Adding accounts

An account in Climb mirrors a real account in your life: a checking account, a credit card, a car loan, a brokerage. Add the ones money actually flows through, and Climb keeps their balances alongside your budget.

Two kinds of account

The first choice when adding an account is the one that matters:

Spending accounts: checking, savings, credit cards, cash. These are part of your budget: their money is what you assign to categories, and their transactions flow through your envelopes.
Off-budget accounts: investments, loans, property. These are tracked for the big picture (net worth, planning) and don't touch your envelopes.

Not sure which fits? See On-budget vs. off-budget.

The starting balance

Enter the account's real balance right now: what the bank shows as posted, not including pending transactions. Climb records it as a starting-balance transaction, and for spending accounts that money immediately shows up in Available to Budget, ready to be assigned.

You don't need history. Climb starts from today; the past stays in your bank's statements.

Credit cards

A credit card's starting balance is what you currently owe. If you're carrying debt from before you started budgeting, Climb sets up a payoff plan for it automatically; see How credit cards work.