# Budgets, goals and forecast

Three tools for planning: **Budgets** (a spending limit per category), **Goals**
(how much to bring in and how much to keep in the month) and **Projection** (what
should come in and go out in the next months).

## Budgets

In **Finance > Budgets**:

1. Click **New budget**.
2. Pick an expense category, the monthly limit and at what percentage you want to
   be warned (80 by default).
3. Save.

The limit applies to every month, until you change or remove it. The screen shows,
for the current month, how much of each budget is already spent, with the **Close
to the limit** and **Over budget** badges; the mark on the bar shows where the
warning fires. It counts what is already paid in the month, including automatic
expenses (fees, subscription, commissions) in their category.

![Budgets with how much is spent and the Close to the limit and Over budget badges](shots/finance-budgets.webp)

### Budget alerts

Each alert goes out once per category and per month: when it reaches the warning
percentage and when it passes the limit. It shows in **Recent alerts** and, with
the **Budget alerts by email and Discord** switch on in **Finance > Settings**, it
goes:

- by email to the store owner and to whoever has the **Receive budget alerts**
  permission in their role (dashboard team or server staff);
- as a Discord direct message to whoever has their account linked, with the
  Discord bot connected.

> [!TIP]
> A Marketing budget with an 80% warning avoids the surprise of overspending on ads
> in a weak sales month.

## Monthly goals

In **Finance > Settings**, on the **Goals and alerts** card, enter the **Monthly
income goal** and the **Monthly result goal** and click **Save**. Leave them blank
for no goal.

Goals show on the overview with how much was already done. The mark on the bar is
what is expected by today, in proportion to the days of the month: below it, the
screen warns that the store is behind pace.

![The Finance settings: goals, alerts and the automatic review](shots/finance-settings.webp)

> [!NOTE]
> These goals are internal, for you only. The storefront's
> [Month goal](/en/products/goal/), which players see, is a different one; it shows
> next to them on the overview only in the month it was active.

## Projection

**Finance > Projection** shows what should come in and go out in the next 3, 6 or
12 months:

- what is already known comes separately: recurring expenses, pending bills, the
  Hystore subscription and partner commissions;
- sales are an estimate: they repeat the average of the last closed months with
  activity, and the cost of selling (fees, refunds and commissions) follows the
  same proportion;
- the current month shows what already came in and went out, plus the estimate for
  the days left.

![The projection of the next months with the break-even point](shots/finance-projection.webp)

### Break-even point

The **Break-even point** card shows the fixed costs per month (recurring expenses
and the Hystore subscription), the cost of selling and how much the store needs to
sell per month not to close in the red, compared with average sales.

```text Example
fixed costs: R$ 900.00 per month
cost of selling: 8% of sales
needs to sell: 900.00 ÷ (1 − 0.08) = R$ 978.26 per month
```

With no recurring expenses added, fixed costs use the average of the entered
expenses. A projection is not a guarantee: sales can vary.