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1 · What is Allot?

Allot is a personal budget tracker that runs entirely inside your browser. Every rupee, pound, or dollar you record stays in your device's local storage — nothing is sent to a server unencrypted, and no account is required. After the initial page load, no internet connection is needed for budgeting. Cloud Sync is the only feature that requires a connection, and it is opt-in.

Allot follows the envelope budgeting method: each month, you decide in advance how much money goes into each spending category. As you record transactions, the "Available" balance in each category goes down. When a category hits zero, you've spent your envelope for that area — and you consciously decide whether to move money from another category or cut back.

Key concepts

• Ready to Assign — Income you've received but not yet allocated to any category. Keep this at ₹0.00 by assigning all income to categories each month.
• Budgeted — The amount you've planned to spend in a category this month.
• Spent — Actual transactions recorded against the category.
• Available — Budgeted minus Spent. Green means under budget; red means overspent. Unspent amounts carry forward to the next month.

See it in action

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2 · First Run Setup

When you open Allot for the first time, a quick onboarding wizard walks you through choosing your currency and creating your first account, picking the spending areas you care about, and entering your monthly income. This takes about 60 seconds.

Step 1 — Choose your currency

Step 2 — Create your first account

Keyboard shortcuts

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3 · The Budget View

The Budget view is your financial command centre. It shows every category, how much you've budgeted for the month, how much you've spent, and how much remains. Use the < > arrows at the top to navigate between months.

The header bar

• Month navigator — click ‹ / › to move between months. Free users see only the current month.
• Ready to Assign — unbudgeted income. Every rupee you earn should be assigned to a category. Click the badge to see the breakdown.
• ⋮ Menu — access accounts, backup, export, recurring transactions, settings, and upgrade options. Preferences (date format, rollover, group subtotals), Restore, and Help & Guide live under ⚙ Settings.
• 🌱 Simple — a toggle at the right of the tab row. Switches between the full envelope table (the default) and a single Safe to spend number. See below.
• + Transaction (FAB) — the floating blue button at the bottom-right. Always available for quick transaction entry.

Reading the category table

Each category row has three columns:

Column	What it means	Colour meaning
Budgeted	The amount you planned to spend this month. Click to edit inline.	Blue underline = editable
Spent	Total of all expense transactions in this category this month.	Always dark text
Available	Budgeted − Spent + carryover from previous month.	Green = positive, Red = overspent, Grey = zero

Setting a category budget

Click any amount in the Budgeted column to edit it inline. An input field appears — type the new amount and press Enter to save, or Esc to cancel.

Carryover

If you don't spend your full budget in a category, the leftover amount automatically carries forward as a bonus balance for the following month. A small sub-line shows how much carried over (e.g. +₹450 from May). Overspending carries forward as a negative balance, meaning next month starts with a deficit in that category.

Simple view — "Safe to spend"

Tap the 🌱 Simple toggle in the tab row to swap the Planned / Spent / Remaining table for a single headline number: Safe to spend this month. It answers the one question the table makes you calculate — "how much can I actually spend right now?"

The number is your remaining budget across all categories, and it holds back bills still due later this month from your recurring schedules, so it reflects money you can genuinely spend without shorting an upcoming payment. Below the hero number, each category shows a plain "₹X left / over / all used ✓" line with a mini status bar; tap a card to drill into that category's transactions, or use its + button for a quick add.

Three things are held back from the number, each shown on its own line beneath it: bills still due later this month, your credit card payment due this month, and anything sitting in a savings category.

Savings categories

Tick Treat as savings when adding or editing a category (see §8 Managing Categories & Groups) to mark it as money you are deliberately parking — an emergency fund, a holiday pot, a new phone. Its whole balance — this month's planned amount plus everything carried over from earlier months — is subtracted from Safe to spend and shown as "− ₹X set aside in savings". Without this, a year of carried-over emergency fund reads as money you are free to spend today.

Savings categories are marked with a small savings tag in the envelope table, and their card in Simple view reads "₹X saved" instead of "left". The Emergency Fund category created during onboarding is flagged for you; untick the box any time to hand the money back to Safe to spend. Overspending a savings category still counts against you in full.

