Set up your first budget.
New Spense accounts run in Spense Magic: the budget builds itself from what you actually spend. There is no setup wizard to survive — this guide is about reading what appears, and taking control where you want it.
Give Spense something to work with
A budget built from your spending needs some spending to look at. Connect a bank account and let the first sync land, or add a few transactions by hand — either works. As transactions arrive, Spense Magic files each one into a shared category: every coffee shop lands in Coffee Shops, every supermarket in Groceries, so your budget stays a dozen readable lines instead of one per merchant.
Read the Budget tab
Open the Budget tab. The header shows the month and what you've spent so far — “Spent in September” under the big number. Below it, each category is a small tree: the parent row rolls up its subcategories, and each child row shows its own amount. Until you set limits, rows simply read “$38 spent” — Spense is tracking, not judging.
Set your first spending limit
Limits are optional — set them where overspending actually hurts. Swipe a subcategory row to the side until the amber target button appears, tap it, enter a Target Amount, and hit Save Changes. The row now tells you where you stand: “$22 left”, “At budget”, or “$14 over”, with the bar turning amber as you near the limit and red past it. Once any target exists, the header gains a progress ring for the whole month.
Prefer hands-on envelope budgeting where you assign every dollar yourself? That's Classic Mode (More tab → Data Management → Budget Mode) — and the thinking behind both modes is The Spense Method.