Goodbudget is a personal finance tool that helps you track your spending and get your finances in order by utilizing the envelope method. This platform allows you to be able to sync across multiple devices. Therefore, your partner and all of your family members can get up-to-date information on how much money is coming in and out.
How Goodbudget Works
What is the envelope budgeting method? It is where you divvy up your monthly income into envelopes that represent spending categories. The categories are up to your preference and need. They usually include gas, groceries, and eating out. When you need to spend, you would simply take money out of the corresponding envelope and once the envelope is empty, you have spent your budget for that specific category.
Goodbudget is modern and uses technology to help you set aside money digitally instead of physically. With their app, they able you and your families to be able to sync across multiple devices in real time to everyone can keep track of their expenses together.
Goodbudget Features
Goodbudget has a lot of tools that you can utilize. Check out its main features below:
Envelopes
There are two types of envelopes that you can pick via Goodbudget: regular and more. Regular envelopes are for frequent spending categories like rent, groceries and entertainment. More envelopes are used to save up money towards big expenses like an emergency fund, vacation or gifts for the holidays.
You will want to log into Goodbudget every time you spend or receive money. Once you have set your categories and assigned an amount to each envelope, you can enter transactions to see how your budget is affected.
Each of the envelope’s balance can be seen at a glance which is shown by the colored bar graph that adjusts to reflect your transactions. The green represents the money you have left in the envelope. Yellow means that you are nearing your limit, and you do not want to see red because that means you went over your budget.
Fill Envelopes
You can enter your income on the Fill Envelopes screen. If you have regular paychecks coming in, you can schedule it to recur automatically. Goodbudget gives a good range of intervals, from weekly to annually.
You can fill each of the envelope in two ways: you can either enter the dollar amount manually or you can choose to have Goodbudget allocate funds for you.
Customized Report
There are also a lot of other customizable reports to choose from. This include spending by envelope, spending by payee, monthly spending, and spending compared to income or budget. Each report is displayed as a user-friendly, colorful chart or graph which can be seen below for an example.
Import Transaction
Goodbudget can even make your life a lot easier. You can import your bank transactions using Quicken (QFX), MS Money (OFX) or CSV files. This will make recording your transactions less monotonous. You can do this by simply downloading the file from you bank’s website. Afterward, upload it to your Goodbudget account, and pick the corresponding envelope for each of the transactions listed.
Goodbudget Pricing
Goodbudge offer two plans: a free plan and the Plus plan. The difference costs of the Plus plan is either $7 a month or $60 a year. With both, you will get to log into your account on multiple devices, adjust your budget as needed, transfer money between envelopes, and schedule future transactions.
Plan | Free | Plus |
Price | $0 | $7/month $60/year |
# of Regular envelopes | 10 | Unlimited |
# of More envelopes | 10 | Unlimited |
# of accounts | 1 | Unlimited |
# of connected devices | 2 | 5 |
History remembered | 1 year | 5 years |
Priority email support | No | Yes |
Web version | Yes | Yes |
As you can see, the free version does have its limitations. Besides unlimited Regular and More envelopes and number of accounts, Plus members also have other features that include the ability to connect to more devices, a longer history archive, and access to priority email support.
Goodbudget Limitations
Keep in mind the points below before you sign up for Goodbudget.
Free Version Isn’t Enough
The free version does not do it for the average person. For some, it does not include enough envelopes. On the other hand, for others, it is too restrictive with just one financial account.
App Functionality Is Limited
You do not have access to all functionalities from the app. This is regardless of which plan you choose. For example, you have to use your web browser to edit your budgeting period or listed accounts.
Does Not Sync To Financial Accounts
As money moves in and out of your various bank and credit card accounts, you have to manually enter each transaction because Goodbudget doesn’t sync with financial institutions.
Not For Investment Accounts
Purely a budgeting tool, Goodbudget does not have any investment features.
Bottom Line
Goodbudget allows you to break down your budget by categories and put your spending in perspective with personalized reports. It can be really useful for couples and families who want to share their spending activity because it allows the ability to access one account from many devices.
Although it can be easy to use, Goodbudget is also fairly high maintenance. The software does not automatically sync to your bank and credit card accounts, so you will have to manually enter all of your transactions.
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