A category goes red when this month's spending exceeded what it had. What happens next depends entirely on how you paid.
| Cash overspend | Credit card overspend | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid from | Checking, savings, cash | A credit card |
| Category shows | Negative | Negative |
| Ready to Assign | Reduced | Unchanged |
| Carries to next month | Yes (see below) | No |
| What it really is | Money you don't have | Debt you took on |
The distinction is the point. Spending cash you don't have is a hole in this month's budget. Putting it on a card isn't — you borrowed, and borrowing is a debt to pay down, not a shortfall to cover this instant.
Cash overspend
You assigned $400.00 to Groceries and spent $500.00 from checking.
Groceries
assigned $400.00
activity − $500.00
Available − $100.00
That $100.00 came out of your checking account, so your on-budget cash is $100.00 lower than your categories claim. Ready to Assign drops by $100.00 to stay honest.
To fix it: move $100.00 into Groceries from a category you're willing to raid. Click the red Available, choose Move money, pick the source category, and confirm. Groceries returns to $0.00 and Ready to Assign returns to where it was.
If you leave it: by default the shortfall is charged to next month's Ready to Assign and the category resets to $0.00. The debt doesn't vanish — it's paid out of next month's money, which is what actually happened.
Your operator can configure this to instead carry the negative forward inside the category. The default is to charge it to the next month.
Credit card overspend
Same $400.00 in Groceries, same $500.00 spent — but on your Visa.
Groceries
assigned $400.00
activity − $500.00
Available − $100.00 ← visible, this month only
Visa Payment + $400.00 ← the funded part moved here
Card gap + $100.00 ← the unfunded part is now card debt
Ready to Assign does not move. No cash left your accounts — the balance on the card went up instead.
The red −$100.00 is shown so you can choose to cover it. Two options, both fine:
- Cover it. Assign or move $100.00 into Groceries. It immediately funds the charge, moves into Visa Payment, and the card gap closes by $100.00. You'll pay the card in full.
- Leave it. The $100.00 stays as card debt. Groceries resets to $0.00 next month — the negative does not follow you. Pay it down through the debt planner or by funding the card later.
Why a carried-in card overage shows $0.00, not red
If you imported a budget that had credit-card debt at the boundary month, you may see categories that carried in negative but display $0.00 rather than red.
That's correct. A carried-in card overage is existing card debt, not a shortfall in the current month. Showing it red would tell you to fix something this month that isn't a this-month problem. The debt is still fully accounted for — it's in the card's gap, where it belongs.
A category only shows red when this month's own activity exceeded what it had.
Finding every overspent category
On the Budget screen, red Available figures are your overspends. Work left to right:
- Cash overspends first — these are actively reducing Ready to Assign.
- Card overspends second — decide per category whether to cover or carry as debt.
If you have several, the fastest route is usually to find one over-funded category and move from it repeatedly, rather than trimming a little from many.
Preventing it
- Set goals on the categories you routinely underestimate. The Budget screen then shows what each needs this month, so you fund them before the month gets away from you.
- Check the card gap rather than the category alone — an all-card month can look calm on the Budget screen while the gap grows.
- Reconcile monthly. Overspending often turns out to be a missing or duplicated transaction. See reconciling an account.