Assigning Money

Assigning money is how you tell the budget what each category should be ready to cover. In Common Cents, most of that work happens directly in the Budget grid instead of in a separate wizard.

Start with Unassigned #

Unassigned is money that has not been given a category job yet. When you increase a category’s Assigned amount, Unassigned goes down. When you pull money back out of a category, Unassigned goes back up.

If Income Planning is enabled, you can also see Unplanned. That is money you expect to work with in the planning flow but have not finished distributing yet. See Income Planning.

The summary cards at the top of the page help you work faster:

• Unassigned shows the money you can still assign right now
• Unplanned shows money still waiting for plan entries when Income Planning is on
• Apply Target Needs to Assigned fills current-month assignment needs from enabled targets
• Apply Target Needs to Planned fills planning needs from enabled targets

Use the row fields for day-to-day budgeting #

The budget grid is built so you can type straight into the month you are working on.

The main assignment controls are the row fields:

• Assigned for current-month money you are committing now
• Planned when Income Planning is enabled and the month allows planning
• the calculator button next to each editable amount field when calculator launch is enabled

These row fields save as you work, so you can move through the grid category by category instead of opening a separate form every time.

The month matters:

• Assigned is editable in the current month
• Planned is available in the current month and future months when Income Planning is enabled
• past months keep the history visible, but some planning actions become unavailable

Future months also switch the page into a forecast-style layout, so you will see columns like Expected Starting and Expected Available instead of the same current-month editing pattern.

Reassigning between categories #

When you need to move money between categories instead of just typing a new amount, use a category row’s Related Actions menu.

The move-related options are:

• Move from this category
• Move to this category
• See Move History

The transfer sheet shows you the controls that matter before you save:

• Source Available
• After Transfer
• From Category
• To Category
• Date
• Amount
• Note
• Save Transfer

That workflow is limited on purpose. It is a current-month budgeting tool, and some categories such as protected system-style rows do not participate in it.

Use the month-wide tools when you need a reset or a cutoff #

The controls above the grid are for bigger assignment changes.

The Zero Month menu lets you zero out:

• Assigned
• Planned when Income Planning is enabled

The Commit Plans menu is for turning planning into committed budget assignments. Depending on the month, it can offer:

• Commit Full Month - This will set all planned amounts to assigned amounts as far as the unassigned amount will go - top to bottom
• Commit Through Today - This is aware of where you are in the month. If you’ve planned to have $100 in a category and you are halfway through the month, this action will move $50 planned dollars to assigned and leave the remaining $50 in planned.
• Open Month and Commit for future months - this opens the month for transactions and commits all planned amounts to assigned amounts. This action works best with Month Ahead Mode

The Budget page header can also show an open-period button when Common Cents wants you to close one month and open the next.

Ongoing budgeting is a monthly habit #

After the first setup, assigning money becomes a monthly habit. You are no longer filling a blank budget. You are adjusting a living budget as income arrives, priorities change, and categories need money moved around.