Savings
Savings categories are separate from expense envelopes: they track an actual savings balance and support assigning money into savings during a period and withdrawing money out.
How savings works in Alto
- Each savings category has a running balance.
- The budget view shows assigned and withdrawn amounts for the current viewing period.
- Savings can have goals (recurring or total) to visualize progress.
Assigning vs withdrawing
Assign to savings
Assigning moves money out of Ready to Assign and into the savings category balance. Alto records the period assignment in a savings envelope for auditability.
Withdraw from savings
Withdrawing reduces the savings balance and returns money to Ready to Assign. Alto tracks withdrawals per period as well.
Constraints and safety checks
- Withdrawals must be positive and cannot exceed the savings balance.
- Assigned amounts cannot go negative for a period; negative changes are treated as “reducing assigned” and are constrained by balance.
Goals
Goals are optional metadata used for display and planning. Alto currently supports:
- Total goal: save up to a target amount by a target date.
- Recurring goal: save a recurring amount weekly or monthly.
Converting savings to expense
When you're ready to spend the money you've saved, you can convert a savings category into an expense category. This is useful when your savings goal is complete and you want to track spending against it.
What happens during conversion
- The savings balance becomes the expense category's assigned amount.
- The savings goal becomes the expense category's due amount.
- The savings category is replaced with a new expense category.
Example
You've been saving for a vacation with a $2,000 goal and have saved $2,000. When you convert to an expense category:
- Assigned: $2,000 (your saved balance)
- Due/Budgeted: $2,000 (your goal)
- Available: $2,000 (ready to spend)
Now you can categorize vacation spending to this category and watch the available balance decrease.