Budget before the month starts

Decide where the month goes before it gets here.

Most budgeting apps are a post-mortem: they sort last month’s spending into charts you look at once. PAY/ATTN works the other way round. Before the month begins you count what is coming in, subtract the bills, decide what you are saving and investing, and see exactly what is left to spend freely. That number is the plan — and it is the only one you have to keep an eye on once the month starts.

Plan your first month I already have an account

The month, planned in five steps

You do this once, before the month starts. Each step is a page in the app, and each one narrows the number until only your flexible money is left.

1Money InCount what is coming inThe post-tax deposits the month will bring, entered one by one and confirmed as they land. This is the ceiling for everything below it.+ $5,200
2CommitmentsBillsSubtract what is already spoken forRent, mobile, internet, insurance, the card payment — the bills that arrive whether you think about them or not.− $2,150
3CommitmentsPay yourselfSet savings and investing aside firstContributions are decided here, at the top of the month, next to the bills — not left to whatever happens to survive until the 30th.− $1,000
4SpendingSet limitsWhat is left is your flexible moneyGroceries, eating out, transport, everything discretionary. You split it into a limit per bucket, and the limits cannot add up to more than the month actually has.= $2,050
5SpendingLockLock it in, and you are setLocking fixes the limits and opens expense logging. From here the month is not a guess you keep revising — it is a decision you have already made.Locked

Figures on the right are one worked example, not a promise about your month. Yours are whatever you enter.

Then you stay in control all month

The bills are handled, the saving is done, the investing is done. Everything still in play is the flexible money — and that is the part you log by hand, as it happens, so you stay conscious of it.

Log it as you spend itType in what you spent, or photograph the receipt. Every entry lands against one of your buckets and its locked limit.

See the limit moveEach bucket reads back as on track or over, so you know where you stand on the 12th, not on the 1st of next month.

One headline numberAt a Glance answers the only question that matters mid-month: after everything committed and everything spent, what is actually left.

Roll into the next monthCarry the plan forward — bills, limits and closing balances — and start the next month already prepared rather than from a blank page.

No bank connections. On purpose.

An imported feed tells you what already happened. A plan you typed out yourself is one you can remember on a Tuesday in the shop. Nothing arrives behind your back, so nothing is invisible to you.

Photograph the receipt

Our app reads the total, the merchant and the date, and suggests one of your own categories. You confirm before anything is saved — the model fills the form, it does not file the expense.

Business buckets know about tax

Attach an expense to a business and PAY/ATTN flags whether it looks like a deductible cost, and reminds you to keep the receipt where your accountant can find it.

Receipts are not stored

A receipt photo is read in memory and discarded in the same request. It is never written to disk, never put in a database, never uploaded to a bucket. You keep the original.

What a planned month is made of

Post-tax incomeEvery deposit that lands, entered as it does.

Fixed billsRent or mortgage, mobile, internet, insurance.

Savings and investmentsDecided up front, alongside the bills.

Credit card debtOpening balance, new charges, what you paid.

Flexible spendingThe limit per bucket, and what you actually spent against it.

Business expensesGrouped per business, with tax flags.

Balances over timeWhat each account opened and closed at, month after month.

GoalsA target balance and a date, with the monthly number it takes to get there.

Pricing

One paid plan, and a free tier that is a complete budget tracker on its own. Prices in US dollars.

Free

$0/ month

Income, bills, the spending plan, Build & Owe, Long View, and exporting your whole ledger whenever you want it — free for as long as you want it, not a countdown. Includes 2 goals and 2 receipt scans a month.

Start free

Paid

$4.99/ month

Billed annually. Or $5.99 a month, billed monthly.

Start with a 30-day free trial

Everything in Free, plus unlimited goals, receipt scanning with no monthly cap, spending insights, carrying a month forward, reopening a locked budget, and the Second Look assistant.

Get started

What the paid plan adds

GoalsFree for your first 2 active goals — archive one to free a slot, or go paid for more.

Receipt scanningFree for 2 scans a month. Typing an expense in by hand is always free, on every plan.

Worth a lookSpotting the spending in a month that is unusual against your own recent months.

Carry ForwardBuilding next month from this one — bills, budgets and closing balances carried over.

Unlock a locked budgetLocking a month's spending plan is free. Reopening it to change the limits is paid.

Second LookThe assistant that answers questions about your own budget, and suggests changes you approve.

Billing, cancellation and refunds

The free plan is not a trial and does not expire — you can stay on it indefinitely. When you choose to subscribe, you can start with a 30-day free trial of the paid features; cancel before it ends and you are not charged. After that the plan renews automatically — monthly or annually, whichever you picked — until you cancel. Card payments are handled by our payment processor; your card details never reach our servers. You can cancel at any time from the subscription screen inside the app: you keep the paid features until the end of the period you have already paid for, and you are not billed again. Partial periods are not automatically refunded — refunds are handled case by case. If a charge looks wrong, email support@payattn.io and we will put it right.

Your ledger stays yours on either plan — exportable as JSON, and deletable outright, at any time. Downgrading never deletes anything you have recorded.