The first time you sign in, Forward opens Let's set up your budget. Tap Get started to walk through a few short steps, or Skip setup for now. Skipping leaves your budget empty, not broken, and you can come back any time from Setup in the account menu. Every step has its own Skip.
The setup steps
- Add your first account. Connect a bank keeps balances and transactions current on their own. Add account manually lets you enter a balance and transactions yourself. Import from another app brings your categories and balances across from YNAB or EveryDollar.
- Confirm your timezone. Forward uses it to know which day a transaction or a due date falls on. You can change it later.
- When should your budget start? You see this step only if you connected a bank. Choose The 1st of this month, Today, or Pick a date your bank's history reaches. You never type a starting balance: Forward works it out from the bank's current balance and the transactions since that date. If you start on the 1st, the month's earlier transactions arrive in Notifications for you to categorize.
- Your starting categories. Rename, remove or add categories, then tap Use these categories.
- When does money come in? Tap Add income to enter a paycheck: how much and how often. Paid irregularly? Tap Skip — I'll add income later.
- Your regular bills. Check the repeating payments Forward found, or add your main bills by hand.
- Let's put that money to work. Forward suggests amounts only where it has something to go on. Nothing changes until you tap Assign these amounts, or I'll assign it myself to do it from the Budget tab.
Tap Go to my budget to finish.
The income and bills you add here are listed afterwards on the Overview, under Income and Bills, where you can add more or change them; see Your income and Your bills.
Your first paycheck
Forward keeps two numbers for every category. Assigned is your plan and Funded is the cash you have actually set aside. Assigned money does not "become" Funded automatically
. When your first paycheck lands, it waits in Notifications for you to confirm; see Confirming a paycheck.
Nothing you do in Forward moves money at your bank. It only records where your money is meant to go. See Assigned and Funded and Left to assign and Left to fund.