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. Tap the goal that fits: Emergency fund, Buy a home, New car, Wedding, Baby on the way, Vacation, College, Pay off a debt, or Something else.
   • Most cards fill in the goal's pieces (for Buy a home: down payment, closing costs, moving, furniture) with starting amounts. Change any name or amount, remove a piece with its X, or Add a piece. The Total is your target, and the line under it shows about how much to save each month to reach it by your date.
   • Something else opens a blank savings goal: answer "What are you saving for?" and "How much do you need?" Select Break it into pieces if you want to split it up.
   • Pay off a debt opens the Debt Payoff form: 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.
   • Picked the wrong one? Select Back.
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?" — cards pre-fill a target date; 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. Cards fill in the monthly amount for you until you type your own.
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 divided by the target, including money already saved. 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.
• Starting point. A linked goal starts from the account's or debt's balance on your start date, taken from its balance history (or its current balance if the history doesn't go back that far). This sets contribution pacing and the starting point for debt payoff progress. Savings percent complete always includes the full current balance. A goal with no link starts at $0.
• Real pace. A linked goal's card also shows where its real balance history is heading ("At your real pace: around Mar 2027"), next to your plan. See Update your progress on a goal.
• 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. A goal due today remains due today until midnight in your saved time zone. Cards, form projections and date shortcuts follow that same day. A day change updates the figures without clearing a form you are editing.
• 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. Monthly, quarterly, and yearly plans count complete calendar intervals from the goal’s start date, with dates clamped to the end of shorter months. An exact calendar year allows 12 monthly contributions. The first planned contribution is one period after the start; future starts do not add contributions early. Today’s current balance is assumed to include any contribution already due today. Weekly schedules count local calendar days, so time of day and daylight saving do not remove a payment.
• Linked debt payments. Projections convert the payment bill’s frequency into a monthly average. A $1,200 annual payment is modeled as $100 per month. The estimate uses your current debt balance, payment and interest rate; several bills linked to the same debt share one interest calculation. You can enter a monthly principal amount, capped at the payment and remaining debt. Interest that the payment does not cover adds to the projected balance. Without an interest rate, the full payment is treated as principal. Additional goal contributions reduce the estimate without assuming extra interest savings. If a very long target date and unpaid interest exceed the supported range, you see Projection unavailable and no suggested amount.

Good to know

• The pieces are saved with the goal — open it later to see or change them. While a goal has pieces, its target is always their total.

• 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.

• College goals. When a goal with a target amount and a future date is linked to a 529 College Account or a UTMA/UGMA account, its card shows where today's balance plus your monthly amount could lead by that date, in today's dollars. It says how far short or over your target that is, and about how much more a month would close a gap. It treats your target as today's cost, assumes 1.5% yearly growth after inflation, and allows for college being paid over about 4 years. It is an estimate, not a promise.

• Flexible / Whenever goals are never marked Behind or At Risk from pacing — only a missed target date moves them to Overdue.