The toggle is remembered per device. The full envelope table remains the default and is unchanged for power users — switch back any time with the same toggle.

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4 · Recording Transactions

Every time you spend or receive money, record it in Allot. Transactions update both your account balance and your category spending in real time.

Click the + Transaction button (the floating button, bottom-right of any view) to open the Add Transaction modal.

Adding an expense

Adding income

Select Income at the top of the modal. The Category field is hidden — income goes into your "Ready to Assign" pot, which you then distribute to budget categories. This keeps the separation between money in and money allocated clean.

Transfers between accounts

Select Transfer to move money between two accounts — for example, paying off your credit card from your savings account, or moving cash to your wallet. Both accounts update atomically: the source decreases, the destination increases. Transfers do not affect any budget category.

Split transactions

Click Split transaction (link below the Memo field) to divide a single transaction across multiple categories. Enter the payee and total amount, then assign portions to different categories. The running total at the bottom shows how much is still unassigned.

Example: A ₹2,500 D-Mart bill split as ₹1,800 → Groceries and ₹700 → Household Supplies.

Recurring transactions

Check Repeat this transaction on any expense or income to create a recurring template. Options:

• Monthly — choose the day of the month (1st–28th). Allot clamps to the last day of shorter months.
• Weekly — choose the day of the week.

Each time you open Allot, it checks for overdue recurring entries and generates them automatically. A toast notification tells you how many entries were added. Manage all recurring templates from Menu → Recurring Transactions.

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5 · The Accounts View

Click Accounts in the navigation bar to see all your accounts and their transactions. The view is split into two panels: account list on the left, transaction list on the right.

Account balances

• Checking/Savings — shows current balance (opening balance + all transactions).
• Credit Card — shows "₹X owed" in red. This is how much you owe the bank, not how much you've spent from budget.

Credit card accounts

When you set an account's type to Credit Card, four extra fields appear (all optional). They tune how Allot tracks the card and drive the utilisation and spending-cap indicators in the Accounts view:

Field	What it does
Last 4 digits	Used to auto-match SMS transaction alerts to this card.
Statement Date	The day of the month (1–28) your statement closes. Allot uses it to measure charges over your real statement cycle rather than the calendar month.
Credit Limit	Your card's total limit. Allot shows a utilisation bar (percentage of the limit owed) and warns as you approach it.
Spending Cap	An optional self-imposed ceiling. Allot alerts you when your charges in the current statement cycle — the one you are spending into right now, shown as a date range on the bar — cross this amount. Useful for staying well under the limit. The bar always reports the live cycle, so it does not change when you scroll the Budget to another month.

Transaction list

Each row shows: date, payee, category, and amount. Income is green; expenses are red. The header shows the total account balance and an Import CSV button (Premium).

Reconciling — the ✓ column and the Statement figure

The register header shows two numbers, and they are meant to differ:

• Balance — everything you have recorded, including transactions your bank has not posted yet.
• Statement — your opening balance plus only the rows you have ticked in the ✓ column. This is what your bank should be showing you right now.

Open your bank or card app, and tick ✓ on every row that also appears there. Ticked rows dim. Leave anything still pending un-ticked. When the two figures match, a green ✓ Reconciled badge appears — and if they don't match, something is wrong in Allot: a missing transaction, a duplicate, or a wrong amount. That gap is the whole point of the number.

Ticking a month of rows one at a time is no fun, so the ⋮ menu in the register header has ✓ Mark cleared through…. Give it the closing date of the statement you just checked and every transaction on or before that date is ticked at once. It never un-ticks anything dated later — un-ticking stays a per-row action so a mistyped date can't undo your work.

Working with a credit card

Cards need a different habit from bank accounts, for one reason: what you pay and what the card bills you are often different numbers. Type a purchase in from memory and, when the statement arrives, you have two records of one purchase that no longer look alike.

Allot treats amounts within 2% of each other as the same purchase when the payee and date line up, so the fuel case above is caught and flagged rather than imported twice. A tip-sized gap is deliberately left alone — 5–10% is wide enough that matching on it would start pairing up genuinely separate purchases.

