> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.guito.pt/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Budgets > Set category budgets and track monthly spending. Set a spending cap for your categories and track, over the course of the month, how much you've spent against each limit. Budgets live in the sidebar, under **Plans, Budgets** (`/budgets`). Each budget works like an envelope: a maximum amount for a set of categories, on a cycle that restarts each month (or on whichever period you choose). Unlike goals, a budget doesn't set any money aside: it only measures the current cycle's spending against the limit. To set money aside with a purpose (emergency fund, a trip, a down payment on a house), use [Goals](/en/features/goals) instead. ## Create a budget In the sidebar, under **Plans**, select **Budgets** and click **Add**. Enter the **cap amount** for the cycle and the **categories** or **category groups** it tracks. If you pick no categories, the budget becomes an overall cap that applies to all spending. By default the cycle is **monthly**. It can also be quarterly, semi-annual, or annual. The cycle starts on the day you choose (for example, the day your salary lands) and ends the day before the next cycle begins. Confirm to create the budget. If you saved the budget suggested when you [created your account](/en/getting-started/create-account) in the app, each line is a monthly budget like any other, which you can edit or delete here. ## What counts toward the limit The cycle's spending comes from your transactions in the budget's categories: * **Same-category refunds subtract from spending.** Spend €50 at a restaurant and get €25 back, categorised under restaurants, and the budget counts **€25, not €50**. A refund left uncategorised, or tagged as income, won't reduce spending. If refunds exceed spending, the figure stays at **€0**, never negative. * **Overall budgets ignore refunds.** An overall cap (no categories) sums outflows only and stays gross, so your salary and other income aren't mistaken for spending. * **Transfers and excluded movements don't count.** Transfers between your own accounts and excluded movements are left out. * **A budget with no valid categories counts nothing.** If you delete every category of a category-scoped budget, it stops measuring spending (it stays at €0) rather than switching to counting everything. The detail page reads **No categories**; edit it and pick new categories to start measuring again. * **Only the part of a split transaction counts.** If you [split a transaction](/en/features/split-transactions) across several categories, the budget adds up only the part that sits in one of its categories, not the whole transaction: from a €790.00 "Daycare fees" payment with €110.00 in **Education**, an education budget counts €110.00. In the movements list that row shows €110.00 and reads **Part of €790.00**, so the figure is recognisable against your statement. * **Overlapping budgets are never added together.** If two budgets count the same spending, for example one for all expenses and one for **Restaurants**, the summary at the top of the page doesn't add up their spending or their caps, so the same expense isn't counted twice. It shows only the state of the tightest budget, and the bar fills by that budget's share. ## Change the cap over time A budget's cap can change over time without rewriting history. Each past cycle stays measured against the cap that was in effect then. On the web, you manage the cap on the budget page, in the **Cap over time** section: you'll see the base cap and each change, and you can add a new cap from any month you choose, edit it, or remove it. In the app, the cap changes in the edit form, with an **Applies from** row right below it. By default the change applies from the current cycle, so past cycles stay as they were; pick **From the start** only if you really do want to change the cap of every cycle, past ones included. ## Carry the unused balance over (rollover) Enable rollover (**Carry balance between cycles**) in the budget form so the unused balance of each cycle carries over to the next, envelope-style. The current cycle's effective cap becomes the defined limit plus the accumulated balance from previous cycles. Two rules apply: A cycle where you went over the limit contributes 0 to the accumulated balance, never a negative amount. Overspending doesn't drain the following months' envelope. Changing the cycle or the categories of a budget with rollover resets the carried-over balance to zero; guito shows a warning before saving. Changing just the cap does **not** reset the balance. Turning **Carry the balance between periods** off erases the balance already carried; turning it back on starts from zero. guito warns before saving this change too. ## The budget detail page Click a budget to open its detail page, with spending against the limit, the cycle's spending chart, and the list of movements, newest first, where each movement links to the matching transaction so you can review or recategorise it. The date selector at the top filters the chart and the list, but the spending-vs-limit figure always refers to the **current cycle**. From the detail page you can edit or delete the budget. ## Budgets on the overview Budgets also appear as a widget on the [overview](/en/features/net-worth-overview). You can choose which ones appear using the settings icon on the widget. ## Related pages Set money aside with a purpose: emergency fund, trips, a down payment on a house. Organise the categories that feed your budgets. The accounts and movements that produce the spending you track. See budgets and goals side by side on the overview. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.