Projected Balances
The Projected tab answers one question: if nothing changes, what does the balance look like from here?
It is a walk, not a model. Today's cash is stepped forward through what is actually scheduled, and every point on the chart traces back to a row you can open.
Where It Starts
The starting balance is your cash accounts (checking, savings, cash, money_market), using the same balance rule the sidebar uses, so the projection cannot begin from a number the rest of the app disagrees with.
The dialog's account filter reaches the walk. A balance line that moves through bills on accounts you are not looking at moves for reasons that are off screen.
What Lands on the Line
Three things drain or feed the same timeline, and the interleaving is the point: a running balance is only true if the draws land in the order money actually moves.
| Source | When it lands |
|---|---|
| Bills and income | on their real due dates, at face value |
| Budget envelopes | once a month, as what is left of the envelope |
| Goal contributions | monthly, on the 1st |
Only confirmed commitments project. Detected-but-unconfirmed rhythms would fabricate both a five-figure decline and an equally fictional windfall, so they stay out until you confirm them.
Three Behaviours Worth Knowing
Overdue money still counts. A bill that went past due is money you still owe, so it lands on today rather than disappearing. The row shows the date it was actually due, because "today" on a three-week-late bill hides the one thing worth seeing about it.
Bills win where they overlap. A category a recurring bill already pays is spending the forecast has counted once. Adding the budget envelope on top would charge it twice.
Envelopes draw what is left. Money already spent has left the account and is in the starting balance. An overage carries into the next month as a tightened envelope, and the line says so rather than appearing as an unexplained smaller number.
One Schedule, Every Surface
"When does this stream move money" is answered once, and both the projection and the Budget tab's month-ahead strip consume that answer. They used to have their own loops, which drifted: overdue money was missing from the month strip entirely while the projection beside it showed the bill.
The same holds for the account filter and for reading a month's budget. One rule each, so two tabs cannot disagree about the same month.
Related
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| Bills and Income | what qualifies as a commitment |
| Budget | envelopes, and the period they belong to |
| Chat | asking "can I afford it" against the same data |