The routine that keeps a card straight

1. Don't type card purchases in by hand. Let the statement be the record. Everything you enter manually is a reconciliation problem waiting for month-end.
2. Import the statement once per cycle using Import statement in the register (§6).
3. Record the bill payment as a Transfer — savings → card, not an expense (§4). The importer spots payment rows on the statement and leaves them unticked, so the card is not credited twice.
4. Reconcile in the same sitting. Use ✓ Mark cleared through… with the statement's closing date, then check that Statement equals the Total Amount Due printed on the bill. A ₹40 surcharge gap is easy to find in one cycle and painful to find after six.
5. Let one device do the importing. With Cloud Sync on (§12), two devices importing the same statement independently produce two sets of rows that merge into duplicates. Nothing can un-pick that for you afterwards.
6. Cash and UPI are still entered by hand — just against the account that really paid, not against the card.

One boundary to know about: Statement Date is the day your cycle closes, and Allot treats the cycle as ending the day before that date. Banks often place transactions dated on the closing day itself onto that same statement, so the last day of a cycle can differ by a few hundred rupees. If your Statement figure is close but not exact, check the transactions dated on the closing day first.

Editing a transaction

Click any row in the transaction list to open it in the edit modal. Change any field and click Save. To delete a transaction, click the × button on the row (visible on hover) or use the Delete button in the edit modal.

Adding another account

Click + Add in the Accounts panel header. Fill in the account name, type, and current balance. You can add as many accounts as you need — Premium users have no limit; Free users can have one account.

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6 · Importing Bank Statements (CSV) ★ Premium

Instead of typing every transaction manually, download your bank statement as a CSV file and import it in bulk. Allot's import wizard handles different column layouts and date formats automatically.

Step 1 — Download your bank statement

Log in to your bank's internet banking portal and export a statement for the relevant period. Look for "Download Statement" or "Export to CSV/Excel". Save the file somewhere accessible.

Step 2 — Open the import wizard

In the Accounts view, click Import CSV in the transaction list header. The import wizard opens. Drag your CSV file into the upload zone or click Browse files.

Step 3 — Map your columns

Allot shows the first few rows of your file. Use the dropdowns to tell it which column contains:

• Date — the transaction date column
• Description / Payee — merchant name or narration
• Amount — the transaction value (or separate Debit / Credit columns)

Select the date format used in your file (DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, etc.). Allot auto-detects the most common formats from your bank.

Step 4 — Review and confirm

The preview shows every parsed row with a status. Only rows marked new import on their own — everything else arrives with an unticked force import box, so nothing lands in your account without you agreeing to it:

Status	What it means
new	Nothing in the account resembles this row. Imports automatically.
duplicate	Same date, amount and payee as a row you already have. Skipped silently.
date-fix	Same payee and amount within a week. Allot corrects the existing row's date instead of importing a second copy.
possible dup	Close enough to an existing row to be the same purchase — same day and amount, or a similar payee with an amount within 2%. Tick to import anyway.
already split	Several rows you entered by hand on that day add up to this one line. Tick only if it really is a separate purchase.
💳 payment	A payment toward this card. You have almost certainly recorded it already as a transfer from your bank account, so it stays unticked — see §5.

A stored transaction can only excuse one incoming row. If your card was genuinely charged the same amount twice on the same day, the first row is flagged as a possible duplicate and the second is correctly treated as new.

Click Import to save. The account balance and budget categories update immediately.

Imported rows come from the bank's own statement, so they arrive already ticked in the ✓ column and count toward the Statement figure (see §5). If your export includes pending transactions the bank has not posted yet, untick "Mark these as cleared" below the preview before importing.

Importing a statement that spans multiple months

Bank statements often cover 3–6 months. Allot handles this correctly — each transaction is filed into the month its date belongs to, so a transaction from April lands in April, one from May lands in May, and so on. Duplicate detection works across all months too, so re-importing an overlapping statement won't create double entries.

