Why spending and budget totals differ

Cash flow and your budget define spending differently

Zypper reports what you've spent this month in two places, and each uses its own definition of spending:

• Cash flow counts all money out. The Spending this month card on your dashboard and the Expenses total on the cash flow page are cash flow figures.
• Your budget counts spending in your spending categories, minus refunds. The Budget this month card on your dashboard and Spent this month on the budget page are budget figures.

The two totals can differ even when every transaction is categorized correctly. A gap usually traces back to a few transactions: a card payment, a refund, a transfer, or something excluded from the budget.

Cash flow counts all money out, filtered by your settings

Cash flow counts every categorized transaction that moves money out of an account in Zypper: purchases, bills, and transfers alike. Budget settings don't apply to cash flow, so a transaction, category, or account that's excluded from your budget still counts there.

Three settings change what cash flow counts. They're behind the gear (Cash Flow Settings) at the top of the cash flow page, and the dashboard's Spending this month card follows them too:

• Show transfers has a switch for each transfer category: Transfers, Credit Card Payments, Balance Transfer, and Cash Advance. All four are on by default. Turning one off removes that category from cash flow, for money in and money out.
• Hide account movements is on by default. It hides money moved between your own accounts once Zypper has linked the two sides of the transfer. A transfer whose other side isn't in Zypper can't be linked, so it still counts.
• Net refunds against spending is on by default. While it's on, a refund that Zypper has linked to its original purchase reduces that purchase's category instead of counting as income.

Your budget leaves out excluded and non-spending activity

Your budget's spent figure adds up your spending categories for the calendar month. It leaves out the following, which cash flow still counts unless your cash flow settings hide them:

• Excluded transactions — any transaction whose Budget Impact is set to Excluded from the budget
• Excluded and archived categories — every transaction in a category that has Exclude from the budget turned on or has been archived. On the budget page, these categories are under Show N unbudgeted at the bottom of their group.
• Accounts outside the budget — only checking, savings, and credit card accounts with Include in the budget turned on count toward your budget
• Transfer categories — Transfers, Credit Card Payments, and the other transfer categories never count as budget spending, linked or not
• Savings goal purchases — a purchase with a Savings Goal set counts toward that goal instead of its spending category

If Hide recurring is on in the budget page's Display settings, recurring payments come out of the spent figure as well, on both the budget page and the dashboard's Budget this month card. See Tracking your spending pace for what that toggle changes, and Excluding transactions from your budget for how exclusions work.

Money in under a spending category reduces only budget spending

Your budget subtracts money that comes back from what you've spent:

• A refund that Zypper has linked to its original purchase is subtracted from the purchase's category.
• Money in that's categorized under a spending category, such as a store return categorized as Clothing & Accessories, is subtracted from that category.

Cash flow subtracts linked refunds the same way while Net refunds against spending is on, which it is by default. Money in that's categorized under a spending category counts as income in cash flow either way, so the original purchase still counts in full toward Spending this month. Turning off Net refunds against spending makes cash flow count linked refunds as income too.

A payment to a card outside Zypper counts only in cash flow

A credit card payment has two sides: money out of your bank account and a payment received on the card. When both accounts are in Zypper, Zypper links the two sides automatically, and Hide account movements keeps them out of cash flow. Your budget never counts card payments, since the purchases on the card count when you make them.

When the card isn't connected, the payment has no other side to link to. Cash flow counts it as money out under Credit Card Payments while your budget leaves it out, so Spending this month comes out higher by the payment amount. Money you send to another person, or to an account you haven't connected, works the same way when it's categorized as Transfers.

To close this kind of gap:

• Connect the card, so its payments can be linked and its purchases count in both totals
• Turn off Credit Card Payments or Transfers under Show transfers if you don't consider those payments spending
• Recategorize any payment that's really a bill. A bill categorized as a transfer, such as an insurance premium categorized as Credit Card Payments, is left out of your budget until you recategorize it.

Finding the transactions behind a gap

The cash flow page lists the month's income and expenses by category, and clicking a row shows the transactions behind it:

1. Under Expenses, look for transfer categories such as Credit Card Payments and Transfers. Your budget doesn't count them.
2. Under Income, look for spending categories. Your budget subtracts money in under a spending category from spending. If Net refunds against spending is off, look for Refunds too, since your budget subtracts linked refunds.

On the budget page, Show N unbudgeted at the bottom of a group lists its excluded and archived categories. To check a single transaction, open it from the transactions list and look at its category, Budget Impact, and Savings Goal.

Common questions

Which total is right? Both are. Cash flow shows all the money that left your accounts, and your budget shows the spending you track against your plan. Use cash flow to see where money went, and your budget to see how you're doing against it.

Can I make the two totals match? You can bring them close. Turn off Credit Card Payments and Transfers under Show transfers, and leave Net refunds against spending on. Turning off a transfer category also removes money coming in under it from income. Anything your budget leaves out on purpose, such as excluded transactions, categories, and accounts, still counts in cash flow.

Why does my partner see a different spending total? Cash flow settings and the budget's Hide recurring toggle are saved separately for each person in a household. If your partner has changed them, the same transactions produce different totals on their dashboard.

Why is the budget total a whole number? It's rounded. Budget this month and the budget page's Spent this month show whole dollars, while Spending this month shows cents, so a gap of less than a dollar is rounding.

Do pending transactions count? Yes, in both totals. A transaction counts as soon as it arrives, whether it's pending or posted.

Does spending in a category with no budget amount count? Yes. Your budget counts spending in every spending category that isn't excluded or archived, including categories you haven't given an amount.