Assign Money to Your Category

Creating a category does not fund it. You still need to assign money so the category has something available to spend.

Start in the Budget view #

The Budget view is where Common Cents decides how much money each category gets for the month.

The app keeps track of money that has not been given a job yet as Unassigned. That is the pool you draw from when you fund categories.

Watch the month picker #

The month picker in the header shows the month you are working in right now.

That selected month matters. Common Cents uses it as the active context for budgeting, so many month-based amounts change when you move to a different month.

That includes numbers such as:

• Unassigned
• Assigned
• Available
• target-related funding and month summaries

If a number looks different than you expected, check the month picker first. You may be looking at the right category in the wrong month.

Past, current, and future months do not work the same way #

On the Budget screen, Common Cents treats the selected month as one of three states:

• Past months are for viewing. They show you what happened, but they are not where you should be assigning or planning new money.
• Current month is where you assign money. If you have the right planning features turned on, it can also be a planning month.
• Future months are for planning only, when the right planning features are enabled. They are not for normal assigned-money editing.

So if you want to budget money that is available right now, make sure the month picker is on the current month before you start typing.

The normal first step: assign from Unassigned #

For a first setup, the normal move is simple:

1. Go to Budget.
2. Pick the category you want to fund.
3. Increase its assigned amount.
4. Leaving the field saves the amount.

If there is no unassigned money available for that month, Common Cents will stop you instead of letting the budget pretend the money exists.

Moving money between categories is a different action #

Sometimes you are not funding a category from fresh unassigned money. You are moving money from one category to another.

Common Cents treats that as a separate category assignment move. It is useful when you change your mind later in the month and want to rebalance your budget.

To move money from one category to another, click the Related Actions button on the category and select either Move from this category or Move to this category. This will open a dialog that will let you select the category it is moving to or from and the amount you want to move.

A move between categories effectively reduces the assignment amount of the category you are moving from and increases the assignment amount of the category you are moving to. It is possible for a category to end up with a negative assigned amount - that is ok as long as it had an available balance at the beginning of the month.

Important current limitation #

Category assignment moves are only available in the current month.

That means:

• you can reallocate money between categories in the current month
• past and future months have stricter editing limits for that specific move workflow

For a brand-new setup, that usually is not a problem because your first assignment is typically coming from Unassigned anyway.

A good first funding habit #

Fund your most important categories first. For most people, that means bills, groceries, transportation, and any near-term obligations.

Once those categories are funded, the rest of the budget becomes much easier to trust.

Next in Getting Started: Create a Transaction.