Month View: review one month in detail
Month View (titled Monthly Review) takes one month apart: income, spending, net and savings rate against a baseline, what changed by category, how you did against your budget and what looks unusual.
On a phone, open More and tap Month View.
Pick the month and the comparison
- Month
- Opens on your last full month. You can pick the current month too; its figures are then marked projected.
- Compare
- What the month is measured against: Previous month, 12-month average, or a month you choose. The page opens comparing against the 12-month average. If you switch to Previous month, this device remembers that. A specific month you pick is not remembered: changing the month or reloading the page goes back to Previous month.
- Accounts
- All accounts, or a subset shown as "N of M". This resets when you leave the page.
- Exclude
- Leave out categories, groups or labels, for example a one-off move. Clear removes them all. Remembered on this device.
How the headline numbers are calculated
Spending = max(0, money out − money out to Savings-group categories − refunds and other credits)
- Income = money in, in Income-group categories.
- Refunds and other credits = money in outside the Income and Savings groups. They come off spending.
- Money coming back from a Savings-group category counts nowhere.
- Net cashflow = income − spending. Savings rate = net ÷ income, shown with one decimal. For a completed month it follows your basis from Settings > Savings Rate; the current month's estimate and the 12-month average always use net ÷ income.
- Credit card payments count as spending unless they are labelled ignore.
Example: $5,000 of paychecks, $3,400 of money out of which $1,000 went to savings, and a $60 refund. Spending = $3,400 − $1,000 − $60 = $2,340. Net = $2,660. Savings rate = 2,660 ÷ 5,000 = 53.2%.
The four headline cards
💵 Total income, 🛒 Total spending, 🌿 Net cashflow and 📈 Savings rate each show the difference from the comparison in dollars and as a %. The savings rate difference is in percentage points ("pp").
- % change = difference ÷ the comparison value. When the comparison is $0 it shows 100% (0% when both are $0).
- The 12-month average covers the selected month and the 11 before it, averaged over the months you actually have.
The sections below
- Trend chart
- The last 12 months, with three looks: Original, Two-tone and Net.
- Spending by group
- Each group this month against the baseline. For the current month a projected bar shows group total × days in the month ÷ today's date.
- Income to spending flow
- A compact version of the flow chart for the month you picked, respecting your Exclude choices. See The income to spending flow chart.
- 🔄 What changed
- Your six biggest movers. Its Compare to 12-mo avg switch is a shortcut for the Compare setting, so it changes the whole page.
- 🎯 Category shift
- Every category or group as a % change or in dollars. Rows under $25 in both months are hidden; the top 12 show first, then Show all. Click a category row to list its transactions. Changing a category there really recategorizes the transaction.
- ⚠️ Budget performance
- Allocated, actual, over or under (positive means under) and that difference as a % of allocated, plus your three biggest overages and unders.
- 📈 Savings Rate
- Amount saved and rate of income for the month. This box always uses the bank-only basis.
- 📋 Category deep dive
- Actual, baseline, change and budget for every category, with a Collapse groups option.
- 💡 Insights & Alerts
- Flags such as Consistent Overspending (a category over budget this month and at least the month before), Spending on the Rise (a category that went up at least two months in a row leading to this month and is over $50 this month), Above Average Spending (more than 1.5 times the 12-month average) and a savings-rate trend.
Ignored transactions, transfers, refunds and pending
- Ignored transactions are left out of every number on the page.
- Transfers into a Savings-group category are not spending. Other transfers out count as spending unless ignored.
- Refunds reduce spending rather than adding to income.
- Pending transactions count until the posted version replaces them.
Common questions
Why does Month View compare against the 12-month average?
That is where the page opens, because a single month is a noisy baseline. Pick Previous month in Compare and this device remembers your choice.
Why does Month View show lower income than Cash Flow?
Month View only counts Income-group deposits as income and subtracts refunds from spending. Cash Flow counts every amount that comes in as income.
Can I leave out a one-off expense?
Yes. Use Exclude to leave out its category or a label you put on it. Or label it ignore to remove it from every report.
Did changing a category in Category shift really change my transaction?
Yes. It is the same as editing the transaction on the Transactions page.
Still stuck?
Email us. A real person who builds FIYR reads every message.