How To Customize Your Payday Settings

In MoneyCoach, Payday Settings controls the period used by your Overview cards and reports that follow your custom period. You can base that period on a fixed Start Date, or anchor it to a repeating Salary transaction.

This is useful if your financial month starts on payday instead of the first day of the calendar month. When this is set correctly, MoneyCoach works around the way you actually get paid, spend, save, and plan.

TL;DR

• Open Settings > Customize Overview > Customize Payday.
• Choose Start Date if your financial month starts on the same day every month.
• Choose Salary if you want MoneyCoach to follow a repeating salary transaction.
• MoneyCoach saves the setting automatically.
• Go back to Overview to see your cards use the updated period.

Video tutorial

Why payday matters

Most people do not make money decisions on a clean calendar-month schedule. You might get paid on the 25th, every two weeks, every week, or on another recurring rhythm. If MoneyCoach only showed the first day to the last day of the month, your Overview could feel out of sync with how you actually live.

Setting your payday helps MoneyCoach:

• Show Overview cards for your real spending cycle.
• Make remaining money and Daily Limit-style planning easier to read.
• Align reports that use your custom period with your actual salary period.
• Help you compare income, spending, and savings inside the period that matters to you.
• Reduce confusion at the start or end of a calendar month when your paycheck arrives on a different day.

For example, if you are paid on the 25th, your financial month may run from the 25th of this month to the 24th of the next month. Setting payday lets MoneyCoach treat that as your working period instead of forcing everything into the calendar month.

Use a fixed Start Date

Use Start Date if your financial month starts on the same day each month.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Customize Overview.
3. Tap Customize Payday.
4. In Payday Settings, enable Start Date.
5. Choose the day of the month when your financial period should start.
6. Go back to Overview.

MoneyCoach saves the setting automatically when you change the option or selected day. If you pick a day like the 29th, 30th, or 31st, months without that date use the last day of the month.

Use a Salary transaction

Use this option if you are paid weekly, every two weeks, monthly, or on another repeat schedule that is already stored as an income transaction.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Customize Overview.
3. Tap Customize Payday.
4. In Payday Settings, enable Salary.
5. Tap Select Salary Transaction.
6. Choose the repeating income transaction that represents your salary.
7. Go back to Overview.

MoneyCoach uses the selected transaction's repeat interval and transaction date to calculate the payday period. If you have not created your salary as a repeating income yet, first add it as a repeating transaction, then return to Payday Settings and select it.

Once you go back to the Overview, the cards that follow the custom period will use your updated payday settings.

Which option should you choose?

Choose Start Date when your budget month always begins on a specific day, such as the 1st, 15th, 25th, or last day of the month.

Choose Salary when your pay schedule is better represented by a repeating income transaction, especially if you are paid weekly or every two weeks.

If you still need to create the salary transaction first, use How To Add a Repeating Transaction or Transfer, then return to Payday Settings and select it.

Common mistakes

• Leaving MoneyCoach on the calendar month even though your money cycle starts on payday.
• Choosing Salary before creating a repeating salary income transaction.
• Selecting a one-off income transaction instead of the repeating salary transaction.
• Forgetting to return to Overview after changing the setting.
• Expecting the setting to change every report automatically. It affects Overview cards and reports that use the MoneyCoach custom payday period.

Additional information

Payday Settings does not change your transactions. It changes the period MoneyCoach uses when showing supported Overview cards and period-based reports.

If you also want to choose which cards appear on Overview, see How To Customise Your Overview. If you want to adjust the amount MoneyCoach says you can spend each day, see How To Customize Your Daily Limit.