Sightglass Budget

Features

More details on what the app does today, with screenshots from the current build on a test budget. It is still in development, so this page covers what works now and grows as more is finished.

Android and web today. iPhone is in development.

Budget the month before you spend it

Income lands in Available to Budget. From there you budget it into categories, grouped the way you think about your money: monthly bills, everyday expenses, savings goals. Each category shows what you budgeted, what you spent, and what is left. A new budget starts with a set of categories and groups that you can rename, delete, or add to.

On a computer you can see several months side by side. When a category runs short, you move money over from another one, and you choose, category by category, whether overspending rolls forward in that category or comes out of Available to Budget next month.

Categories can carry goals: a set amount to budget each month, or a target balance for the category to hold.

Your budget is on your device, offline and synced

The app reads and writes a copy of your budget stored on the device. When you're offline, you keep adding transactions and budgeting as usual. When you're back online, your changes sync to your other devices and to anyone you share the budget with, and their changes sync to you.

You sign in with an account. On a new device, the first sign-in downloads your budget; after that it works without internet.

One budget for the household, separate logins

The budget owner creates an invite and shares it as a code or link. The other person joins with their own login, on their own phone or computer.

Members are owners or editors. A budget can have up to eight members, and the owner can remove a member or hand ownership to someone else.

Changes sync to everyone in the budget, so nobody has to ask what was spent.

Bring your history with you

If you prefer to keep your history rather than start fresh, you can bring it with you. Today Sightglass Budget imports YNAB 4 budgets and CSV files.

The YNAB 4 importer reads a budget folder into a new Sightglass budget, including categories, budgeted amounts, transaction history (on-budget, off-budget, and closed accounts, split transactions, and transfers between accounts), and balances.

For other sources, CSV import brings in transaction history from your bank or another app: you match the file's columns to Sightglass Budget's fields in the importer.

Importers for other apps are planned for the future.

  • In testing, a YNAB 4 budget with over 10 years of real history (30,000+ transactions) came across accurate to the cent.

Reports

Reports compare what you budgeted with what you spent over recent months, and point out categories running well above or below their recent average. This part of the app is still growing.

Feature list

A more detailed list of what works now. Desktop means the web app on a computer; mobile means the app on a phone. No label means both.

Budgeting

  • Budget by month
    • Give income to categories before you spend it, and what is left in a category carries into next month
    • Move money from one category to another
    • Progress bars for spending and goals, which you can turn off
    • One month at a time on the phone; up to six months side by side desktop
    • Click a category's activity to see that month's transactions without leaving the budget screen desktop
  • Monthly summary
    • Available to Budget: the money you have left to budget each month
    • Income for the month and where it came from
    • How much you have budgeted this month
    • Where "From last month" money came from, such as money left unbudgeted or last month's overspending
  • Quick budgeting
    • Quick fill a budgeted amount from last month's budget, last month's spending, or a three-month average
    • Cover underfunded categories from Available to Budget in one step
    • Budget your income across categories based on the last three months of spending
    • Fill categories to their goal or target in one step
    • A quick assign mode for working through your categories mobile
    • Do math in any amount box using the built-in calculator, such as 12.50 + 3.25
    • Pin categories to the top of the Budget screen for quick access mobile

Categories and goals

  • Category groups for income and expenses
  • A new budget starts with a preset list of categories you can change
  • Add, rename, reorder, hide, and delete categories and groups, and drag categories between groups
  • Add notes to categories and groups
  • Goals: a set amount to budget each month
  • Targets: a balance a category should hold
  • Income shows which month it counts toward, such as "Income for July"
  • Choose, per category, whether overspending rolls forward in that category or comes out of next month's Available to Budget

Accounts

  • Checking, savings, credit card, cash, investment, and loan accounts
  • Budget accounts, plus tracking accounts such as investments and loans that count toward net worth without being budgeted
  • Totals for budget accounts, tracking accounts, and net worth, which you can choose to show or hide
  • Set a starting balance when you add an account
  • Close, reopen, reorder, and delete accounts
  • A count next to each account of transactions waiting for your review, such as imported, scheduled, or possible duplicates

Transactions

  • Add transactions with date, account, payee, category, and note
  • Payee suggestions as you type, with the payee's usual category pre-filled
  • Split a transaction across several categories
  • Transfers between accounts, linked on both sides
  • Pre-orders: record a charge you have committed to before it hits your account, and mark it complete when it hits. Pre-orders float from month to month until they are charged, so you always know what is really left in a category.
  • Color flags and your own labels, with filters for both
  • Search, and limit a search to one field such as payee, category, or note
  • Filter by account, category, payee, date range, flag, or label
  • Filter by status (cleared, uncleared, or pre-order), leave out accounts, categories, flags, labels, or words, and choose whether to match any or all
  • Duplicate an existing transaction, or turn one into a scheduled transaction
  • Select several transactions and change or delete them together
  • Mark transactions cleared; swipe to clear or delete mobile
  • Warnings for possible duplicates and for unusually large amounts, with adjustable settings for both
  • Manage payees: rename, merge, and delete
  • Payee rules, and an option to learn categories from your past transactions
  • Payee suggestions based on where you are, if you choose to allow location mobile
  • Reconciled transactions are locked, with a way to unlock one to correct an error
  • A transaction table you can sort, resize, and edit in place desktop
  • Right-click menus and keyboard shortcuts desktop

Scheduled transactions

  • Repeat weekly, every two weeks, monthly, quarterly, or yearly, with an optional end date
  • Schedule transfers and split transactions
  • Scheduled transactions post themselves on their date and wait for your review, or you can turn that off and enter them yourself
  • Enter a scheduled transaction early, or skip the next one
  • A page to manage all scheduled transactions, with filters and changes to several at once

Importing and reconciling

  • Import bank transactions from CSV files: match the columns, preview, and review before saving
  • Several files at once, with duplicate checks and payee names learned from your bank's text
  • Undo a CSV import
  • Start a new budget from bank files, with a starting balance for each account
  • Import a YNAB 4 budget: accounts, categories, budgeted amounts, transactions, scheduled transactions, and overspending settings
  • Reconcile an account against your bank balance
  • Reconcile against a bank statement file, line by line

Sharing a budget

  • Invite someone with a code or link, by copy, share, or email
  • Join a budget with a code or link
  • Owners and editors, up to eight members per budget
  • Hand ownership to someone else, remove a member, or leave a budget
  • Several budgets on one account: switch, rename, and delete

Reports

  • Reports for this month, last month, the last three or six months, this year, or dates you choose
  • Budget compared with spending by category, monthly spending, income compared with expenses, and spending trends
  • Net worth over time
  • Income and expenses by month in a table
  • Spending by category and by payee, with a tap through to the transactions
  • Filter reports by account and payee

Offline and sync

  • Works without internet; changes both to and from your device sync when you are back online
  • Changes sync from your other devices, and from people you share with
  • A sync status dot shows whether you are up to date, syncing, offline, or have changes saved only on this device
  • Sign in with email and password, reset or change your password, sign out other devices, and delete your account

Platforms and layout

  • Android app, and the web app (iPhone in development)
  • A full layout on desktop: a sidebar you can resize and reorder, a multi-month budget, and a transaction table
  • Adjust text size, row height, and how many budget months show desktop

Other

  • Theme: light, dark, or follow your device settings
  • Undo
    • On a computer, Ctrl+Z steps back through your last few changes
    • Recent changes, each with its own Undo
  • A help page with shortcuts, and a contact link

Spend on purpose, not by accident.

Join the waitlist to be invited to test Sightglass Budget. We will email you when it is your turn, plus occasional progress updates.