Income Planning Overview

Income Planning helps you look ahead without treating future income like money you already have. It works alongside the Budget page so you can set up expected income, plan categories against it, and then connect those plans to real income transactions later.

To use these tools, turn on Enable Income Planning in Settings > Features. If you want Common Cents to generate recurring paychecks for you, also turn on Enable Income Sources there.

What this section covers #

• Income Sources: Create recurring pay sources that can generate expected income for each month.
• Paycheck Planning: Work with the Income Events section on the Budget page, including expected income, actual income, and matching.
• Budget Planning: Use expected income to plan categories, understand Unplanned, and decide when to Commit Plans.

What changes when Income Planning is on #

• The Budget page adds an Income Events for [month] section.
• The summary area shows Unplanned, which tracks expected income that has not been used in planned category amounts yet.
• Expected income, actual income transactions, and matched items stay separate until you choose to match or commit them.

If you are new to this workflow, start with Income Sources, then read Paycheck Planning, and finish with Budget Planning.