Ready to Assign

Ready to Assign is the number at the top of your budget. It is the money that has arrived in your accounts but does not yet have a job. The goal is to get it to $0 by assigning every dollar to a category.

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What raises Ready to Assign

• Adding an account balance. Add a checking account with $2,400 and Ready to Assign goes up by$2,400.
• Income. Money you record or that syncs in as income raises Ready to Assign, because new income is new money that needs a job.
• Taking money back out of a category. Lower a category’s assigned amount and that money returns to Ready to Assign, free to send somewhere else.

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What lowers Ready to Assign

• Assigning money to a category. This is the main one. Every dollar you assign leaves Ready to Assign and lands in a category.

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When Ready to Assign is zero

Zero is the target. It means every dollar you have is assigned to a job. Your accounts are not empty — the money is sitting in categories, waiting to be spent on the thing you chose.

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When Ready to Assign is positive

You still have money to assign. Keep going. Cover bills, fund spending categories, then send the rest to savings, debt, or a sinking fund. Money left in Ready to Assign is money without a plan.

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When Ready to Assign is negative

A negative Ready to Assign means you assigned more than you have. This usually happens after you move money around or a transaction changes a balance. Fix it by taking money back out of a category until Ready to Assign returns to zero or above. Lower an assigned amount, or move money between categories. See Assign and move money.

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Ready to Assign versus a category’s Available

Two different numbers, easy to confuse:

• Ready to Assign is money with no job yet, shown once at the top.
• Available is money already assigned to a specific category, shown on each category row. It is what you can spend on that category.

Moving money from Ready to Assign into a category raises that category’s Available and lowers Ready to Assign by the same amount. Nothing is created or destroyed — you are routing it.

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