Getting started

You can set this up in an evening — less time than most of us have spent avoiding it. Let's go.

The system is old and it works: give every dollar a job. Money comes in, you assign it to envelopes, you spend from the envelopes. The app keeps the envelopes honest. Four steps get you there.

One note on finding your way: the screens live in tabs — across the top on a computer, in a bar along the bottom on your phone. Same screens, thumb height.

Step 1 — Get your transactions flowing

Two doors. The automatic one covers most people; the manual one works anywhere. Use either, or both.

Handing a budgeting app your bank login deserves a straight answer before you do it. Here's ours, including the part where you don't have to. → Is it safe to connect my bank?

Connect your banks (the automatic way): Banks → + Connect a bank. SkrillaPlan pops you over to a page Plaid runs to sign in, then brings you right back — your bank password never touches us. → why the hop happens. Connect everything money moves through: checking, savings, credit cards. From now on, transactions arrive on their own, every morning — and the Banks page shows each account's balance, with a Cash on hand total at the top. What the bank says, as of last sync.

A new connection also back-fills months of history. If Ready to Assign suddenly reads scary-negative, nothing is wrong — that's old history, not your plan. Set your budget's start month and the number tells the truth again. → the fix: Budget

Or import your history (the manual way): Import, then drop in a bank CSV — or your whole YNAB export zip, unopened. Categories you don't have are created for you. Your history comes with you.

Done when: the Transactions screen shows real life. → details: Banks, Import

Step 2 — Make the categories yours

Go to Categories. You start with a sensible set — now say it in your own words. Rename what's close. Archive what isn't you. Add what's missing (the icon picker is right there; find the dog, the guitar, the kid).

Keep it small. Ten categories you'll actually use beat thirty you won't. If two categories are hard to tell apart, they're one category.

Want the whole app in your colors too? Account → Theme card — six looks, one click. Pick your kind of loud (or quiet).

Done when: every category is a word you'd actually say out loud. → details: Categories

Step 3 — Categorize what happened

Go to Transactions. Much of it is already categorized — your job is to correct and confirm. Turn on the Unreviewed only filter: pick the envelope, row goes ✓, next. Paychecks and deposits get ＋ Income — that's the money you'll budget in a minute.

Credit-card payments and account transfers? Already spotted and moved to the Special tab. They're not spending. Leave them be.

Done when: Unreviewed shows zero. Enjoy that for a second. → details: Transactions

Step 4 — Give every dollar a job

Go to Budget. The number at the top — Ready to Assign — is real money waiting for orders.

Go down the Assigned column: click a number, type an amount, press Enter. Rent gets rent, groceries get groceries, the card payment gets its share. Yes to fun money — a plan you dread is a plan you quit. Keep going until Ready to Assign reads zero.

Zero isn't broke. Zero is decided.

Here's the part that makes it stick: you only do this once. Every amount you set carries into next month on its own, and the month after. Set the mortgage once and it's set until you change it. You're not signing up for this chore twelve times a year — you're writing a plan that repeats.

Connected banks? One more minute: tap the big Ready to Assign number. The math panel ends with a bank check — what your bank says next to what your budget says. Record the difference as your starting balance and the two agree from day one. → the bank check

Done when: Ready to Assign = $0.00 and nothing important reads red. → details: Budget

Put it on your phone

You check things on your phone, so the budget should live there too. Two taps put SkrillaPlan on your home screen — real icon, full screen, no app store. → how: Put SkrillaPlan on your phone

Living it (the part that matters)

Setup was the easy part. The habit is three small moves:

• A few times a week (5 minutes): Transactions → Unreviewed only → categorize → done. Glance at the timestamp by ↻ Sync: green fresh, red stale. If a bank asks you to sign in again, the Banks page has a Reconnect button — that's routine, not a failure. → Banks
• When a category runs dry: don't quit — move money. Click the Available number, take from a category that can spare it.
• Payday: new money lands in Ready to Assign. Assign it to zero. Each paycheck gets easier than the last.
• Once a month (15 minutes): open Reports. Read Spending changes — it tells you what's different. Skim the recurring list and cancel one thing you forgot. Watch Age of Money climb.

Set a goal on one category this week (click its name — 🎯). An emergency fund of $500 is a fine first goal. Watch the bar fill. That bar is you, keeping a promise to yourself.

Wondering what else the app does? Achievements counts what you've pulled off — and the locked ones spell out what you haven't tried yet. → Achievements

Sharing the budget? An invite from the Account screen brings your partner in — same budget, live, with an activity log so nobody wonders who moved what. → Share the budget with your household

Stuck, or just want company? Budgeting alone works; budgeting with people who get it works better. The community is a small, tended room — wins, questions, money talk. → Join the community

That's the whole system. Dollars in, jobs assigned, envelopes honest. You're not "getting good with money." You're already doing it.