💰 Budget Planner Pro

Complete User Guide & Step-by-Step Manual

PaxmaHub • Ultimate Budget Planner

Based on the supplied Budget Planner Pro HTML

1. What Is Budget Planner Pro?

Budget Planner Pro is a browser-based personal budgeting tool for recording income and expenses, setting monthly category budgets, tracking recurring transactions, applying the 50/30/20 rule, managing savings goals and reviewing financial reports.

Source basis: This guide is written from the supplied budget-tracker.html. It describes the features exposed by that file rather than adding unrelated features.

Core capabilities

Dashboard with income, expense, balance and savings-rate metrics.
Income and expense transaction management.
Search, date filtering, sorting and pagination for transactions.
Expense/income category management with 50/30/20 bucket assignment.
Monthly category budgets.
Automatic budget rollover from a previous month when enabled.
Recurring transactions with daily, weekly, monthly or yearly frequency.
Built-in 50/30/20 Rule Tracker.
Built-in and saved budget templates.
Savings goals with target amount, current amount and target date.
Reports for overview, categories, trends and budget vs actual.
CSV, PDF and print reporting controls.
Currency, month-start, savings-goal and alert-threshold settings.
JSON backup and restore, demo data and reset controls.
Light/dark interface modes.

2. Interface & Navigation

The sidebar exposes these main areas:

Navigation	Purpose
📊 Dashboard	Financial snapshot, quick actions, alerts, six-month chart and recent transactions.
💳 Transactions	Browse, search, filter, sort, print and manage recorded transactions.
➕ Add Transaction	Create or edit income or expense transactions.
🎯 Budgets	Create and review monthly category spending limits.
🔄 Recurring	Manage repeating income/expense transactions.
📐 50/30/20 Rule	Compare spending against Needs 50%, Wants 30% and Savings 20%.
📋 Templates	Apply built-in templates or manage saved custom templates.
🏷️ Categories	Create, edit and organize income/expense categories.
🎯 Savings Goals	Create and monitor savings targets.
📈 Reports	Analyze overview, categories, trends and budget vs actual.
⚙️ Settings	Configure personal, currency, month, savings, alert and data settings.

Mobile: At smaller screen widths the sidebar collapses to icons, while the main content remains accessible.

3. Getting Started

Start Fresh or Load Demo Data.
The welcome screen offers both options.

Check Settings.
Set your name, currency, month-start day, savings goal and budget alert threshold.

Review Categories.
Use the built-in categories or create your own.

Record Income.
Add salary, freelance income or other money coming in.

Record Expenses.
Add purchases, bills and other spending with the correct category.

Set Monthly Budgets.
Set category limits manually or use a template.

Add Recurring Items.
Use recurring transactions for regular salary, rent or subscriptions.

Set Savings Goals.
Create targets such as an emergency fund or travel fund.

Review Reports.
Use category, trend and budget-vs-actual reports to understand your progress.

Back up regularly.
Export a JSON backup so local data is not your only copy.

4. Dashboard

Quick Actions

Action	What it does
💵 Add Income	Opens the transaction form preselected for income.
💸 Add Expense	Opens the transaction form preselected for expense.
🎯 Set Budget	Opens the monthly budget form.
📊 View Reports	Moves to the Reports section.

Dashboard statistics

Metric	Meaning
Total Income	Total recorded income.
Total Expenses	Total recorded expenses.
Net Balance	Income minus expenses.
Savings Rate	Derived from income and expenses.
This Month Income	Income for the current month.
This Month Expenses	Expenses for the current month.
Budget Used	Current budget utilization indicator.
Transactions	Total number of transactions.

Visual areas

The dashboard includes an Income vs Expenses (Last 6 Months) chart and a Recent Transactions table.

5. Transactions

5.1 Add Transaction

The transaction form contains:

Field	Purpose
Type *	Choose Expense or Income.
Amount *	Enter the transaction amount; the form requires a positive amount.
Date *	Date of the transaction.
Category *	Category assigned to the transaction.
Description	Short description, such as Grocery shopping.
Notes	Additional details.
Recurring	Optionally turn the transaction into a recurring transaction.

5.2 Recurring option inside a transaction

When enabled, the form exposes Frequency and optional End Date. Supported frequencies are Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Yearly.

