Learning centre · Together · 4 min · screens from October 2026

Starting next year's budget from this one

January is a good time for a fresh start, but a bad time to rebuild two dozen envelopes by hand. A new budget can start as a copy of this one: its structure (envelopes, targets, bills, goals, and assumptions) and only the accounts you pick. Last year's budget stays exactly as it was.

What you'll do

See what a copy brings across, and choose which accounts come too
Start next year's budget from this one in a single step
Keep last year's budget open beside it, or close it
Know when a copy is the wrong tool

Step 1

Structure first, accounts by choice

A copy takes the structure of the budget: the categories and envelopes, their targets, the bills, the assets and loans if you want them, and the goals, with the outlook and its scenarios behind the plan. It never copies what you assigned: every envelope starts at zero. You choose the accounts one by one, because an account can only belong to one budget. Leave out keeps an account in this budget; Balance brings today's balance across as a single starting transaction; History brings every transaction, already settled. Whatever money comes across goes to Ready to assign in the new budget, so the first job of a new year is giving that money its jobs again. An account connected to a bank can take its bank connection with it, or leave the connection with the budget it is in now.

The Start a budget dialog: a name, the budget to start from, and seven things to include, each with a count — Start a budget: the parts of the structure, each with a count, then each account, with the choice to leave it out, bring its balance, or bring its whole history.

Start a budget: the parts of the structure, each with a count, then each account, with the choice to leave it out, bring its balance, or bring its whole history.

start a 2027 budget from this one: envelopes, targets, bills, goals, assumptions, holdings and loans.

Step 2

Two budgets, side by side

No plan limits how many budgets you can have. The Reyes household keeps 2026 open until the January statements are reconciled, then closes it. The switcher in the sidebar moves between budgets, and every screen changes to match. Each budget keeps its own accounts and transactions, and nothing in one shows up in the other. A bank connection belongs to one budget at a time, so when 2027 takes over the chequing connection, January's transactions go there and December's stay where they were.

The Budgets screen: this year's budget with Start from this and Edit beside it, and a Budget button to make a new one — Budgets. Have as many as you like, each separate from the others; only bank connections cost money.

Budgets. Have as many as you like, each separate from the others; only bank connections cost money.

Step 3

Or start from nothing

The same window, with nothing chosen under Start from, starts a budget from scratch: just a name and a currency. A budget counts in one currency, which you can set while it is empty and which is locked once anything has been added. The side business gets a budget of its own, and the household budget stays the household's.

new budget called Side business, in CAD, empty