When a number looks wrong

Every so often a number just doesn't sit right: an account total that disagrees with your bank, a category claiming more (or less) than you expected, an Available to Budget you can't explain. The fix depends on which number it is, so start by naming it.

An account balance doesn't match your bank

This is bookkeeping, not a glitch: somewhere there's a transaction you never logged, a duplicate, or a wrong amount. Reconciling is the tool built for exactly this. Enter your bank's balance and work the difference down to zero; Climb even highlights transactions that exactly match the gap. Resist the urge to "fix" the balance by editing a transaction to force it; an unexplained difference usually resurfaces later, bigger.

A category's remaining looks wrong

First, open the category's activity and look. Most of the time the number is telling the truth and one transaction explains it: a refund that went back to Income instead of its category, a transfer logged as spending, a big purchase you forgot was split.

If the activity genuinely doesn't add up to the remaining shown, the cached math may have drifted. Climb doesn't re-add every transaction each time a screen draws; that's what keeps it fast. Instead it keeps a running total per category, per month, and rare events (a browser tab killed mid-write, an interrupted first sync) can leave that running total stale. Recalculate balances, on the Data page in Settings, rebuilds the whole thing from your transactions and budgeted amounts. It's completely safe: it only recomputes this device's derived numbers, and never modifies a transaction.

One thing to know: that cached math is kept per device. If your phone shows the same wrong remaining, run the recalculation there too.

Available to Budget looks wrong

Almost always real, and almost always one of two stories. Money you thought you had may already be spoken for: overspending left uncovered quietly erodes it, and so does money already budgeted into future months. Or income landed in the wrong place: a deposit categorized to a category instead of to Income adds to that envelope, not to Available to Budget.

If you've checked those and it still looks off, run Recalculate balances; Available to Budget is derived from the same cached math as the categories.

Still stuck?

Download a backup first so nothing is at risk while you dig, and if the disagreement is between two of your devices, see When your devices don't agree.