Cover an overspent category
Spent more than planned? Cover the gap with money from a category that has some to spare. If you don't, it comes out of next month's Ready to Assign.
How it works
Five steps from “where did it go?” to “I've got this.”
SpendWise uses envelope budgeting: you plan with the money you actually have, then track spending against that plan. Here's exactly what that looks like in the app.
Watch the tour
See it work in about a minute
Budget a paycheque, cover an overspend and split a bill, all in the real app.
Read the transcript
A 75-second narrated walkthrough of the SpendWise web app, with captions. Maya, Jo, Ravi and every amount are made up for this demo.
- Budget. Maya's budget groups her categories into Essentials (Rent, Groceries, Phone & internet), Lifestyle (Dining out, Fun money) and Savings (Emergency fund). She has $400.00 Ready to Assign. She taps Groceries, assigns $320.00 and saves; Ready to Assign drops to $80.00.
- Ready to Assign. On the Expense tab she records her $1,600.00 paycheque as income, and Ready to Assign rises to $1,680.00. Back on the budget she assigns $1,100.00 to Rent, $150.00 to Dining out and $430.00 to her Emergency fund. Ready to Assign reaches $0.00: every dollar has a job.
- Covering overspending. She records a $186.50 birthday dinner in Dining out, which is now overspent by $36.50. She taps Cover, picks Groceries and checks the preview (Groceries goes from $320.00 to $283.50, Dining out from −$36.50 to $0.00), then confirms. Dining out is back to $0.00.
- Splitting a bill. In her Friday dinners group with Jo and Ravi, Jo already paid $120.00 for concert tickets, so Maya owes $40.00. She adds Dinner at Luigi's, $96.00, split equally at $32.00 each. Now $24.00 is owed to her: Ravi owes her $32.00 and she owes Jo $8.00. Ravi pays her back outside the app, so she opens Settle up, records that Ravi paid her $32.00 and confirms. Ravi and Maya are all settled. SpendWise doesn't move money; it records payments made elsewhere.
-
Create your free account
Sign up with your name, email and a password, then confirm your email address. That's it — no card, no bank login.
-
Tell SpendWise about your money
A short guided setup asks for the basics:
- Your income after tax and how often you're paid
- Your currency — one of 30, from Canadian dollars to Japanese yen
- The categories you spend on, with a monthly amount for each
- How much is in your main account today — your starting point
-
Give every dollar a job
Your budget shows Ready to Assign: money you have that isn't planned yet. Assign it to categories until it reaches $0.00.
Only real money counts. Income you're expecting later doesn't show up here until it arrives, so you never plan with money you don't have.
-
Record spending as it happens
Add an expense or income with the amount, payee and category. The category's “available” amount updates right away.
You enter transactions yourself — SpendWise doesn't connect to your bank. Many people find that a few seconds per purchase is exactly what keeps them aware.
-
Always see what's available
Home brings together what matters now: money waiting to be assigned, categories that need attention, how much is safe to spend today, and where your money went this month.
A quick check-in walks you through recent activity so nothing slips by.
When life happens
Plans change. SpendWise keeps up.
Move money between categories
Priorities shift. Move money from one category to another at any time — your total stays the same.
Assign new income
When you record income, it lands in Ready to Assign, waiting for you to give it a job.