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Are you ready to go digital with your finances? This article is the first part of a general guide for using budgeting software. It will help you get the most out of the budget app you’ve chosen, starting with downloading the app and going through the initial setup. Once you’re confident with your setup, you can read the next article in the series to learn about maintaining a budget app. 

We’ll start with planning categories and deciding how to handle past transactions. Since your expenses are unique to you, you will need to customize the categories in your budgeting software to fit your specific lifestyle. Sensible Financial has a set of spending categories we use for financial planning, which are a good place to start. 

You’ll also need to decide whether, and how, to categorize past transactions. Categorizing past transactions can be overwhelming, but it can also help you get a head start on understanding your current expenses and how to budget in the future. Sensible Financial has some practical tips for when and how to categorize past transactions in your budgeting software. 

This article is exclusively for Sensible Financial members. To view the full article, log in or sign up for free. 

You’ll gain access to: 

• Sensible Financial’s list of spending categories 

• Questions to create your own custom spending category list 

• How to simplify spending categories to streamline your budgeting 

We hear from many clients that they started using a budgeting app and then abandoned it after a few months. This guide for getting the most from your budgeting software will help you make a budgeting app simple and useful enough to turn into a long-term habit. And if you are truly unsure where to start, Sensible Financial’s financial experts can also advise you on how to use budgeting software. We are here to help.