Did you know that your client portal comes with a budgeting tool that is free to use?
Budgeting isn't for everyone, but for many a good budget provides valuable feedback and peace of mind on your household cash flow. With the loss of the Mint budgeting tool, we heard from several clients that they were hoping to find a replacement. As a Bluestem client, a budgeting tool is baked into your client portal. You’ll find it under the Spending tab, one of the main tabs at the top of the home screen.
It is important to note that you will need to link the accounts where you are spending to utilize this tool. It does not allow for adding manual transactions. This would typically mean keeping your bank accounts and credit cards connected. Here’s a refresher on how to link new accounts. Note: Linking your credit cards does not mean your transaction history is available to Bluestem. Unless you specifically give us access, your spending and budgeting are private.
Within the Spending tab, you have three views:
Overview - A summary of your spending into the categories you choose.
Budgets - Choose your desired categories and set your spending goals for them.
Transactions - View all the transactions pulling in and edit how they are categorized. (For help on setting your categories, see the Spending Categories guide)
Pro Tip - within Transactions you can set Rules which will automatically categorize future purchases from the same vendor/store
For a more in-depth guide with visuals on how to get started, check out the Spending/Budgeting Overview.
If you're curious about keeping a budget or searching for a better way to manage yours, we recommend giving the Spending tool a try! And let us know how it works for you — any feedback is much appreciated.