Budget by your pay cycle, not just the calendar month

Here's a small thing that quietly makes budgeting harder: most budgeting apps assume you think in calendar months, but most New Zealanders are paid weekly or fortnightly. So your budget resets on the 1st while your money actually arrives on a Thursday. From today, KeaBudget can work the way you're actually paid.

Set your pay cycle

Head to Budgets and set how often you're paid (weekly, fortnightly or monthly) and a recent or upcoming payday. That's it.

What changes

Once your pay cycle is set:

• Budgets show per cycle. A $900 a month grocery budget shows as about $415 a fortnight, so the number matches how you actually shop and get paid.
• The dashboard tracks the current cycle. Your budget progress measures spending since your last payday, not since the 1st of the month.
• Days to payday, at a glance. A little chip tells you how many days your money needs to stretch, so you know whether you're coasting or need to go careful.

Prefer calendar months? Leave the setting on monthly and nothing changes.

Also new for the money-in side

While we were in there, the category picker on the import screen and the transaction form is now searchable, so if you've got a long list of categories you can just type "gro" and jump to Groceries.

This is one of the most-requested shapes of budgeting for NZ, and it's the kind of thing a big overseas app will probably never bother with. If you've got ideas to make it better, pop them on the ideas board.