Tracking Your Trip Budget

How the Budget Tab Works

Every trip has a Budget tab in the left-hand navigation. It pulls together every cost associated with the trip into one rollup view.

Budget items come from two places:

1. Costs attached to an event — when you add a price to an event in the calendar drawer, it appears here automatically
2. Standalone items — costs you add directly on the Budget tab via Create Budget Item

Both appear in the same list, with the event-linked ones carrying the event's title, icon, and date.

Adding Costs to an Event

The fastest way to enter budget data is in the event drawer:

1. Open the event (click it on the calendar).
2. Scroll to the Budget section near the bottom.
3. Click the + to add a line. Enter:
   • Amount
   • Currency (USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, AUD, CAD, CHF)
   • Who it applies to (pick one or more guests)
4. Click Save Event.

The line now shows up on the Budget tab under the event, with the event's category.

Creating Standalone Budget Items

For costs that don't belong to a single calendar event — travel insurance, visa fees, airport parking, the post-trip group dinner — use standalone items.

1. Open the Budget tab.
2. Click Create Budget Item.
3. In the dialog:
   • Pick a category (event type)
   • Enter a title
   • Add an optional description
   • Enter one or more price lines with amount, currency, and guests
4. Click Add Budget Item.

Standalone items appear in the main Budget list with a trash icon for easy removal.

Reading the Budget

The Budget tab is organized into three sections:

Main Table

A full list of every budget line item on the trip, sorted by event or category. Each row shows the title, category icon, date (if event-linked), and the cost.

Categories Panel (appears on the side nav when multiple categories exist)

Totals grouped by event type (Food, Flight, Accommodation, etc.) with a trip grand total at the bottom.

Guests Panel (appears when any line has guests assigned)

Totals grouped by traveler — shows what each person owes or paid for.

Currency Filter (appears when the trip uses more than one currency)

A dropdown at the top of the Budget tab — pick a currency and the Categories and Guests panels re-calculate to show only that currency.

Free vs. Pro Budgeting

Free trips can track costs — amounts, currencies, categories, per-guest attribution. What they can't do:

• Advanced splitting — varying amounts per person, uneven shares
• Settlement calculations — who owes whom at the end
• PDF export of the full budget breakdown

Upgrade to Plan Harmony Pro for the advanced budget features.

Tips

• Enter costs as you book. Adding the cost at the moment you book a flight or a hotel keeps the budget accurate and avoids a giant spreadsheet session at the end.
• Use standalone items for shared pots. Things like a group dinner fund or a taxi kitty live better as a standalone item than on a specific calendar event.
• Track who paid. The "who it applies to" field is for the people the cost belongs to. If Sarah paid for everyone's boat tour, she can use the Pro expense splitting features to track that; on the free tier, write a note in the description.
• Match currencies to reality. If you paid in euros, enter euros. Plan Harmony keeps currencies separate so foreign exchange is transparent.
• Review categories before departure. Early on you'll have a lot of "Event" category items — as the trip gets closer and you book specific things, update the event types for better category rollups.