Auto set

Auto set proposes amounts from your history

Rather than deciding every number yourself, Auto set fills in your income and spending categories in one step from the budget page. It reads what you've actually earned and spent in each category and sets budget amounts to match.

You can also run it for one side only, using Auto set income or Auto set spending from the heading of either section.

What it looks at

Auto set analyzes your recent transaction history — the last three months, or as much of that as you have, extended to whole billing cycles for categories that don't recur monthly — to find your average income and spending per category.

Recurring bills are always budgeted in full. A category is never set below the average of the recurring bills it pays, rounded up to the next whole dollar, so a $122.36 phone bill gets at least $123.

It also keeps the rest of the plan achievable: when the non-recurring spending in your non-critical categories and the Flex pool averages more than your income leaves after your savings budget, critical categories and bills, that spending is scaled down to fit. Critical categories are set to their full averages rather than scaled, and your savings budget and any amounts you've set for specific months are kept, so the total can still come out above your income — as it does when your bills alone cost more than you earn.

Small, occasional categories move into Flex

A category you only spend in now and then would otherwise get a tiny budget of its own: one $9 purchase in three months averages $3 a month. Instead, auto set proposes moving it into Flex, where its spending shares one budget with your other Flex categories.

A category is proposed when it averages under $25 a month and you spent in it in only some of the months auto set looked at. Categories with recurring bills, critical categories, ones budgeted less often than monthly, ones with rollover on and ones you've taken out of Flex before are never proposed.

Moving a category into Flex moves its whole spending history with it, so past months and any Flex rollover balance change right away, just as when you turn on Flex for a category yourself.

One-off purchases and savings funds

A category you spent in only once in those months, at $25 a month or more on average, is treated as a one-off: a single $1,200 trip isn't a monthly cost, so auto set budgets it at $0 instead of $400 a month, and the rest of your spending isn't scaled down to make room for it. Its row says it's a one-off; set an amount yourself if you're planning another.

A category with rollover on that you spent in only some of those months is treated as a savings fund, such as money set aside each month for holidays or gifts. Auto set leaves its amount as you planned it, and counts that amount against your income before scaling anything else, like your savings budget.

You see every amount before it's written

Auto set is a bulk change, and it shows you the result first. The confirmation lists each category with its current and proposed amount, changed rows first, with the rest collapsed under Show N unchanged amounts. The Flex shared budget appears as one row. Categories auto set would move into Flex are listed under Move to Flex, each checked — uncheck one to keep it as a budget of its own, and the Flex amount updates to match. Below the list it names the month the amounts apply from.

If your recurring bills, critical categories and savings budget cost more than your income, a note above the list says by how much. Auto set still budgets them in full and sets all other spending to zero, so Left to budget may come out negative.

• Replaced — the ongoing amounts of income and spending categories, from the current month forward. Where you'd scheduled a later change for a category, its row says how many scheduled changes the new amount replaces.
• Kept — amounts you've set for specific months, which survive untouched. A category budgeted every three months or longer with no activity in its window is also left as it is, since Zypper can't tell a bill that drifted a few days from one that stopped. A category moved into Flex keeps its own amount too, unused while it's in Flex, for if you move it back out.

If your transactions change between opening the preview and clicking Confirm, auto set asks you to check the new amounts and confirm again rather than writing something you didn't see.

Adjusting afterward

Auto set is a starting point, not a lock-in. Every amount stays editable — click any category's amount on the budget page and change it, or turn on rollover for categories where unspent money should accumulate. See Creating your budget for how amounts, month-specific overrides, and rollover work.