5.3 Transaction list tools

The Transactions screen supports description search, From/To date filters, sorting by date or amount, All/Income/Expense filters, a summary box, pagination and Print.

Recommended entry standard

Use a consistent description style.
Always choose the most appropriate category.
Enter the real transaction date.
Use Notes for information you may need later.

6. Categories

The Categories screen separates Expense and Income categories.

Category fields

Field	Purpose
Icon	Emoji/icon used to identify the category.
Name *	Category name.
Type *	Expense or Income.
50/30/20 Bucket	Needs, Wants, Savings or Not Applicable.

50/30/20 bucket meanings

Needs (50%) — essential spending categories.
Wants (30%) — discretionary/lifestyle categories.
Savings (20%) — savings-oriented allocation.
Not Applicable — categories that should not be assigned to a bucket.

The category table displays icon, name, type, bucket, transaction count, total and actions. Categories can also be searched.

7. Monthly Budgets

Budgets are category-level monthly spending limits.

Set Budget fields

Field	Purpose
Category *	Category for the budget.
Monthly Limit *	Maximum planned amount for that category/month.
Month	Month to which the budget applies.
Enable Rollover	Allows the previous month's unused amount to be carried forward.

Budget screen controls

Choose the budget month.
Use a template.
Print budgets.
Set a new budget.
Review the budget summary and category budget list.

Template warning: The template dialog explicitly warns that applying a template will replace existing budgets for the current month.

8. Budget Rollover

The tracker provides a rollover mechanism for unused monthly budget.

When rollover is enabled, the previous month's remaining amount can be added to the current month's available budget.

Total Available = Monthly Budget + Applicable Rollover

The exact available value is reflected in the Budget vs Actual report, where the columns include Budget, Rollover, Total Available, Spent, Remaining, Usage and Status.

Example: If a category budget is $500 and $100 remains from the previous month, an enabled rollover can make the current available amount $600.

9. Recurring Transactions

Recurring transactions are intended for predictable transactions that repeat over time.

Supported fields

Field	Purpose
Type *	Expense or Income.
Amount *	Amount repeated by the recurring rule.
Category *	Category assigned to generated transactions.
Frequency *	Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly.
Start Date *	Date from which the recurring schedule begins.
End Date	Optional stopping date.
Description	Label such as Monthly Rent or Salary.

The Recurring screen shows recurring items and provides an Add Recurring action.

Good candidates: salary, rent, subscriptions and other genuinely repeating transactions.

10. 50/30/20 Rule Tracker

The built-in rule tracker is based on the allocation:

50% → Needs 30% → Wants 20% → Savings

You can select a month and apply it to review the month's allocation. The screen also has a Print control.

How categories connect to the rule

Each category can be assigned a bucket: Needs, Wants, Savings or Not Applicable. This allows the budgeting system to group spending according to the rule.

Important: The 50/30/20 rule is a budgeting framework implemented by this tracker; it is not the same thing as a bank-account or investment product.

11. Budget Templates

Templates let you create a monthly budget structure quickly instead of manually entering every category limit.

Built-in templates

The Templates screen contains a Built-in Templates area and a My Saved Templates area.

Applying a template

Open Templates or Use Template from Budgets.
Select a template.
Enter total monthly income when requested.
Select the month.
Review the preview.
Apply the template.

Before applying: Existing budgets for the target month can be replaced. Review the warning and make a backup if the existing budget matters.

Saving your own template

The Save Current as Template dialog accepts a template name and icon. This lets you reuse your own budgeting structure later.

12. Savings Goals

Savings Goals lets you define a target and track progress toward it.

Field	Purpose
Goal Name *	Name such as Emergency Fund.
Target Amount *	Total amount you want to reach.
Current Amount	Amount currently saved toward the goal.
Target Date	Desired completion date.
Icon	Visual identifier for the goal.

Use separate goals for different purposes when you want to track progress independently.

13. Reports & Analytics

The Reports area contains four tabs:

Report	What it provides
Overview	Date-filtered income, expenses, net balance, savings rate, transaction count, average income, average expense and days covered.
By Category	Category, type, bucket, count, total, percentage of total and average.
Trends	Monthly income, expenses, net and savings rate.
Budget vs Actual	Current-month budget, rollover, available amount, spent, remaining, usage and status.

