# Step 3: Navigating the Budget Page

{% hint style="success" %}
You're on Step 3 of Lunch Money's Budgeting Guide!
{% endhint %}

**Jump to:**

* [**Current Period Indicator**](/guides/budgeting/step-3-navigating-the-budget-page.md#current-period-indicator)
* [**Navigation buttons**](/guides/budgeting/step-3-navigating-the-budget-page.md#navigation-buttons)
* [**Inflow & Outflow Tables**](/guides/budgeting/step-3-navigating-the-budget-page.md#inflow-and-outflow-tables)
  * [What each column means](/guides/budgeting/step-3-navigating-the-budget-page.md#what-each-column-means)
  * [Rollover breakdowns](/guides/budgeting/step-3-navigating-the-budget-page.md#rollover-breakdowns)
* [**Sidebar: Budget Status Card**](/guides/budgeting/step-3-navigating-the-budget-page.md#sidebar-budget-status-card)
* [**Sidebar: Action Buttons**](/guides/budgeting/step-3-navigating-the-budget-page.md#sidebar-action-buttons)
* [**Sidebar: Budget Overview**](/guides/budgeting/step-3-navigating-the-budget-page.md#sidebar-budget-overview)
  * [Understanding Net Total Available](/guides/budgeting/step-3-navigating-the-budget-page.md#understanding-net-total-available)

***

Now that you've got your budget all set up under the hood, it's time to explore the Budget page. This is where you'll get to see where your hard-earned money is going!

<figure><img src="/files/v5mJ2nWCfCToMO0Y5tmZ" alt="" width="375"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Before we dive deeper, let’s get familiar with the layout. The Budget page can feel a bit overwhelming at first glance, so knowing what’s what will help you feel at home.

<figure><img src="/files/Kiyi8pqHLUSiqAkwH9YP" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

## Current Period Indicator

At the top, you’ll see the time period you’re budgeting for. In the example above, we have set up our custom budgeting period to be every 2 weeks starting on September 1, 2024. You can navigate to future or previous periods using the arrows:

<figure><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfSGlPDmVX3W3MBcCkLo16-r-vEQW5znzFKupgfiOa2HM1G-h_KQ6XgQOr5Agvh1DM3_OjFx_x6gGvEnNcIAYOvR6JatEstZZmS-SXvKTZaLCIupBRuGVuQmY3R5h9w1DrjUYak?key=suIPa4HPoah-nCtJhzHxELxU" alt="" width="375"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Remember that you can choose whatever period works best for you — monthly, bi-weekly, you name it!

## Navigation buttons

Underneath the Current Period Indicator, you’ll see the following buttons:

* **Budget View vs. Setting View:** Located on the far left, this switch lets you flip between your actual budget and the summary of your category settings. This is helpful for quickly checking how you've set up each category without diving into all the details. &#x20;

<figure><img src="/files/I8y3kX7faq1mQ0NJq2l9" alt="" width="300"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

* **Feature Guide:** Provides a quick link to this guide!&#x20;
* **Budget Settings:** Located on the far right, this is where you can set your Budget Period (Monthly or Custom), enable the General Pool Rollover, [hide categories with no activity and no budget](/guides/budgeting/step-5-miscellaneous-features.md#hide-categories-with-no-activity-and-no-budget), and choose what you will base your income on. You should already be familiar with this from [setting up your budget](/guides/budgeting/step-2-setting-up-your-budget.md).

## Inflow & Outflow Tables

The Budget View is made up of two sections:&#x20;

* **Inflow** (Income categories — shows all your money coming in)
* **Outflow** (Expense categories — shows where your money is going)

Each table has rows for each budgetable category. For a cleaner view, you can choose to [hide categories that have no activity and no budgeted amount](/guides/budgeting/step-5-miscellaneous-features.md#hide-categories-with-no-activity-and-no-budget). This is perfect for keeping things tidy if you have lots of categories.

{% hint style="warning" %}
&#x20;Is your income category missing from the Inflow Table? Head over to the[ Categories page](https://my.lunchmoney.app/categories/), and make sure that the 'Treat as income' category property is enabled, and that 'Exclude from budget' is disabled.
{% endhint %}

### What each column means&#xD;

In each category row in the Outflow table, you’ll find three important columns:

* **Budgeted**: The amount you planned to spend for this period.
* **Activity**: The amount you spent so far.
* **Available**: The amount you still have left to spend. You can also think of this as the balance for your category. This number includes any rollovers, your budgeted amount, and your spending activity (transactions) to show you how much is safe to spend in the category for the rest of the budget period.

### Rollover breakdowns

When you hover over any **Available** amount, you'll see exactly how it was calculated. This helps you understand where every dollar comes from.

