Feature Guide
Everything Budget G.P.A. can do — from basic budget grading to AI-powered insights and automatic bank syncing. Your complete user guide.
Your financial report card. The Scorecard tab is your home base — it shows your overall GPA (0.0 – 4.0), letter grade (A+ through F), and a breakdown of your score across five weighted categories.
What You See
- Overall letter grade (A+ to F) with numeric GPA
- Status indicator: On Track, Warning, At Risk, or Critical
- Five category cards with individual scores and grades
- Month navigation to view past or future months
- Pull-to-refresh for manual data updates
GET THE MOST OUT OF IT
- Check your scorecard weekly, not just monthly — catching a grade drop early lets you course-correct
- Tap into each category to understand exactly why a grade dropped — the detail view shows the specific line items
- Use month navigation to compare current performance against previous months and spot patterns
Your GPA is calculated from five weighted categories. Each category scores 0–100, converts to a letter grade, and then rolls up into your overall GPA on a 4.0 scale.
The Five Categories
| Category | Weight | What It Measures |
|---|
| Budget Adherence | 45% | How closely your actual spending matches your budget targets, per category |
| Financial Safety | 20% | Emergency fund coverage, debt health (DTI), and monthly shortfall risk |
| Spending Stability | 15% | Consistency of spending month-to-month — detects volatility and unplanned spikes |
| Needs vs Wants | 10% | How close your spending split is to the 50/30/20 framework (or custom targets) |
| Forecast Accuracy | 10% | How well your budgets predict actual spending (MAPE calculation) |
Grade Scale
- A+ = 90–100 (4.0 GPA)
- A = 85–89 (4.0) · A- = 80–84 (3.7)
- B+ = 77–79 (3.3) · B = 73–76 (3.0) · B- = 70–72 (2.7)
- C+ = 67–69 (2.3) · C = 63–66 (2.0) · C- = 60–62 (1.7)
- D = 50–59 (1.0) · F = 0–49 (0.0)
The Budget tab shows your monthly spending against your targets. Every category displays a progress bar, remaining balance, and whether you're on track or over budget.
Monthly Budget View
- Total budgeted vs total spent with percentage
- Per-category progress bars (green = under, red = over)
- Remaining balance or overage amount per category
- Category bucket labels (Needs / Wants / Savings)
- Month navigation to view past months
Category Detail View
Tap any category to see: budget vs actual progress bar, remaining balance, daily budget calculation (remaining ÷ days left in month), total transactions in the category, and a full transaction list sorted by date.
Log expenses manually or import them automatically from your bank. Every transaction gets categorized, scored, and reflected in your grades in real time.
Manual Entry
- Add amount, description, date, and category
- Toggle between expense and income
- Date picker defaults to today
- Grades update instantly after saving
Connect your bank accounts through Plaid for automatic transaction importing. No more manual entry — your spending data flows in automatically, gets categorized, and updates your grades.
How It Works
- Securely connect checking, savings, and credit card accounts
- Transactions sync automatically throughout the day
- Manual "Sync Now" button for on-demand refresh
- Stale sync warning if data is 24+ hours old
- Recurring charges automatically detected as subscriptions
WHY THIS IS PRO
- Your subscription directly pays for Plaid's bank connection service — it costs money per user to maintain secure bank links
- No ads, no data selling. Plaid connections are the primary cost your Pro subscription covers
- Plaid is the same service used by Venmo, Robinhood, and thousands of other financial apps
Claude AI powers the smart insights and scoring engine that makes your scorecard meaningful. It categorizes your spending, surfaces patterns you'd miss, and provides personalized recommendations.
AI-Powered Classification
- Automatically categorizes bank transactions by merchant and context
- Confidence badges (high/medium/low) so you know when to double-check
- Learns from your corrections — accuracy improves over time
- Handles ambiguous merchants (e.g., Target → Groceries vs Shopping)
WHY THIS IS PRO
- Claude AI has a per-request cost — your subscription pays for the AI processing that powers smart features
- Free users get basic rule-based classification. Pro users get AI that understands context and learns your habits
- Between Plaid and Claude AI, these are the two real costs your Pro subscription covers. No fluff.
See all your recurring subscriptions in one place. Monthly and annual totals, needs vs wants breakdown, and smart alerts for price changes, unused services, and subscription creep.
