How transactions affect your Granite budget

The short version

Granite begins with the monthly plan you entered, then uses eligible transaction activity to keep that plan current. Spending generally reduces what remains available, while income and credits can add room back to the month.

The effect is not limited to the monthly view. When the remaining monthly amount changes, Granite redistributes that context across the days still left in the period. That is why one transaction can move today, this week, and this month at the same time.

Connected and manual transactions join the same picture

Connected transactions arrive from the accounts you authorized through Plaid. Manual transactions let you record an expense or income item that is missing from those accounts, such as a cash purchase or an expected deposit you want represented in Granite.

A manual expense reduces the available budget, while manual income adds to it. Before adding something manually, check whether the same activity is likely to arrive from a connected account. Keeping both versions can count the same event twice.

Amount, type, and timing all matter

Granite uses the effective amount of a transaction when updating budget totals. Expenses are treated as money spent, while income and transaction credits move in the other direction. The transaction date determines which month and historical calendar period contains the activity.

If the amount or type does not reflect what happened, edit the transaction. A corrected amount can change total spending, remaining monthly budget, category insights, and the daily amount Granite shows for the rest of the month.

Pending activity can change before it becomes final

A pending transaction is an early record supplied before the financial institution finishes processing the activity. Its amount, merchant name, or date can change when it posts. Restaurant tips, hotel holds, gas-station authorizations, and delayed card processing are common examples.

Granite reconciles pending and posted updates as newer information arrives. Your budget can move when the pending purchase first appears and move again if the final amount is different. Avoid making unnecessary edits to a normal authorization hold unless you know the displayed amount is not useful for your plan.

Categories explain where the money went

A category helps Granite organize spending for transaction search, monthly summaries, charts, and other insights. If a purchase is categorized incorrectly, you can assign a system category or one of your custom categories.

Changing a spending category usually changes how the activity is described rather than whether the money left your budget. Income is different: a transaction identified as income is treated as money coming into the monthly picture, so review that category carefully when a number moves in the wrong direction.

Edit a transaction when the record is right but a detail is wrong

Editing is appropriate when the transaction belongs in your budget but Granite needs a more useful amount, merchant name, or category. Your edit becomes the customer-facing value Granite uses while the original connected record remains available to support synchronization.

• Correct a merchant name that is difficult to recognize
• Adjust an amount when the final value is known
• Move a purchase into the category that reflects its purpose
• Identify a deposit as income when it was not recognized correctly

Ignore a transaction when it should not affect the plan

Ignoring removes a transaction from supported budget totals without removing the underlying connected activity. It is useful when the transaction is real but should not be treated as new discretionary spending or income in Granite.

Ignored activity remains available in the ignored-transactions view and can be restored. Restore it if you later determine that the purchase or deposit should be part of the budget.

• A recurring bill is already represented in your financial plan
• A credit-card payment would duplicate purchases already imported from the card
• A transfer between your own accounts is not new spending or income
• A duplicate record represents activity Granite has already counted

Recurring items can otherwise be counted twice

Your financial information already reserves room for the recurring expenses, savings, and investments you entered. When a matching bank transaction arrives, treating it as an additional expense can reduce the budget a second time.

Review and match supported recurring activity so Granite can connect the transaction to the plan behind it. If an item is already protected by your monthly inputs, the matching transaction generally should not create a second discretionary deduction.

If your budget looks unexpectedly high or low

After correcting or restoring a transaction, allow the dashboard to refresh and check today, this week, and this month again. If the result still does not match what you expect, contact Granite with the transaction date, displayed merchant, and the behavior you expected. Never send bank credentials or full account numbers.

• Search recent activity for an unusually large amount
• Check whether planned income also appears as additional income
• Look for a recurring bill that may have been counted twice
• Review transfers, credit-card payments, refunds, and reimbursements
• Compare pending amounts with the purchase you remember making
• Open ignored transactions to confirm nothing important was excluded
• Check whether a manual entry also arrived from a connected account