Envelopes Overview
What an envelope is, what it tracks, and how it fits into your budget.
Envelopes Overview
An envelope is a named spending category with money assigned to it: the digital version of the classic cash-envelope system. Envelopes aren’t a side feature in Moniqo; they’re the core of how your budget works. Every dollar you plan to spend lives in one.
What Every Envelope Tracks
Each envelope carries two numbers:
- Allocated amount: how much you’ve assigned to it. This comes from your budget’s “To Be Budgeted” pool.
- Spent amount: how much has actually gone out against it, updated automatically as you tag transactions with this envelope.
Moniqo calculates the rest for you: the remaining balance (allocated minus spent), and whether the envelope is overspent (spent has exceeded allocated).
The Envelopes Dashboard
Opening the Envelopes section shows every active envelope in your budget, along with:
- Summary cards for Total Allocated, Total Spent, Remaining Budget, and how many envelopes are currently overspent.
- List or grid view, a search box, and a sort order (alphabetical, highest allocated, highest spent, most remaining, or overspent first).
- Sidebar widgets, including a Budget Health Score, your Top Spend envelopes, an Allocation Breakdown chart, and Monthly Progress, that summarize your overall envelope activity at a glance.
Selecting any envelope opens its detail page, with a closer look at its balance, transaction history, and spending patterns. See Manage Envelopes for the full tour.
Why Envelopes Matter
Envelopes turn a budget from a single lump number into a plan you can actually follow. Instead of asking “do I have enough money this month,” you ask “do I have enough left in Groceries,” a much easier question to answer, and one Moniqo answers for you in real time.
Tips
- Think of your envelopes as the categories in your plan, not folders for money you’ve already spent. Allocation happens before spending, not after.
- You don’t need an envelope for every possible expense on day one. See Understanding Envelope Budgeting for how to approach the first pass.
Related Pages
Next Steps
Read Understanding Envelope Budgeting to see the philosophy behind allocation and spending, or jump straight to Create an Envelope if you’re ready to set one up.