Setting a budget
- Open the Budget tab.
- Choose a cycle from the dropdown.
- Enter your limit.
- Tap Save Budget Limit.
Cycles
| Cycle | Runs |
|---|---|
| Monthly Budget | 1st to the last day of the month |
| Weekly Budget | Sunday to Saturday |
| 15 Days (Fortnightly) | 1st–15th, then 16th to month end |
| Yearly Budget | 1 January to 31 December |
Cycles follow the calendar. If you set a monthly budget on the 15th, it still ends on the last day of that month — not on the 15th of the next one. This keeps the Budget tab and the rest of the app counting the same months.
Reading the screen
| What it shows | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Spent / Remaining | How much has gone out this cycle, and what's left. |
| Safe to Spend Today | Your remaining money divided by the days left. Stay under it and you'll finish the cycle within budget. |
| Progress bar | How far through your limit you are. |
Zebal also alerts you when you cross 75% and 90% of your limit, so overspending doesn't come as a surprise at the end.
Carrying money between cycles
Two settings decide what happens when a cycle ends:
Carry forward unspent amount
Finish the month under budget and the leftover is added to next month's limit. Spend ₹8,000 of a ₹10,000 budget, and next month you have ₹12,000.
Deduct overspent deficit from next cycle
Go over and the excess is taken off next month. Spend ₹11,000 of a ₹10,000 budget, and next month you have ₹9,000.
These two never clash. Each cycle either ends under budget or over it, so only one of them can apply at a time. Turning both on simply means you've decided what should happen in either case.
Before your cycle ends
The day before a cycle finishes, Zebal sends a reminder to set your budget for the next one. This arrives even if the app is closed.
If you don't set a new budget
Each cycle starts fresh. If you haven't set a limit for the new period, the Budget tab shows No active budget limit set rather than silently reusing an old figure — a limit you set months ago may no longer be the one you want.
Your past budgets are kept, and appear in your exported data so you can see what your limit was in any earlier month.
AI advice and the weekly check-in
Two buttons appear once a budget is active:
- Get Smart AI Advice — a short, specific suggestion based on where your money is actually going this cycle.
- View Weekly Check-in — a review of how the week went, what stood out, and one thing to try next week. This also arrives as a notification once a week.
AI suggestions are prompts to think about, not financial advice. The app can only see what you've entered, and it can misread it. Any decision about your money remains yours.
Group budgets
Groups have their own separate budget, set by an admin. It works the same way — limit, cycle, carry-forward — but applies to the group's shared spending. See Groups.