Debit & Credit User Guide
Creating Plans
How to Create a Plan?
To start creating a new financial plan, select the "Plans" section in the app and then click on the button in the top right corner. It will be either a "+" button or a "…" button, depending on whether you already have a plan or not.
New Plan Form
The very first thing that you need to enter is your plan name, it could be anything you want. After that, you need to select the start and the end month of your plan. At this moment, Debit & Credit supports plans up to 12 months long.
You will see two different sections: Expense and Income. Both sections have a button to add a category. Once you add a category to a section, you will be asked to enter its expected amount and payment frequency. There is more information about payment frequency and why it is needed below.
Custom Groups
You also can group payments into separate groups. For instance, you want to plan your entertainment expenses altogether. To do that, you need to click on the "+" button next to the "Expenses" section title and then select the "Add Group" option.
You will be asked to enter group name, its amount, payment frequency and add then categories to it.
Using Tags
Tags can also be included in a financial plan. This is useful if you use tags for your trips and you want them to appear in a plan.
Tags always have a priority over categories in financial plans. Any expense with a tag will by counted under a tag in a plan, not under its category.
To do add a tag, you need to click on the "+" button next to the "Expenses" section title and then select the "Add Tag" option. If you don't see that option, please make sure that you have enabled tags in the app settings. You can read about tags here.
Payment Frequency
Every plan item, whether it is a category, a tag or a custom group will have its own payment frequency. Regardless of what you choose, its amount will be converted to its monthly amount.
If you select "Weekly" or "Fortnightly", the app will ask you for the next payment date for this item to make a correct calculation.
Annual Payments
Plan items with the "annual" payment frequency are processed slightly differently Debit & Credit will match planned amounts to actual expenses as long as you stay under the annual limit.
For instance, if you add an annual plan item with a limit of $10,000 and spend only $1,000 in the first month, the app will display $1,000 as the planned amount for that month. Only when your total spending during the year exceeds the annual limit, the app will start displaying amounts in red (overspending). However, should you not reach the annual limit by the end of the plan, the app will display the remaining amount as "planned" in the last month.
Please note that annual amounts are processed this way only when using version 7.2 of the app (or higher) when running on iOS 18 or macOS 15. This improved logic will only apply to new plans and new plan items created with version 7.2.
Duplicating Existing Plan
You also have an option to duplicate an existing financial plan. This is useful when you have finished a plan for a year and you want to start a similar plan again. Should you choose this option, amounts for the last month will be suggested.
Suggestions From the App
Once you start creating a new plan, you might see the "Apply Suggestions" button. If you tap it, the app will use its suggestions for a new plan based on your existing budgets, scheduled transactions and your average expenses over the last 3 months.
Related topics: about plans, adjusting plans.