How the Cashflow Page Works in SortMe

The Cashflow page helps you see where your money is heading. It takes your income, your budget, your one-off items, and the money you already have in your connected cash accounts, and draws a picture of your cash balance over the year ahead. This article explains what each part of the page means and how the numbers are worked out.

Getting to the Cashflow page

On the sidebar menu click "Save" → "Cashflow".

What you need before the Cashflow page can work

To see your projection, you need two things set up:

An income on your Budget.
A budget with at least one category.

If either is missing, the page shows a short set-up message instead of the chart. Once both are in place, your Cashflow appears automatically.

To start the projection from your real balance and to see your Cashflow Health score, you also need at least one connected account that the Cashflow page can use. That means an everyday or savings bank account, or a credit card. KiwiSaver, investment, and tax accounts are not used on this page.

Credit cards are now included by default. Your card balance is money you owe, so it is usually a negative number. Including it gives you a truer picture of where you stand, but it also means your projected balance is lower than it was before this change. Nothing has gone wrong with your budget. You can untick your credit card at any time (see the next section).

The Projected Cashflow Balance chart

The main chart shows your cash balance over time as a single line.

The past part of the line is built from your recorded account balances over recent months, so it shows what actually happened.
The future part of the line is the projection. It starts from the total balance of your selected cash accounts today, then moves up or down each period based on your budget.

If you budget to keep money each period (your income is higher than your spending), the future line trends up. If you spend more than you earn, it trends down. You can turn accounts on and off to change the starting balance the projection builds on. Turning accounts on or off changes the starting point only; it does not change your income or your budget totals.

Choosing which accounts are included

Select Manage Accounts on the Cashflow page to see every account the projection can use, and tick or untick the ones you want. The total balance of your ticked accounts is the starting point of the projection.

Your choice is saved. Whatever you tick or untick is stored on your SortMe account, so it stays the same when you refresh the page, come back tomorrow, or sign in on another device. You only need to set it once.

Two things are worth knowing about how the saved selection behaves:

If you connect a new bank later, any new everyday, savings, or credit card account is added to your selection automatically, so it is not silently left out.
An account you unticked yourself stays unticked. SortMe will not add it back for you.

If you untick every account, the page cannot work out a projection or a health score. Instead of showing a number, it asks you to select at least one account. Tick one account back on and your Cashflow returns straight away.

How the projection is calculated

The projection is built from two numbers:

Your income: the total of every income source on your Budget, added together.
Your expenses: the total of your budget, taken straight from your Budget page.

The difference between them is how much your balance changes each period. Your income and your budget can be set to different cycles (for example, paid weekly but budgeting fortnightly). SortMe converts both to the same basis, so the projection stays correct no matter which cycles you use.

How the Savings category is treated

Money you budget into a category named "Savings" is money you are keeping, not spending. You are moving it to another account you own. Because of this, SortMe leaves your Savings budget out of your projected spending, so it does not pull your projected balance down.

Because your Savings budget is left out of your spending, your projection can only rise by the real gap between your income and your other (non-Savings) spending. Budgeting a very large Savings amount will not push the line up beyond that gap, and it can never turn a falling line into a rising one. If your everyday spending is already higher than your income, the line still trends down, no matter what you enter for Savings. This keeps the projection honest: it reflects what you can realistically keep, not just the number you typed in.

The safety minimum

The safety minimum is the cash buffer you want to keep on hand. It is shown as a line on the Cashflow chart, so you can see whether your projected balance stays above it or dips below it during the year.

SortMe sets a starting value for you based on your budgeted monthly expenses, so the line is useful from day one. After that, the value is yours to set. You can edit it on the Cashflow page at any time, and your figure is saved. Once it is set, nothing changes it automatically. Editing your budget will not move it. If you want it to change, change it yourself.

There is no single right number. A common starting point is enough cash to cover a few weeks of your usual spending, so an unexpected bill does not put you in the red.

Where your monthly expenses come from

The expenses used in your Cashflow come straight from your Budget page, but they are worked out group by group. For each budget group, SortMe counts the higher of these two numbers:

the group's Spend Limit, or
the total of the category budgets inside that group.

This is why your Cashflow expenses can look higher than the budget rows you can see. If a group has a Spend Limit of $750 but only $200 of categories budgeted inside it, the Cashflow counts $750, because that is what you have said you are prepared to spend. It matches the Total Budgeted figure on your Budget page.

To bring the number down, lower the group's Spend Limit so it lines up with what you actually budget inside it. Budget groups you have deleted are not counted at all.

Breakdown by Period

Below the chart, the Breakdown by Period cards show your regular income and your regular expenses for a weekly, fortnightly, and monthly view. Use these to check your everyday cashflow at whichever cycle suits you. Your one-off items are shown separately, month by month, so you can see them on top of your regular budget.

One-off items

One-offs are single income or expense items that happen on a specific date, such as a bonus, a tax bill, or a holiday. They are shown on your Cashflow for the current year and are factored into the projection on the month they fall in, so a large one-off shows up as a step in the line rather than a change to every period.

Cashflow Health score

The Cashflow Health gauge gives your cashflow a score out of 100, with a label:

Poor: 0 to 30
Needs Attention: 31 to 50
Good: 51 to 70
Very Good: 71 to 85
Excellent: 86 and above

The score is based on two things:

Your spending margin: how much of your income is left after your expenses. A bigger gap between income and spending lifts your score.
Your buffer: how many months of expenses your current cash could cover if your income stopped. More months of cover lifts your score.

If your cash would not cover even one month of expenses, the score is reduced further, because a thin buffer is a real risk. You will also see a short line of feedback under the score that explains your result in plain language. The same score also appears as a pill on your Overview page.

AI Cashflow summary

The Cashflow page includes a short written summary of your cashflow, generated for you in plain English. It reflects your current income, expenses, and balance. The summary updates about once an hour, so after you change your budget it can take a short time to catch up to your latest numbers.

Frequently asked questions

Why did my cashflow or health score change after an update?

We regularly improve how the Cashflow projection is calculated so it more closely matches what you can realistically expect. When we do, some numbers may shift. This is expected and means your Cashflow is more accurate.

Why did my projected balance suddenly drop?

The most likely reason is that your credit card is now included in the Cashflow by default. A card balance is money you owe, so adding it lowers the projected balance. Your budget has not changed. Open Manage Accounts to see which accounts are counted, and untick your credit card if you would rather leave it out.

Why are my Cashflow expenses higher than the budget rows I can see?

Each budget group counts the higher of its Spend Limit or the total of the categories inside it. A group with a large Spend Limit and few categories budgeted will contribute the Spend Limit. See "Where your monthly expenses come from" above.

Why is my Cashflow line going down?

A downward line means your budget currently spends more than your income each period. Review your Budget page to find areas to adjust, and the line will update to match.

Can I still budget as much Savings as I want?

Yes. You can enter any amount in your Savings category. Nothing on the Budget page is blocked or limited. The Cashflow projection just leaves your Savings out of your projected spending, so your projected balance rises only by the real gap between your income and your other spending.