After the import completes, the app stays on the current month. Navigate back using the ‹ arrow in the Budget view to see each historical month's spending.

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7 · Reports ★ Premium

The Reports view provides three summaries: a cash-flow strip for the current month, a category breakdown, and a six-month income-vs-expense chart.

Cash-flow strip (In / Out / Net)

At the top of Reports, three tiles summarise the current month: In (total income, green), Out (total expenses, red), and Net — income minus expenses, shown with a + in green when you came out ahead or a − in red when you overspent. It answers "did I come out ahead this month?" at a glance.

Spending by Category

A horizontal bar chart showing every category that has spending this month. Each bar is filled proportionally to the budget — green means under, amber means near the limit, orange means exactly at or over budget. The exact spent amount and budget ceiling are shown on the right of each bar.

Cash Flow — last 6 months

By default this chart shows Income vs Expense as paired bars per month (oldest on the left, current month on the right) — green income beside red expense, with a legend above. It shows whether money in is keeping pace with money out over time. Use the category dropdown above the chart to filter to one specific category; the chart then reverts to a single-category trend line for that category. This 6-month chart is a ★ Premium feature — free users see the cash-flow strip and category breakdown, and an upgrade prompt in place of the chart.

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8 · Managing Categories & Groups

The Budget view is organised into Category Groups (e.g. Housing, Food, Transport) that contain Categories (e.g. Rent/EMI, Groceries, Dining Out). You can customise this structure to match how you think about your finances.

Adding a category group

1. Scroll to the bottom of the Budget view.
2. Click + Add Category Group.
3. Enter a name (e.g. "Savings Goals") — Allot suggests an emoji automatically. Accept it or pick your own.
4. Click Save.

Adding a category to a group

1. Find the group in the Budget view.
2. Click + Add category (button at the top-right of the group card).
3. Enter a name (e.g. "Emergency Fund") — an emoji is auto-suggested based on what you type.
4. Click Save.

Marking a category as savings

The Add/Edit Category form has a Treat as savings checkbox. Tick it for categories where money is parked rather than spent — Emergency Fund, holiday pot, house deposit. The balance in a savings category is held back from the Safe to spend number in Simple view (see §3 The Budget View), it carries a savings tag in the envelope table, and its Simple-view card reads "saved" instead of "left". Everything else about the category is unchanged — you still plan into it, spend from it, and carry it over month to month.

Choosing an emoji

When you type a category name, Allot auto-fills a matching emoji — "Groceries" gets 🛒, "Fuel" gets ⛽, "Health" gets 💊. To pick a different one, click the emoji button next to the name field. A scrollable grid of emojis opens — click any to select it. Click outside to close the picker without changing.

Editing or deleting

Hover over a category group or category name to see the edit (✏️) and delete (🗑️) icons. Deleting a category with existing transactions is not recommended — consider renaming it instead to preserve history.

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9 · Recurring Transactions

Set up recurring templates for regular transactions that happen every month or week — salary, rent, EMIs, subscriptions, utility bills. Allot generates the entries automatically each time you open the app.

Creating a recurring transaction

1. Click + Transaction to open the Add Transaction modal.
2. Fill in all the details as normal (date, payee, amount, account, category).
3. Check Repeat this transaction at the bottom of the form.
4. Choose Monthly or Weekly, and the day it falls on.
5. Click Save — this creates both today's transaction and the recurring template.

Managing recurring templates

Open Menu (⋮) → Recurring Transactions to see all templates. For each:

• Pause / Resume — temporarily stop generating entries without deleting the template.
• Delete — removes the template permanently. Existing transactions already generated are not affected.

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10 · Moving Money Between Categories

Sometimes you'll overspend in one category and have leftover in another. Instead of letting the budget go red, move money from a category with surplus to the one that needs it.

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11 · Backup & Restore

Your data lives in your browser's IndexedDB storage. If you clear your browser data, you will lose your Allot history. Allot gives you four layers of protection against data loss — rolling session snapshots, manual encrypted export, automatic file backup (Premium), and cloud sync with server-side version history (Premium). Only an offsite copy — a backup stored outside the device — protects against device theft, hard drive failure, or ransomware.

