Introducing Smart Budget Builder: Track Expenses Across Multiple Payment Cadences

I built this budget feature because I kept messing up the math. Rent is monthly, groceries are weekly, car insurance is yearly—trying to add these up in my head (or even in a spreadsheet) was annoying and error-prone.

So Budget Builder just... does the math for you. Track each expense at whatever frequency makes sense, then view your total at any cadence you want.

That's basically it. The rest of this post is just showing how it works.

Six Supported Cadences

Create line items with the cadence that matches how you actually pay:

• Daily: Coffee habit, parking, daily subscriptions
• Weekly: Groceries, gas, gym classes
• Biweekly: Some paycheck-based expenses
• Bimonthly (1st & 15th): Twice-monthly bills
• Monthly: Rent, utilities, most subscriptions
• Yearly: Insurance, annual subscriptions, taxes

The Conversion Math

Pick any cadence to view your total—monthly, yearly, weekly, whatever. The conversion accounts for things like 52 weeks per year (not 48) and leap years, because those details matter when you're dealing with actual money.

So if you track your $50/week grocery budget, it correctly converts to ~$216.67/month (not $200), because 52 weeks ÷ 12 months = 4.33 weeks per month.

Charts and Stuff

There's a pie chart showing categories and a bar chart showing cadence distribution. Hover over anything and the related stuff highlights across all the views. It's honestly just nice to use—way better than staring at a list of numbers.

Using Budgets in Transfer Templates

This is the part I'm most excited about. You can reference budgets in transfer templates, so when you update your budget, your automated transfers update too.

Say you have a "Monthly Bills" budget with rent, utilities, phone, internet—totaling $1,460. Create a transfer template that references that budget at monthly cadence, and it'll automatically transfer $1,460 when you run it. Change your budget later? The template picks up the new amount.

Or if you get paid biweekly, create a budget and view it at biweekly cadence to see how much needs to come out of each paycheck. The math handles itself.

How to Use It

Go to Budgets in the sidebar, create a new one, add line items with amounts and cadences. Pick a target cadence to see your total. Then hover around the charts to explore where your money's going.

If you want automation, reference the budget in a transfer template. Now when you tweak your budget—add a new subscription, remove an old one—the template amount updates automatically. No more updating the same number in two places.

Try It Out

Budget Builder is live now. If you're a subscriber, it's already in your sidebar. If not, the 14-day trial at tricksy.io includes full access.

Let me know if you find bugs or have ideas for improvements. I'm still figuring out what else people need from budgets, so feedback actually matters here.