What You See
- Monthly and annual total cost overview cards
- Needs vs Wants breakdown of subscription spending
- Each subscription: merchant, amount, frequency, bucket, status
- Auto-detected from bank transactions (Pro) or manual entry (Free)
22 configurable alert types across budget, score, subscription, spending, and income categories. Plus three built-in reminders to keep you on track.
Alert Categories (Free = green dot, Pro = purple dot)
Category Breach
Alert when any category hits 100% of budget
Budget Pacing
Customizable threshold (50-90%) spending pace warning
Approaching Budget
Heads-up at 50-85% of category budget
Projected Overspend
Forecast-based alert per category
Grade Drop
When any letter grade decreases
Streak Milestone
Celebrate B+ or higher for consecutive months
Personal Best
New all-time high score or GPA
Category Red Flag
Custom threshold alert (C- to D-)
GPA Change
Alert on GPA shifts of ±0.1 to ±1.0
Upcoming Renewal
1-7 day heads-up on subscription renewals
Price Change
Detects subscription amount changes
Unused Subscription
Flags services with 30+ days of no activity
Subscription Creep
3-month trend of increasing subscription costs
Large Purchase
Customizable $50-$1,000+ threshold
Weekend Recap
Monday morning spending summary
Duplicate Charge
Same merchant + amount within 24 hours
Unusual Transaction
3x above your average at a merchant
Savings Rate Warning
Custom 5-20% threshold
Emergency Fund Milestone
Celebrates reaching 1/3/6 months coverage
DTI Threshold
Custom 28-50% debt-to-income alert
Alert Controls
- Master toggle to enable/disable all alerts
- Quiet hours (do-not-disturb window)
- Per-alert toggle and threshold customization
- Push notifications + optional email digest (daily/weekly/monthly)
Three sub-scores that measure your financial cushion: emergency fund, debt health, and shortfall risk. Together they make up 20% of your overall GPA.
Emergency Fund Score
- Calculates months of expenses your savings covers
- Target: 3 months minimum (6 months ideal)
- Only count liquid savings (checking, savings, money market)
- Pro: Milestone alerts when you hit 1/3/6 months
See your financial health evolve over time with trend charts and exportable monthly reports.
Trend Charts
- Overall score trend (line chart)
- Savings rate trend
- Total spending and income trends
- Month-over-month comparisons with improvement/decline indicators
- Free: 3-month rolling window
- Pro: 6-month rolling + calendar year-to-date
Customize how strictly each scoring category judges your spending. Choose from preset profiles that match your financial goals.
Adherence Presets
Balanced (Default)
Over-budget penalized 2x, under-budget 1x. Fair for most budgeters.
Debt Crusher
Over-budget penalized 4x, under-budget 1x. Aggressive for those paying off debt.
Accuracy
Both over and under penalized 2x. For those who want to hit budgets exactly.
Relaxed
Over 1.5x, under 0.5x. More forgiving — good for getting started.
Safety Presets
Balanced
Emergency Fund 40%, Debt 35%, Shortfall 25%
Debt Focus
Emergency Fund 20%, Debt 55%, Shortfall 25%. Prioritizes paying down debt.
Safety Net Builder
Emergency Fund 60%, Debt 20%, Shortfall 20%. Build your cushion first.
Forward Looking
Emergency Fund 25%, Debt 25%, Shortfall 50%. Focus on monthly cash flow.
Also Customizable
- Stability presets: Balanced, Strict Consistency, Flexible, Seasonal Aware (spike thresholds from 15-40%)
- Needs/Wants presets: Balanced (50/30/20), Aggressive Saver (40/20/40), Debt Payoff (50/20/30), High COL (60/25/15)
- Forecast presets: Balanced, Strict Planner, Forgiving, Historical (error penalty and lookback window)
- Variance window: Free gets 3-month rolling. Pro adds 6-month rolling and calendar YTD.
Customize the look and feel of your app with themes, dark mode, and icon pack options.
Themes
- Free: Royal Purple (light & dark)
- Pro: 10 theme pairs including Emerald, Ocean, Sunset, Midnight, and more
- Each theme has 5 color tokens: primary, primary light, background, dark primary, dark background
- Dark mode toggle independent of theme choice