Overview filters

The Overview tab supports From/To dates, Apply, Clear, CSV export, Print and PDF.

By Category

Use this report to identify which categories account for the largest share of activity and compare average transaction values.

Trends

Use monthly trend data to identify changes in income, expenses, net result and savings rate.

Budget vs Actual

This is the most useful report for checking whether current-month category spending is staying within planned limits.

Suggested review: Start with Overview → inspect By Category → check Trends → finish with Budget vs Actual.

14. Settings

General Settings

Setting	Purpose
Your Name	Personalizes the planner.
Currency	Select the currency used by the planner.
Month Start Day	Defines the start day used by the planner, with allowed values 1–28.
Savings Goal (%)	Your desired savings percentage; default shown by the file is 20.
Alert Threshold (%)	Budget warning threshold; the file's default is 80%.

Custom currencies

The Currency setting has an Add Currency button. The custom currency dialog asks for a currency symbol and currency code.

15. Backup, Restore & Data Management

Backup (JSON)

Use Backup (JSON) to export your planner data as a JSON backup file.

Restore Backup

Use Restore Backup and select a JSON file to bring saved data back into the planner.

Load Demo Data

Demo Data is useful when you want to explore the planner without entering everything manually.

Reset All

Reset All is the destructive data-management option. Treat it as a full reset and create a backup first if the existing data matters.

Data safety: Because this is a browser-based HTML application with local persistence, regular JSON backups are strongly recommended.

16. Dark Mode

The top bar includes a 🌙 button for toggling the dark interface. The source defines a dedicated dark theme with adjusted background, card, text, border and muted colors.

17. Recommended Complete Workflow

Open the planner and choose Start Fresh or Demo Data.
Set your currency and personal settings.
Review or customize categories.
Assign appropriate 50/30/20 buckets.
Enter reliable income transactions.
Record expenses as they occur.
Set monthly category budgets.
Enable rollover for categories where carrying forward unused budget makes sense.
Add recurring salary, rent and subscriptions.
Create savings goals for major targets.
Use the 50/30/20 screen to check allocation.
Review Dashboard alerts and budget usage.
Use Transactions to audit individual entries.
Use Reports to analyze category and monthly trends.
Compare Budget vs Actual before closing each month.
Export a JSON backup regularly.

18. FAQ & Troubleshooting

How do I add an expense?

Use Add Transaction → choose Expense → enter amount, date and category → optionally add description/notes → Save Transaction.

How do I add income?

Use Add Income from the Dashboard or select Income in the Add Transaction form.

How do I set a category budget?

Open Budgets → Set Budget → choose category → enter monthly limit and month → optionally enable rollover → save.

How do I repeat rent or salary?

Use Recurring → Add Recurring, then choose type, amount, category, frequency, start date and optional end date.

Can I create my own categories?

Yes. Open Categories → Add Category and enter icon, name, type and optional 50/30/20 bucket.

Can I reuse a budget structure?

Yes. Use a built-in template or save your current budget as a custom template.

Can I track multiple savings targets?

The Savings Goals screen is designed for goal records; create goals separately for different targets.

How do I analyze a particular period?

Reports → Overview → select From and To dates → Apply.

How do I export data?

Use CSV from Reports for report data, PDF/Print for report presentation, and Backup (JSON) for planner data restoration.

What should I do before Reset All?

Create a JSON backup first.

What if my budget is approaching its limit?

Check the Dashboard budget alert, then open Budget vs Actual to identify the category and remaining amount.

19. Quick Reference

Goal	Go here
Add money received	Dashboard → Add Income
Record spending	Dashboard → Add Expense
Review all transactions	Transactions
Set monthly limits	Budgets
Automate repeating entries	Recurring
Check 50/30/20 allocation	50/30/20 Rule
Reuse a budget	Templates
Create spending categories	Categories
Track a savings target	Savings Goals
Analyze finances	Reports
Change currency/settings	Settings
Protect your data	Settings → Backup (JSON)
Restore data	Settings → Restore Backup
Load example data	Settings → Load Demo Data
Clear planner data	Settings → Reset All
Switch theme	Top bar → 🌙

Best practice: Keep categories consistent, enter transactions promptly, set realistic monthly budgets, use rollover intentionally, review Budget vs Actual each month, and keep regular JSON backups.