What the cap does

The cap is the amount you set in Create a budget.

Soft and hard

Soft is the start. It warns around 80% and at the cap. The expense still saves.

Hard can refuse a new expense that would go past the cap. It does not stop a transfer. Changing an expense later is not checked again.

What it watches

The cap follows each person’s share of an expense, not who paid. See Paid by vs sharers.

With nothing selected under What counts, those expense shares count. Picking Categories, Places, Merchants, or Memories narrows that. A parent category also covers the categories under it.

Money you send a person does not count. Money you send a merchant counts when that merchant is one you picked. If that payment is the same expense, it is not added again on top of the share.

Just me uses your shares. Shared also uses the shares of people who have joined. Group uses the shares of people in that group, on expenses in that group.

When it resets

Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly. Monthly is the start.

Forever means there is no fixed end date. The cap keeps resetting on the period you chose.

A dated window, such as This month or 90 days, ends when that range ends. The start can be in the past, and spending already in that stretch counts. The end can stay open, or it must be today or later. An end that has already passed means the budget is no longer running.