Answers to the things people ask first.

Put the income in first, then work down

Tally is a zero-based budget: every dollar of your planned income gets a job, and the figure at the top of the Budget screen should reach exactly $0.00. A new install arrives with a starter set of categories, all at zero — enter what you expect to be paid, then assign the rest.

Transactions are entered by hand. There is no bank connection, and that is deliberate: entering a purchase is the moment you notice it.

A category belongs to a month

This is the part that surprises people. A category appears in a month because it was planned there, or because money moved through it there. Adding a category in September does not add it to August, and removing one from September leaves every other month exactly as it was.

When a month has no plan yet and the previous one does, the Budget screen offers to start from it — tap Copy. What you copy is the plan, not the spending, and editing the new month never reaches back into the old one.

They become uncategorized rather than disappearing, so your totals stay honest. The Budget screen tells you when a month has uncategorized transactions, and you can file them from the Activity screen.

They never post themselves

Rent, paychecks and anything else on a schedule are offered, never written for you. When something is due you will see how many are waiting, and posting them is a tap — all at once, or one rule at a time from Settings → Recurring.

Dismissing the reminder on the Budget screen does not post anything. The items stay waiting under Settings.

One budget, two people

Both of you need an iPhone or Mac signed in to iCloud. In Settings → Sharing, send an invitation; once it is accepted you are both looking at the same budget, and edits from either side appear on the other.

If an invitation does not arrive, check that both devices are signed in to iCloud and have a network connection. Changes can take a moment to appear, and Low Power Mode delays them further.

Export before anything drastic

Settings → Your data exports the whole budget as a JSON file, or just the transactions as CSV. Keep a copy somewhere safe.

Settings → Start over clears the month you are on: its planned amounts and its category list. Transactions are kept — they simply stop being counted against a plan. It cannot be undone, so take a backup first.

A lock on the screen, not on the database

Settings can put Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode in front of the budget. It locks when you leave the app, so the budget is not visible in the app switcher. The data underneath is protected by your device's own encryption, the same as every other app's.