Budget vs Actual Calculator
Compare what you budgeted with what you actually spent, category by category. See the variance in dollars and percent, and your three worst overspends.
Budget vs Actual Calculator
Your month, category by category
One line per category: what you planned to spend, and what you actually spent. Six of the categories that usually move are filled in for you, and the names are yours to change.
Fixed bills such as rent, insurance and loan payments can go in too, but they usually land dead on the budgeted figure. The categories that move are where the month is decided. A row with both amounts blank is ignored. Had a refund? Net it off the actual figure for that category.
Optional: your income
Optional. The money that actually landed in your account this month, after tax. Used only to show what share of it you spent, so leave it blank to skip that.
Next month’s plan
Keeps your monthly total exactly where it is and moves the limits toward where the money actually went.
Nothing entered yet. Fill in a budgeted amount and an actual amount for at least one category and the whole comparison fills in as you type.
Variance is actual minus budgeted, so a positive figure means you spent more than you planned. Every row carries its verdict in words as well as a sign.
Against your take-home pay
Every category
| Category | Budgeted | Actual | Over / under |
|---|
A percent needs something to divide by, so a category with spending and no budget shows a dash instead of a number. It still counts as over.
Where the month went
Nothing went over budget this month. That is the whole report.
| # | Category | Over by | Over by % |
|---|
Suggested plan for next month
You logged no spending, so there is nothing to rebalance from.
With no budgets set, the only plan available is what you actually spent.
| Category | Now | Next month | Change |
|---|
How to calculate budget vs actual variance
Two numbers per category, two formulas. The dollar variance is what you spent minus what you planned to spend. The percentage variance is that same difference divided by the budgeted amount, times 100. That is the whole of it.
Take three categories from a real month. Groceries budgeted at $450 came in at $520, a variance of +$70 and +15.6%, so the status is Over. Transport budgeted at $200 came in at $165, a variance of −$35 and −17.5%, status Under. Dining out budgeted at $150 came in at $240, a variance of +$90 and +60.0%, status Over. Across the three, $800 planned against $925 spent is a net variance of +$125, or +15.6% of the plan.
This page uses actual minus budgeted, so positive always means you spent more than you planned. Business tools are split on this: some use budgeted minus actual, where a positive number is the good news. Every figure here is therefore printed next to the word Over, Under or On target rather than left to speak for itself through a plus sign. If you arrive from a work spreadsheet, check the direction before you compare the two.
One case has no answer: a category you spent money in but never budgeted for. Dividing by a zero budget does not give you 100% or infinity, it gives you nothing, so the percent column shows a dash and the badge reads "No budget set". The dollar figure still stands, the row still counts as over budget, and it still qualifies for the ranking. Give it a limit next month and the percentage starts working.
What the variance percentage is actually telling you
The working rule from business budgeting is a pair of thresholds: within about 5% of the line is ordinary noise, 5% to 10% is worth a look, and past 10% something happened that needs a name. Those bands transfer to a household budget with one adjustment. Weight them by size. A category with a $30 limit will swing 40% on a single takeaway meal and mean nothing by it, while a $900 grocery line running 8% over is $72 that has to come from somewhere.
That is why the ranking on this page sorts by dollars, not by percent. Most months are decided by two or three categories, and sorting by percentage puts your smallest lines at the top of a list nobody needs. If Entertainment or Shopping is one of your worst three, the fastest place to look is the recurring charges you stopped noticing: the subscription cost calculator totals those and ranks them the same way.
The net variance has a blind spot worth knowing about. A $200 overspend on groceries and a $200 underspend on a bill that has not landed yet net to zero, and the month looks controlled when it was not. The over-budget count is the honest figure, so it sits next to the net number rather than behind it. When several categories miss and the total still lands close to plan, this page says so out loud.
The income check answers a different question: survivability. Running 8% over your plan is one thing. Running over what actually landed in your account is another, and only the second one has to be funded from somewhere. If the moving part is your pay rather than your spending, set the plan against your leanest month with the irregular income budget calculator before you grade it here.
Turning a bad month into next month’s plan
Overspends come in three kinds and each takes a different response. A one-off (a car repair, a wedding gift, a dentist bill) needs no change to the budget at all, just a set-aside so the next one is already paid for. A limit that was optimistic rather than observed needs raising to the number you actually spend. And a real pattern needs a change in behavior, which is the only one of the three that is any work. The tell is repetition: three months in a row over on the same category and the limit is wrong, not you.