Rolling session snapshots (all users)

Every time you open Allot, it automatically saves a snapshot of all your data inside the browser. Up to 5 snapshots are kept in a rolling cycle — the oldest is replaced each time a new one is saved. No setup required.

To restore from a snapshot:

1. Click ⋮ Menu → ⚙ Settings → Restore Previous Version.
2. A list of saved snapshots appears — each shows the date and time it was saved.
3. Click Restore on the version you want to roll back to.

Manual export (all users)

1. Click the ⋮ Menu at the top-right.
2. Click Export Backup.
3. A password prompt appears. Enter a password to create an encrypted .allot file — or tap Export without password to download a plain .json.
4. On mobile (Android/iOS) the encrypted file is offered via the native share sheet — send it directly to Gmail, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or WhatsApp in one tap. On desktop it downloads to your Downloads folder.
5. Move it somewhere offsite — a cloud drive or email it to yourself. A file sitting next to the browser it came from doesn't protect against a drive failure.

Restore from a backup file

1. Click ⋮ Menu → Import Backup.
2. Select your .json or .allot backup file.
3. If the file is a manual export (.allot with a password), Allot prompts for the password you set when exporting. If the file is an auto-backup (allot-backup-latest.allot or dated copy), no password is needed — it restores silently on the same device that created it.
4. All existing data is replaced with the backup contents.

Auto-backup to disk ★ Premium

Premium users can link a folder on their computer. Allot silently writes encrypted allot-backup-latest.allot and a dated copy (e.g. allot-backup-2026-07-06.allot) to that folder automatically — no manual steps or password needed.

1. Click Set up auto-backup (link in the app header) or ⋮ Menu → Auto-Backup ★.
2. Choose a folder on your computer — ideally inside OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive for off-device safety.
3. Allot immediately writes the first backup and enables the auto-save. The header link changes to a green "Auto-backup on" indicator.

Auto-backup runs in three situations:

• After changes — 10 seconds after your last edit (or immediately after 5 changes).
• When you leave the app — if there are unsaved changes when you switch tabs or close the browser.
• Every 30 minutes — a periodic safety net that writes if anything has changed since the last save, even if the debounce timer somehow didn't fire.

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12 · Cloud Sync ★ Premium

Cloud Sync keeps your budget data in sync across multiple devices — phone and laptop, work and home — without any account or email address. Your data is encrypted on your device before it leaves, and only you hold the key.

Setting up sync

How sync works day-to-day

Once enabled, sync runs automatically — you rarely need to tap a button.

• On app open — Allot pulls the latest cloud copy, merges it with your local data, and pushes the merged result back. This happens silently in the background every time you open the app.
• After any change — every time you add, edit, or delete a transaction or change a budget amount, Allot waits 15 seconds of inactivity then syncs automatically. The short delay batches rapid changes rather than syncing on every keystroke.
• Manual sync — tap Sync now in the sync card to force an immediate sync at any time.

Backup history — restore to a previous sync point ★ Premium

Every time your data is synced, the previous version is automatically archived server-side. Allot keeps up to 10 versions going back up to 30 days. This means an accidental bulk deletion, a bad import, or a runaway merge that propagated across devices can be undone by restoring a version from before the event.

To restore from sync history:

1. Go to ⋮ Menu → Cloud Sync ★.
2. In the sync card, click View backup history.
3. A list of up to 10 restore points appears, each showing the date and time of that sync.
4. Click the version you want to restore to.
5. Confirm — Allot saves a local rolling snapshot of your current data first, then downloads and decrypts the archived version, imports it, and pushes it as the new current sync state.

Pending changes indicator

If you make changes that haven't been synced yet, Allot makes this visible in two places:

• Menu button — the Cloud Sync item shows "Cloud Sync ★ · 3 pending" so you can see unsync'd changes before even opening the modal.
• Sync modal — the status line shows "Last synced 5 mins ago · 3 changes pending".

The counter resets to zero after each successful sync, whether automatic or manual.

