto, when you add an entry, uses the type of an entry with that title already on that day, or Regular if there isn't one.
• In New Entry, the little ? next to Refraction Type shows these anytime.

Other Accounts

When you pick Hidden or Transfer for a new entry, you can also pick one of your Other Accounts, like Savings (forms ask for the refraction type and account before the amount). Tap the Other Account box for the list: each account has its name, and its balance today on a second line. The entry keeps its own title, and the account shows after it, like "Payday → Savings". Every budget has Savings and Cash, which can be renamed but not deleted.

• A Transfer moves money between your budget's account and that one, so the account gets the opposite amount. Moving $100 into savings is a $100 Transfer cost: In Bank goes down $100, and Savings goes up $100. Taking $200 out is a $200 Transfer gain: In Bank goes up $200, and Savings goes down $200.
• A Transfer can come From another Other Account instead of In Bank (the box under Other Account, In Bank to start), like moving $100 from Savings into an HSA: Savings goes down $100, the HSA goes up $100, and In Bank stays the same. It shows like "Move ← Savings → HSA".
• A Hidden entry happens in the account itself, so the account changes by the same amount, and In Bank stays the same. Putting $50 in cash into savings is a $50 Hidden gain (Savings goes up $50); paying $30 straight out of savings is a $30 Hidden cost (Savings goes down $30).
• An account's balance starts from what you type for it, and its entries add to it from there. To put in what's already in an account (like the $3,000 already in your savings), tap it on Other Accounts (one of the tabs at the top) and type its balance. That doesn't add an entry, so it isn't counted as a gain. Money owed, like on a credit card, is a Negative balance.
• Interest: turn on Add interest for an account, type its yearly rate (APR, like a credit card's 24.99), and pick how it compounds (like daily, for most credit cards), how often it's added, and on what day of the month. A balance below $0 goes further below, and one above $0 grows. Other Accounts' Help has the details.
• % amounts: with an account picked, tap % next to the amount to make it a percent of the account's balance as that day starts, like moving 10% of a credit card's balance into it. It's worked out again whenever your budget changes, the day shows what it comes to with the percent after it (like -$45.00 (10%)), and once the day passes it stays what it came to. Added into another entry with the same title and type, the two become one plain amount.

A Transfer for an account is still a transfer: it isn't a cost or gain, and only tracker rows set to count transfers count it. A Hidden entry for an account is a cost or gain like any Hidden entry, so the day's Gains and Costs show it, and the tracker counts it. Other Accounts (one of the tabs at the top) shows each account's balance (over its Max, when you give it one, like a credit card's limit: $500.00/$2000.00), and at the top, the total of everything with In Bank. Tap an account to see every entry made on it, newest first, and tap one to change it.

Lowest In Bank, Bob, And Upcoming

• Lowest in bank after today is the lowest In Bank from today through the 28 days after the calendar. Tap the card to see those 28 days, each with its In Bank (to the dollar; the lowest is ringed, and one below $0 is red). Tap one to zoom it in, to see its entries, add one (it goes into Upcoming), or change one, and to swipe on from there.
• Next to it, in the 28 days after the calendar (counting your recurring entries, connected spreadsheets' entries, and Upcoming entries, but not Hidden ones): Lowest is on the day In Bank is lowest in those 28 days, and how low it gets, and Day 28 is what In Bank will be on the 28th day. Amounts below $0 show in red, and when any of them is below $0, the whole Lowest card turns red.
• Bob looks over your budget and lets you know what to keep in mind: days that go below $0, going below $0 in the 28 days after the calendar, uncommon recurring entries (ones that land every 3 months or less often) on the calendar, and Upcoming entries. Bob also has a new affirmation for you every day.
• Tap Bob's card to open his page (it's in the Menu too), where he goes further, with a card for each thing he works out: each account on any day ahead, goals and what reaching them takes, Wavelength Planning (where your money goes, on a spectrum), and his tips (payday, spending pace, big bills, the weekly check, Catchup entries, and refunds). You pick which cards are on. Its Help has the details.
• Bob's warnings: on his page, a card that's on has a Warnings switch beside its own. With it on, when that card needs a look (like Catchup entries adding up, or a goal in danger), Bob says so on his card here, and his card moves up over the calendar. Tap Okay to put the warnings away and his card back down until tomorrow.
• Upcoming lists entries dated after the calendar. Tap one to change, move, or delete it, like an entry on a zoomed day. Each one moves onto the calendar when its day shows up.

Sounds

Taps make soft crystal sounds (a ding for yes, a crystal shatter for no or delete, and little twinkles for the rest), pages slide with a rolling crystal, and music plays in the background: a quiet bed of far-off twinkles, with a clearer few now and then. They mix with your own music instead of stopping it. Turn music or sound effects off in Settings, under Sounds.

Quick Entry

The Quick Entry button (above the calendar, at the right, under Search) puts an icon on your phone's home screen that opens a New Entry form, with no login needed. The page it opens shows how to add it on your phone (iPhone, Samsung, Pixel, OnePlus, and more), and its Help shows how to open it from an iPhone's Lock Screen and check In Bank on an Apple Watch. Add it from your browser itself, not from a page opened inside another app. The icon can only add entries. Besides In Bank today and the lowest it gets (shown at its top), it never sees your budget, just your Other Accounts and their balances (so you can pick one), your prisms, and the entries it added that are still waiting. To keep balances off your phone's screen, turn off Show balances on Quick Entry icons in Settings: then it shows no In Bank and just your accounts' names. Its entries are added the next time you open Prismal Budget on the device that made the icon, and until then, Waiting on its page lists them, to change or delete. Entries from another device's icon (like someone you share your budget with) wait at the top of Home instead, under Quick Entries To Add: tap Add to put one in your budget, or Delete if it shouldn't be there. Until then, the icon that added it can still change it or take it back.

Prisms are entries you add often, saved on the Quick Entry page (Add Prism). Tapping one fills in New Entry with what it keeps (like a title, an amount, a type, or an account), and you fill in the rest. They're saved with your budget, so every icon has them. If your password changes, the icon stops working, and you can turn icons off anytime in Settings.