Move money before you raise the total. If groceries went $80 over and dining out came in $80 under, nothing broke, the money just moved. Take the $80 from the line that had room and leave the monthly total alone. "Hold the total" does exactly that: it keeps your monthly plan at the same figure and redistributes the limits toward where the money went, apportioning the cents so the new limits add back to the old total exactly. "Match what you spent" is the honest alternative when the plan was simply too low, and it tells you how much higher the total goes.
One caveat on the suggestion. A category you did not touch this month gets $0.00 next month, because the rebalance follows your actuals. If that line is a real but occasional cost such as car repairs, gifts or medical, put its limit back by hand. The math cannot tell the difference between a category you stopped using and one that simply had a quiet month.
Seeing the variance while you are still spending, not after
A month-end comparison is a post-mortem. It tells you what happened, which is useful once, but the number that changes anything is the one you can see before you tap pay. That means the budget has to live where the spending is recorded rather than in a spreadsheet you open on the first of the month.
Budget44 runs the same comparison continuously. Recurring monthly budgets recreate each category limit automatically, so the plan is already there on day one. Each budget shows spent against limit with the remaining or over-by amount as you go, and tapping into a category month lists every transaction behind the variance, which is usually where the explanation is hiding. The calendar separates recorded activity from projected, so an underspend that is really an unpaid bill shows up as exactly that instead of masquerading as savings.
Everything stays on the device: manual entry, no account, no bank connection, and amounts held as integer minor units so the totals match to the cent. Got your variance? Download Budget44 and track planned against actual as the month happens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about budget vs actual calculator
What is the budget vs actual formula?
Two figures per category. The dollar variance is actual minus budgeted, so a $520 grocery spend against a $450 limit is a $70 variance. The percentage is that same difference over the budgeted amount: 70 ÷ 450 × 100 = 15.6%. The dollars tell you how much the month moved, the percentage tells you how far off the plan was. You need both, because a 40% miss on a $20 category is noise and a 6% miss on a $2,000 one is not.
What is the difference between a favorable and an unfavorable variance?
Favorable means the difference helped you, unfavorable means it hurt, and which is which depends on whether the line is money going out or money coming in. On an expense, spending less than budgeted is favorable. On income, earning less than budgeted is unfavorable. That flip is where most of the confusion lives, so this calculator sidesteps it. Every row here is an expense category, which makes under budget the good direction every time and over budget the bad one.
Is a positive variance good or bad?
On this page, bad. We use actual minus budgeted, so a positive number means you spent more than you planned. Plenty of business tools use the reverse (budgeted minus actual), where positive means under budget, which is why you should read the word beside the number rather than the sign. Every row here is labeled Over, Under or On target, so there is nothing to decode.
What is a good budget variance percentage?
The common working rule is that anything within about 5% of the line is normal noise, 5% to 10% is worth a look, and more than 10% needs an actual explanation. Those thresholds come from business budgeting and they carry over to a household budget with one caveat: apply them to your biggest categories, not the small ones. Groceries 8% over is a real signal. Entertainment 40% over on a $30 budget is one takeaway meal.
Why does my budget miss every single month?
Usually one of three things, and they need different fixes. A one-off (a repair, a trip, a gift) needs no fix at all, just a sinking fund next time. A limit you guessed at instead of measured needs raising to what you actually spend. A genuine pattern needs a behavior change. Repetition is the giveaway: if the same category has been over for three months running, the budget is wrong, not you. If the moving part is your income rather than your spending, set the plan first with the irregular income budget calculator.
How often should I check budget vs actual?
Once at the end of the month for the full comparison, and once around the midpoint for a quick look at the two or three categories that usually run hot. Monthly is where the pattern lives. A single month is too noisy to draw a conclusion from, and quarterly is too late to act on. Three consecutive months is the window that tells you whether you have a habit or an accident.
My total came in on budget but I know I overspent. How?
Netting. An overspend in one category and an underspend in another cancel out in the total, so a month with five categories in chaos can total to almost exactly the plan. This page shows how many categories went over as well as the net figure, because a count of misses cannot be netted away. It also happens when an underspend is really a bill that has not landed yet, which borrows from next month rather than saving anything. If your bills keep landing on the wrong side of a paycheck, the biweekly paycheck budget calculator is the tool for that timing problem.
Should I move money between categories or just raise the budget?
Move it first. If you went $80 over on groceries and $80 under on dining out, the plan is fine and the money just moved, so take the $80 from the category that had room and leave the total alone. That is what the "Hold the total" suggestion on this page does. Only raise the total when a category has been over for months and there is nothing left to take it from, which means the plan never fitted your actual life and the number needed changing anyway.