**For expense categories with rollovers**: If a category is set to "rollover to same category", hovering shows:

* Previous period's ending balance
* Current period's activity

<figure><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf_CAEQS1cskUjhRbTLKYX_0H8WUZ1NB6OJbEzsaFki-f8i-3bP-cZIb53Ak9GIICeXPDGX8FwnIbbU33xaCcF4WOpcVsbVRZbCyDVXEFZ48_49ZUPuu8jsAXp57OQ6iWsmyezHAg?key=suIPa4HPoah-nCtJhzHxELxU" alt="" width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

**For your general pool (in the Inflow section)**: The first line in your Inflow table shows your rollover pool. Hover over the number to see the breakdown:

* Money rolled over from last period's general pool
* Money from individual expense categories last period that rolled to general pool

<figure><img src="/files/X06nzKeA7buTXCUOBiXv" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

## Sidebar: Budget Status Card

At the top of the right-hand sidebar, you’ll see the Budget Status Card. Depending on your budget status, this card will either show:

| Left to Budget                                                                                      | Balanced for this period!                                                                           | Overbudgeted                                                                                        |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| <div><figure><img src="/files/AobxosQ28aQYDMKc1bAg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div> | <div><figure><img src="/files/jKsdpeU6J6CeH6pISOS6" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div> | <div><figure><img src="/files/3eZGAeRV34wxHajqMUv1" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div> |

This is particularly useful if you are using a [zero-based budget](https://lunchmoney.app/blog/zero-based-budgeting-simplified), and need to make sure every dollar is accounted for.

## Sidebar: Action Buttons

Below that, you might see some Action Buttons, depending on your setup. These will make more sense when your budget is ready, but we’ve linked to them in case you want to read about them now:

* [Budget Presets](/guides/budgeting/step-4-budgeting.md#budget-presets)
* [Copy Budget](/guides/budgeting/step-4-budgeting.md#copy-budget)
* [Clear This Period](/guides/budgeting/step-4-budgeting.md#clear-this-period)

<figure><img src="/files/K3yT7FCs80rpaIJp5Mej" alt="" width="293"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

## Sidebar: Budget Overview

On the far right, you’ll see the Budget Overview. Think of this as a quick health check for your entire budget.

<figure><img src="/files/KOAuQzf0ZWlooGDsct6V" alt="" width="375"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

#### **Here's what each line means:**

* **Budgetable**: The total money you have to work with this period. This includes your income plus any money that rolled over from previous periods.
* **Total Budgeted**: How much you've assigned to categories so far. This is the sum of all the amounts in your "Budgeted" column.
* **Left to Budget**: The amount you still need to assign (Available to Budget - Total Budgeted). When this hits $0, you've given every dollar a job!
  * <mark style="color:green;">Green</mark> ("Underbudgeted") = money left to budget
  * <mark style="color:red;">Red</mark> ("Overbudgeted") = you've assigned more than you have available
* **Budget Status**: A quick visual indicator that matches your Left to Budget amount
  * <mark style="color:green;">Green</mark> ("Balanced") = you assigned exactly the amount that was available
  * <mark style="color:orange;">Orange</mark> ("Underbudgeted") = you still have money to assign
  * <mark style="color:red;">Red</mark> ("Overbudgeted") = you've assigned more than you have available

### Understanding Net Total Available

Net Total Available deserves special attention because it helps you understand if you have enough money to execute your budget.

**Net Total Available** is calculated by combining your "Left to Budget" (from the General Pool) with the total "Available" (from the Outflow table). This is the total amount you have accounted for in your budget and you'll want to make sure that you have at least this amount of money in your accounts.

Simply put, it is the minimum amount of money you need in your bank accounts to cover your budget. It adds up all the Available balances in your categories plus any money you haven't budgeted yet.

#### How to use it:

* This is the least amount of cash you need to have right now to cover your budget
* Your actual bank balance might be higher (if you keep extra buffer money)
* If you budget every dollar (zero-based budgeting), this number could be set up to match the total across all of your bank accounts (Est. Net Worth) pretty closely.

{% hint style="warning" %}
**Note**: Lunch Money doesn't offer a reconciliation feature to exactly match your bank account balances and your Lunch Money budget. The Net Total Available is the closest number we have to that, which is calculated based on all available funds in your budget, considering starting balances, rollovers, and the unallocated funds in your general pool.
{% endhint %}

## What's Next?

You know your way around the Budget page– now let's put it to use! In the next section, we'll explore how to make Lunch Money work for your budgeting style.

Ready to start budgeting? Let's go! 👇

<a href="/pages/RRO9D76JWOzbwFxlw9fF" class="button secondary" data-icon="arrow-right">Go to Step 4: Budgeting</a>


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