Paycheck Planning

Paycheck planning happens in the Income Events for [month] section on the Budget page. This is where Common Cents keeps expected income, actual income transactions, and matched pairs together without mixing them up.

Open the Income Events section #

When Enable Income Planning is on, the Budget page shows a collapsible section called Income Events for [month].

The header includes:

• Summary chips for Expected, Actual, Matched, and Total
• An Add Income menu
• An Income Sources button when Income Sources are enabled

If the month does not have any income events yet, the section shows No income events for this month yet.

Use the Add Income menu #

The Add Income menu can include these options:

• Add Expected Income - adds future income that is not yet in your accounts
• Add Actual Income - adds real income that is already in your accounts
• Add Income Source - opens the Add Income Source modal
• Generate Income from Sources - creates expected income events based on your income sources

Use Add Expected Income when you are planning ahead. The modal is called Add Expected Income Event.

Use Add Actual Income when the money has already happened and should be recorded as a real transaction. The modal is called Add Actual Income.

Add an expected income event #

The expected income form includes:

• Date
• Amount
• Optional Payee
• Optional Note

The date must stay inside the month you are viewing. If you type a payee that does not already exist, Common Cents asks Add New Payee? so you can create it while saving the event.

When you edit an existing expected event, the modal title changes to Edit Expected Income Event and the form includes a Delete button.

Read the income events table #

The table shows these columns:

• Type
• Date
• Payee
• Amount
• Match Status
• Note
• Actions

You may see three row types:

• Expected: planned income that has not been matched yet
• Actual: a real transaction that is either already marked as income or looks like a possible match for expected income
• Matched: an expected event and an actual transaction that are already linked together

The Match Status column can show:

• Unmatched
• Potential Match
• Matched

When Common Cents finds a possible pair, it also shows a small label such as Pair 1 so you can see which rows belong together.

Common Cents will automatically match income transactions to expected income events if the date and amounts match exactly.

Use Related Actions on each row #

Every row has a Related Actions menu.

For Expected rows, you may see:

• Edit Expected Income Event
• Add Matching Income Transaction
• One or more Match with Txn #[number] options when an exact income transaction is available

For Actual rows, you may see:

• Edit Transaction
• Match with Txn… options if the transaction is already marked as income
• Mark as Income & Match when the transaction looks like the right match but is not marked as income yet

For Matched rows, the menu shows Unmatch. Unmatching splits the expected and actual income events apart so you can edit, delete, or match them differently.

Understand what matching does #

Matching tells Common Cents that an expected paycheck and a real transaction belong to the same income event.

That matters because it keeps your planning layer honest:

• expected income stays in planning until a real transaction exists
• actual income stays separate until you confirm the connection
• matched income shows that the plan and the real-world transaction now line up

If a match would push Unplanned below zero in the current month, Common Cents can warn you with Match Will Commit Plans before it continues. This will move your planned amounts into actual assigned amounts when the income match happens.

See also: Income Sources and Budget Planning