How merge works

When both devices have made changes since the last sync, Allot merges them intelligently rather than overwriting one side with the other.

Data type	Merge behaviour
Transactions	Union by ID — transactions recorded on both devices are kept. No transaction is ever silently discarded in a merge.
Deleted transactions	Deletions are tracked with a tombstone list. A transaction deleted on one device stays deleted after sync — it will never reappear from the other device.
Accounts, categories, budgets, settings	The device with the most recent cloud push takes precedence. See the conflict warning below for what happens when both devices have unsynced changes simultaneously.

Conflict warning — when both devices have unsaved changes

The riskiest scenario is when you add data on one device, then manually tap Sync Now on a second device that also has pending changes before the first device has synced. Allot detects this and shows a warning instead of silently merging:

Disabling sync

Go to ⋮ Menu → Cloud Sync ★ and click Disable. Your local data on both devices is untouched. The encrypted blob and all archived history versions are deleted from the cloud immediately. Any remaining data expires automatically after 90 days and cannot be read without your sync code.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
Status shows "Last sync failed"	Check your internet connection. If online, verify the sync code is exactly the same on both devices — a single character difference produces a completely different encryption key and makes the blobs unreadable to each other.
Changes from one device not appearing on the other	Wait 20 seconds after making a change (15s debounce + upload time), then open Allot on the receiving device. If still missing, tap Sync Now on both devices. Check the pending counter — if it shows a number, that device hasn't pushed yet.
A deleted transaction came back after sync	This can happen if the deleting device was offline at the time and synced before the tombstone propagated. Delete the transaction again — the tombstone will propagate on the next sync and it will not return.
Budget totals differ between devices after sync	If you see the conflict warning, use Cancel and sync the device with the correct budget first, then sync the other device. If you already merged and the wrong budget won, restore a rolling backup on the affected device (⋮ Menu → ⚙ Settings → Restore Previous Version) and re-enter the correct allocations.
Conflict warning appears on auto-sync	The conflict warning only appears on manual Sync Now taps — auto-sync always merges silently. If you see the warning, it means you intentionally opened the sync modal and tapped the button while offline changes existed on both sides.

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13 · Privacy & Data Security

Allot is designed around a single principle: your financial data is none of our business.

• No server storage by default — all data (accounts, transactions, categories, settings) is stored in your browser's IndexedDB. No data is transmitted to any server unless you opt in to Cloud Sync.
• Cloud Sync is end-to-end encrypted (opt-in) — if you enable Cloud Sync, your data is encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM before upload. The server stores only ciphertext and cannot read your transactions, balances, or any personal information. Your sync code never leaves your device in plain text. See §12 Cloud Sync for full details.
• No account required — Allot works without email, password, or sign-up of any kind.
• No analytics or tracking — no third-party scripts, no pixel tracking, no crash reporting.
• Works offline — once loaded, all core budgeting features work without internet. The service worker caches the entire app shell. Cloud Sync is the only feature that requires a connection.
• License validation only — the only server call made (other than opt-in Cloud Sync) is a one-time license key check when activating Premium. This call sends only your license key, nothing else.
• Per-browser isolation — data in Chrome is not visible in Firefox. Each browser is a completely separate data store.

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14 · Free vs Premium

Feature	Free	Premium ($49 once)
Accounts	1 account	Unlimited
Month navigation	Current month only	Full history
Transactions	✓ Unlimited	✓ Unlimited
Categories & groups	✓ Unlimited	✓ Unlimited
CSV bank statement import	✗	✓
Reports (charts)	✗	✓
Rolling session snapshots (5 versions)	✓	✓
Manual encrypted export / import (.allot or .json)	✓	✓
Auto-backup to disk — 10s debounce + 30-min periodic	✗	✓
Cloud Sync (multi-device, end-to-end encrypted)	✗	✓
Sync backup history (10 versions, 30 days)	✗	✓
Recurring transactions	✓	✓
Split transactions	✓	✓
Transfers between accounts	✓	✓
Offline use	✓	✓
All future updates	✗	✓ included

The Upgrade modal

When you attempt a Premium feature as a free user, the upgrade modal appears automatically. You can also open it manually via ⋮ Menu → Upgrade ★. Click Buy Now to complete the purchase via Gumroad — you'll receive a license key by email instantly.

