If a total on your dashboard looks too high or too low, the cause is almost always in one entry, not in the math. The usual suspects are a duplicate, a wrong frequency, gross pay mistaken for take-home, or a business item.
Why this happens
- Duplicate entries. The same bill, account, or debt was added twice — for example once by hand and once from an import.
- Wrong bill frequency. A bill's How often is this charged? setting is Monthly, Every 6 months, or Yearly. A yearly amount saved as Monthly counts 12 times over. A weekday bill's Amount each time is one trip, so a monthly total entered there is multiplied again.
- Wrong pay unit. Income uses Amount is per (Hour, Day, Month, or Year) plus Hours per Week or Days per Week. An annual salary saved as per Hour, or the wrong hours, skews income a lot.
- Inactive income. Current totals include enabled recurring sources within their saved start and end dates. Future, ended and one-time entries can remain on Income for editing without increasing today's totals. Current income uses your saved account time zone when available and refreshes when that day changes.
- Ended bills. A bill set to end after a given month counts through that month, then stops counting. It stays on Bills so you can edit it.
- Gross vs take-home. Money in and out uses take-home pay after taxes and deductions. That's lower than your salary. A wrong tax rate or missing deduction changes it.
- Non-W2 income has no withholding. For 1099 or self-employment income, the app estimates taxes from the rate you enter. A rate of 0% makes take-home look too high.
- Business items. Items assigned to a business don't show on your personal pages. A business loss shows as negative income and lowers your total.
Fix
- Open Income (opens in a new tab), Bills (opens in a new tab), Assets (opens in a new tab), and Debts (opens in a new tab) and look for the same item listed twice. Delete the extra one.
- On each large bill, check How often is this charged? matches the amount you entered.
- On each income source, check Amount is per, hours or days worked, and Estimated Tax Rate (for 1099 or self-employment income).
- Check whether an item belongs to a business. If so, look for it on that business's pages.
- Go back to the Dashboard (opens in a new tab) and confirm the totals.
If that didn't work
If a total still doesn't add up, contact us (opens in a new tab) with which number looks wrong and what you expected it to be.
FAQ
Why is my income lower than my salary?
Beyond Payday uses take-home pay, after taxes and deductions, for Money in and out. Your salary is the gross amount before those come out.
Why is a bill counted 12 times too high?
Its How often is this charged? setting is probably Monthly when the amount you entered is for the whole year. Set it to Yearly, or enter the monthly amount.