Budgets for rentals that track themselves
One number for the month or a budget per category, per property when you need it, with mortgage payments and recurring bills posting themselves.
Most budgets die in the second week
You make a budget on the 1st, and by the 12th you've stopped looking at it, because keeping it current means typing every expense into a spreadsheet and redoing the totals. In Mr. Bienes you set one number for the month (say, $3,000) or split it by category, and every expense you log counts against it the moment you save it.
The fixed costs are the ones that slip: insurance, HOA fees, the internet bill, the mortgage. Put the bills on recurring templates once and they post themselves each month, and mortgage payments you record in Loans land here on their own.
And once you own more than one rental, the question changes. It stops being "am I on budget?" and becomes "which property is costing me?" Property budgets answer that building by building, with shared costs split fairly and big repairs kept apart from everyday spending.
How budgeting works
- 1
Set the number
Type one cap for the month, or give each category its own budget. A cap carries forward to every later month until you change it, so it's set once, not twelve times.
- 2
Put fixed costs on autopilot
Insurance, HOA, subscriptions: add each as a recurring template with its amount and day, and it posts itself every month. Skip a month or pause one whenever you need to.
- 3
Log spending as it happens
The quick-add bar takes an amount and a description, and suggests the category from what you've entered before. On a phone it sits at the bottom of the screen, where your thumb already is.
- 4
Know before the month is gone
A pace line compares what you've spent with how much of the month has passed, so you find out you're running hot on the 12th, not the 31st. Categories near their limit warn you; categories over it turn red.
- 5
Go per property when you need to
Property budgets give each building its own budget, spending and cash flow. Shared costs like insurance split across properties by rent, expenses still missing a receipt are counted for you, and any period exports to CSV for your accountant.
The short version
Personal and property budgets
Keep household spending separate from each property's business budget: two views, one app.
Portfolio roll-ups
Every property's budget, actual and difference in one table (a month, a quarter, your fiscal year or any range), with the ones over budget pinned to the top.
Mortgage-aware by default
Mortgage payments post themselves as budget transactions, so housing costs never go missing.
Know mid-month, not at month end
A pace line tells you whether you're ahead or behind for the month, and the category chart shows where the money went.
Common questions
- Can I just set one number for the month?
- Yes. A single cap governs that month and every month after it until you change it. Category budgets are optional; they only divide the cap up.
- Will it import my bank transactions?
- Not yet. Expenses are entered by you, posted by your recurring templates, or carried in from the mortgage payments you record, so every line is one you've actually seen.
- Won't one big repair wreck the month?
- Not if you file it as a capital expense. Capital costs stay out of the monthly over-budget warnings. They still count toward what the property has cost you over time, including how close it is to paying for itself.
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