BudgetSnapshot FAQ

A1: BudgetSnapshot is a free monthly budget tracker that runs in your browser. For each month you enter your income sources and your expenses by category, and the page shows a dashboard with total income, total expenses, the net balance and the savings rate, a donut chart and category bars of where the money went, the top three categories, a comparison of the last three months, and budget targets with progress bars and warnings. Everything you enter is kept in your browser, and you can export it all to a file. There is no server and no account.

A2: Nothing. There are no plans, no limit on months or entries and no features held back. Like every page on ZeroDataUpload, the tool is supported by advertising.

A3: No. There is no registration and no login. Open the page and add your first income line.

A4: Anyone who wants a clear monthly picture without a spreadsheet or a banking app: households, students, freelancers with uneven income, couples splitting a budget, and people who keep paper receipts and want to enter them in one sitting. It works at the level of categories rather than individual transactions, which is what makes it quick.

A5: Yes. The dashboard shows two tiles per row, the cards stack, and the forms open as windows that fit the screen. A month of entries is comfortable on a phone; the charts are easier to read on a larger screen.

A6: In your browser's storage on this device, under the tool's own name. Nothing is sent to a server; there is no account and no sync. Use Export to keep a copy as a file and Import to bring it back or move it to another device.

A7: Yes, as long as you use the same browser on the same device, do not clear its site data and are not in a private window. Clearing browsing data, uninstalling the browser or using a different profile removes the figures, so export them now and then.

A8: No. Since nothing is stored on a server there is nothing we could recover. The export file is your backup: Export writes every month to one file, and Import restores it.

A9: The tool itself stores only its own figures and settings in the browser. The page, like every page on this site, loads Google advertising and analytics code; the Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy explain what those services collect and how the cookie banner controls them. Your budget figures are never part of it.

A10: Yes. Pick any month and year in the toolbar; every month keeps its own income, expenses and budget targets. The dashboard compares the month with the one before it and the comparison card shows the last three months side by side.

A11: The list runs five years either side of the current year, and any year that already has data is added to it. Data imported from a file keeps its years.

A12: The amount is added to that category's total for the month, so a week of grocery receipts becomes one Food line. Category names are matched without regard to case. To correct a figure, use the pencil on the line.

A13: Not as separate lines. The tool works by category on purpose: an expense is a category and an amount, and adding to a category combines the amounts. For a list of every transaction, a spreadsheet or a banking app is the better tool; this one is for the monthly picture.

A14: Housing, Food, Transportation, Utilities, Healthcare, Insurance, Entertainment, Shopping, Education, Savings, Debt Payment, Personal Care, Subscriptions and Other. Type anything else in the Category field.

A15: Each expense category has a colour that the donut chart, the category bars, the legend and the budget list use. Pick one of seventeen when you add a new category; the next free colour is suggested for the one after.

A16: Yes. Every income and expense line has a pencil to change its name or amount and a bin to delete it. Deleting asks for confirmation first.

A17: Savings rate = (total income minus total expenses) divided by total income, as a percentage. 20 percent or more is shown as excellent, 10 to 20 as good, anything above zero as room to improve, and zero or less as no savings this month.

A18: The income and expense tiles compare the month with the previous one when that month has entries: an arrow and a percentage up or down. Lower expenses and higher income are shown in green, the opposite in red. When the previous month is empty the note stays blank.

A19: The donut chart shows each expense category's share of the month's total, with the total in the middle and a legend beneath. The category bars show the same amounts side by side, largest first. The top three categories are listed with their share, and the three-month comparison shows total expenses for the current month and the two before it, with the change between them.

A20: It sets a spending limit for one category in the current month. The Budget Targets card shows a progress bar that turns amber at 75 percent and red at 100 percent, the expense line carries an over-budget note, and a warning appears the moment an expense pushes the category over its limit.

A21: No. Targets belong to a month, like its entries, so a one-off month can have different limits. Set them again in the new month; the category list offers every quick category and every category you have used that month.

A22: Yes. Choose it from the list in Manage Budgets and enter the limit. The bar stays at zero until the first expense in that category arrives.

A23: No. The currency setting changes the symbol shown in front of every amount; the figures themselves are not converted. Keep one budget in one currency.

A24: Dollar ($), euro (€), pound (£), yen (¥, also used for the yuan), rupee (₹), won (₩), Canadian dollar (C$) and Australian dollar (A$). Change it in Settings.

A25: One file named budget-snapshot-date.json with every month you have entered, the currency and the month you were looking at. Keep it with your other backups; it is plain text and opens in any editor.

A26: It reads a file saved by Export, checks that it really is a BudgetSnapshot file, says how many months it holds, and on your confirmation replaces the figures in this browser with it. Files from the earlier version of the tool import as well. To merge two files rather than replace, export first, then import, then re-enter the few months that differ.

A27: Yes. Export on the first device, copy the file across (email, cloud folder, a USB stick) and Import on the second. The two copies are independent after that; the tool does not sync.

A28: A page with the month's four tiles, the income and expense lists, the charts, the comparison and the targets, in two columns, without the toolbar, buttons or notes. Use the browser's print window to save it as a PDF.

A29: The browser is blocking site data: a private window, a setting that clears data on exit, or storage that is full. The tool shows a message when a save fails. Use a normal window, allow site data for zerodataupload.com, and export regularly.

A30: The file is not one that Export wrote, or it was edited and is no longer valid. Use the .json file exactly as it was saved.

A31: It redraws when the window is resized and when the theme changes. If it still looks wrong, reload the page; the figures are safe in the browser's storage.

A32: Yes. Ctrl+N adds income, Ctrl+Shift+N an expense, Ctrl+E exports, Ctrl+I imports, Ctrl+P prints, Ctrl+, opens Settings, Ctrl+D switches the theme, Escape closes a window and ? shows the list. In a form, Enter moves from the name to the amount and saves from the amount. On a Mac use Cmd for Ctrl.