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15 · Activating a License Key

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16 · Best Practices

These are habits that make envelope budgeting work in practice — not just in theory. The mechanics of Allot are simple; the discipline below is what makes the numbers meaningful.

Setting up your budget

• Start with 10–15 categories maximum. A budget with 40 categories looks thorough but is nearly impossible to maintain. Begin with the groups Allot seeds for you — Housing, Food, Transport, Utilities, Personal — and add categories only when you find yourself needing to split something you track regularly.
• Create a Buffer category. Add a category called "Buffer" or "Unexpected" inside a Miscellaneous group and budget ₹500–₹2,000 per month into it. When a genuine surprise expense arrives, assign it there rather than blowing another category's envelope. Every month it goes unspent, the carryover grows into a small emergency reserve.
• Treat savings as spending categories. Create a Savings Goals group with categories like "Emergency Fund", "Holiday", "New Phone". Budget ₹X into each every month. The Available balance accumulates as carryover — it's a running total of how much you've saved for that goal without needing a separate app.
• Income categories are for tracking, not budgeting. Leave the Budgeted column at ₹0 for Salary and Freelance. Income flows into "Ready to Assign" — you assign it from there. The category just lets you track income sources in reports.

The payday ritual

The most important habit in Allot. Do this every time income arrives — salary day, freelance payment, rental income, anything.

Monthly review — start of month

Spend 10 minutes on the 1st of each month before your budget is set for the new period.

1. Check last month's carryovers — categories that consistently carry forward large surpluses have been over-budgeted. Reduce their budget and redirect that money to categories that regularly run short.
2. Open Reports → Spending by Category for last month. Which categories went over? Which had room? Let the actuals shape this month's allocations — not wishful thinking.
3. Review the Recurring Transactions list (Menu → Recurring Transactions). Cancel or pause anything you no longer use. Subscriptions accumulate silently — a quarterly review catches the ones you forgot.
4. Set this month's budgets after checking your expected income. If a variable bill is coming (quarterly insurance, annual subscription), add it to the relevant category this month rather than spreading it as a surprise.

When a category goes red

A red Available balance is a decision point, not a failure. You have three options — choose consciously rather than ignoring it.

Situation	What to do
One-off overspend (emergency, unexpected bill)	Use Move Money to pull from Buffer or a surplus category. Acknowledge the trade-off.
Overspent every month for 2–3 months	The budget was wrong. Increase this category's allocation and reduce another — don't fight reality.
Discretionary overspend (dining out, shopping)	Accept it this month, move money to cover it, and reduce next month's discretionary budget by the same amount as a self-correction.
Red at end of month with no money to move	The overspend carries forward as a negative balance next month. Treat it as debt you owe to your own budget — plan to cover it in the next cycle.

Handling credit cards correctly

Credit cards are the trickiest part of envelope budgeting. The key principle: record the expense when you spend, not when you pay the bill.

• Add your credit card as a Credit Card account with its current outstanding balance as the opening balance (enter as a positive number — Allot stores it as negative internally).
• When you buy something on the card, record it as an expense from the credit card account, assigned to the right category. Your budget envelope decreases immediately — the money is "spent" even though the bill hasn't arrived yet.
• When you pay the credit card bill from your savings account, record it as a Transfer from HDFC Savings → SBI Credit Card. This reduces the amount owed on the card and reduces your savings balance. It does not affect any budget category — you already budgeted for it when you swiped.

17 · Using Allot on Your Phone

Allot is a Progressive Web App (PWA). On your phone, open allot.aditco.in/app, then use your browser's Add to Home Screen option. Allot installs like a native app — its own icon, full-screen, and every core feature works offline. The layout adapts to a narrow screen with a thumb-friendly bottom tab bar (Budget · Accounts · Reports).

Here are the core screens on a phone:

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Allot is built by AD IT Consulting. Questions? hello@aditco.in • Back to app →

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