Forward keeps card handling simple. A card is an account you owe money on, and card payment is a transfer
. There is no separate card payment category, which is how YNAB and Zerosum handle it. Your category balances change when you spend, not when you pay the card.
Spending on the card
A card purchase comes out of its category the moment it posts, the same as a debit purchase. Suppose Groceries has $400 Available and your card owes $500. You buy $50 of groceries on the card:
- Groceries goes to $350.
- The card goes to -$550.00.
Nothing else moves. In YNAB the $50 would also move into a card payment category; in Forward it stays in Groceries until the transaction posts and you pay the card.
Paying the card
You pay the card from checking, as a transfer. Pay $200:
- Checking goes down by $200.
- The card goes to -$350.00.
- No category changes, because the spending already came out of Groceries.
The transfer doesn't spend anything, so it never shows up as spending.
Knowing you can pay the bill
Because no money is set aside for the card, Forward gives you two other checks:
- Cash on hand. On the Overview, open Show solvency details. Under Cash on hand — a separate check, Cash you can spend today (checking, savings and cash) is compared with What your envelopes and cards need (all category Available plus what your cards owe). It reads Covers what you owe, or Short by $412.00 for now when the cash isn't there yet, for example when you've spent on the card ahead of a paycheck.
- Up this month. If a card owes more than it did on the same day last month, its row in Accounts shows an amber ↑ Up $X this month, so a card that is slowly growing doesn't go unnoticed.
To plan card payments, see Paying off debt. A card on the budget has no payment Plan: its payment is a planned transfer from checking.
See Why a credit card balance is negative for why a card shows a minus sign.