Create a goal

Create a goal to track a savings target or a debt you're paying off. Link it to an account you already track, and Beyond Payday updates your progress automatically as that balance changes — and grades how you're pacing toward the date you set.

Steps

1. Go to Goals (opens in a new tab) and select Add New Goal (or Set Your First Goal).
2. Choose the type: Savings or Debt Payoff.
   • For Savings, answer "What are you saving for?" and "How much do you need?"
   • For Debt Payoff, pick "Which debt are you paying off?" from your tracked debts, or leave it as "None — I'll track it manually" and name it yourself. There's no target-amount field for this type — the target is always the full payoff.
3. Optionally link an account under "Which account is this in?" so Beyond Payday tracks progress from that balance automatically, or leave it as "No linked asset (manual tracking)".
4. Set "When do you want to start?" and "When do you want to reach it?" — use the quick-pick options or your own dates.
5. Choose how you'll contribute: Regular Schedule (an amount and a frequency — Weekly, Every 2 Weeks, Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly) or Flexible / Whenever for irregular contributions like bonuses or tax refunds.
6. Select Create Goal.

How it works

• Progress tracking. If you linked an account, Beyond Payday reads its balance automatically — a savings goal's progress rises with the linked asset's value, and a debt-payoff goal's progress rises as the linked debt's balance falls. Without a link, click Log contribution on the goal's card each time you add (or withdraw) money.
• Health status. Every goal gets one of seven states: Completed, Overdue, On Track, Behind, Ahead, At Risk, or Critically Behind, each with a dollar-specific reason (for example, "you're about $340 behind where you should be right now").
• Pacing. On a Regular Schedule, Beyond Payday compares your contributions to what's needed to hit the target date. Flexible / Whenever goals skip pacing entirely and stay On Track unless the target date passes, when they become Overdue.
• Suggested contribution. As long as your goal has a target date and isn't reached yet, the contribution field shows a clickable "Suggest $X" — the amount needed per period, from now to your target date, to hit it on time.

Good to know

• A debt-payoff goal's target is always the full remaining balance — there's no way to set a partial payoff as the goal.
• Linking is optional for both types — track any goal manually by updating the balance yourself.
• Only one account can be linked per goal.
• Flexible / Whenever goals are never marked Behind or At Risk from pacing — only a missed target date moves them to Overdue.