Monthly Budget Behaviour
Budget Lists work in monthly periods. Smart Lists keeps the list itself while the monthly spending totals move into the new month.
How monthly periods work
Each “Budget” List tracks “Used” and “Remaining” for the current month.
Purchases are counted in the month in which they are recorded.
The monthly period changes automatically when a new month begins.
When a new month begins
When the calendar moves into a new month, Smart Lists starts a new monthly spending period for that “Budget” List.
The list itself remains available and you do not need to create a new “Budget” List each month.
What resets automatically
The current month spending totals reset for the new monthly period.
“Used” starts again for the new month based on new purchases recorded in that period.
“Remaining” is recalculated from the new month totals.
What does not reset
The list name and list settings remain.
Your items remain in the list unless you remove them.
“Share”d list membership remains unless someone leaves or the list is deleted.
Monthly Used amount
“Used” shows the total of purchases in the current monthly period.
Purchases from a previous month do not continue increasing the new month “Used” total.
Monthly Remaining amount
“Remaining” is recalculated for the current month using the list budget and the current month “Used” amount.
As new purchases are recorded, “Remaining” decreases.
What happens to items in a new month
Items are part of the list itself, not only the monthly total.
This means useful recurring items can stay in the list across months.
You can use the same list instead of rebuilding it each month.
What happens to Personal Balance when the month changes
“Personal Balance” is not a monthly budget total.
A month change does not automatically restore money that was previously deducted from “Personal Balance”.
“Personal Balance” only changes when you edit it directly or when an enabled balance sync action changes it.