Test a what-if scenario

The What-if planner lets you test a big change before you commit. Play out a "what if" — a new job, a move, or paying off a debt — without touching your real data. You subtract the income, bills, assets, or debts you'd lose and add the hypothetical ones you'd gain. Beyond Payday then shows your net worth, monthly bills, and money left over side by side: today versus the scenario.

Money left over is your take-home pay minus all your bills (needs and wants) each month.

Try a sample without an account

Start with the demo introduction (opens in a new tab), or open the sample What-if planner (opens in a new tab) directly. Choose a saved sample scenario, then edit a bill in Add to Scenario and save the change. The three summary cards update using the same calculations as your own account. You can remove hypothetical items or bundles and restore excluded current items. Reset sample restores the household.

These edits stay in browser memory and clear when you switch households or reload. Creating scenarios, adding new items or purchase bundles, and editing assets or debts require signup. The steps below describe your signed-in account.

Before you start

• The What-if planner is free, but only the account owner and their spouse can open it. Child and other members won't see it in the menu.
• It compares against your real numbers, so it helps to have your income, bills, assets, and debts entered first.
• Nothing you do here changes your real data — a scenario is its own saved set of "what if" changes.

Steps

1. Open What-if planner (opens in a new tab) from the menu, under Planning tools — it's the item shown with a Try what-if changes subtitle underneath.
2. Click New Scenario, type a name like "New job" or "Move to Texas", and click Create.
3. In the left panel, Subtract from Current, click Search income, bills, assets, debts… and pick each real item you would no longer have.
4. In the right panel, Add to Scenario, click Add Item.
5. In the Add Scenario Item box, choose a Type (Income, Bill, Asset, or Debt), give it a Name, and enter the amount. The amount field is labeled Gross Salary, Amount, Current Value, or Outstanding Balance depending on the type.
6. For a bill, set its Frequency and the Essential (Need) toggle. For income, you can add estimated deductions and an Estimated Tax Rate to see take-home pay. Click Add Item.
7. Read the three cards at the top — Net Worth, Bills, and Money left over — to see the change. Use the frequency selector to view bills and money left over daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

Your changes save automatically as you work. There is no separate Save button.

How the comparison works

• Net Worth shows your assets minus debts for the scenario, in whole dollars. This card always shows absolute values — the frequency selector does not change it.
• Bills shows your monthly bills split into Needs and Wants. Because a bigger bill is worse, an increase here shows in red and a decrease shows in green — the opposite of the other cards.
• Money left over shows what's left after bills, plus the change from your current amount.
• The change on each card is a small colored arrow with a dollar amount — green for an improvement, red for a worsening. A change under about 50 cents shows no arrow.
• Subtracting an asset also subtracts its linked debt and that debt's monthly bill automatically. Subtracting a debt also subtracts its linked bill. This keeps the comparison consistent — you won't be left paying a mortgage on a house you removed.

Good to know

• Point-in-time only. The What-if planner compares today against the same day with your changes applied. It does not project years forward, and it does not model compounding, inflation, or taxes over time. For long-term questions like retirement, use the retirement projection instead.
• One scenario at a time. Whichever scenario you select is compared against your real current numbers. You can't compare two scenarios directly against each other.
• You can save many scenarios. Each one keeps its own subtractions and additions, so you can build "New job", "Move to Texas", and "Pay off the car" and switch between them. Rename or delete a scenario from the "…" menu next to its name (or, on a phone or tablet, from the "⋯" menu after you open it).
• On a phone or tablet, the page shows your scenarios as a list with each one's money-left-over change underneath its name. Tap a scenario to open it full screen; the back arrow returns you to the list. Which scenario is open is kept in the page's address, so a link or the browser's back button goes straight back to it.
• Removing a subtraction doesn't undo the cascade. If the app auto-removed a linked debt or bill, deleting the asset's subtraction won't bring them back — remove each item you no longer want subtracted.