Checking a number you do not believe

Sometimes stewardship is nothing loftier than pressing on a number you don’t believe. If a category says you spent far more than you think, don’t argue with the figure — open it. Click the category name in the Spending grid and you get the transactions behind it, for that month.

Nine times out of ten it’s one of four things:

• A transfer that was never paired. Money moved to your own card counted as spending. Check the Needs your review banner above your register.
• One big charge that belongs somewhere else, or belongs split across several categories.
• A rule doing its job too well — a merchant you sorted once that also sells something else entirely.
• An annual bill landing in a monthly category. That’s what Goals are for: set aside a little each month instead of taking the hit in one.

Pending changes things

Some totals count only cleared transactions and some include pending ones. If a figure is close but not exact, a pending charge is the usual reason, and it settles on its own.

If it still doesn’t reconcile

Tell us. A figure that can’t be traced to rows you can read is a bug in this app, not a misunderstanding on your part — that’s the whole standard the budget is built to. What’s been entrusted to you deserves an honest accounting, and so do you.