Four ideas hold up everything else in Buhata. Learn these and the rest of the app stops needing explanation.
Each lesson has a player you can listen to and a set of steps you can read instead. Both say the same thing, so use whichever suits where you are. Nothing here needs an account and none of it is behind a plan.
Lesson 1: an entry
An entry is one thing that happened. Money spent, a task, a glass of water, a weight on the scale. Everything you'll ever put into Buhata is one of these, which is why it's worth five minutes on its own.
Press the plus
It sits in the same place on every screen, so you never have to look for it.
Try it now
Record one expense you actually made today. A real one, not a test, because a test entry teaches you nothing about whether you'd keep doing this.
Two things should have happened. It appeared on today's date, and the balance at the top changed by that amount.
What people get wrong here
Waiting until they've decided on categories. You don't need them yet and you'll pick better ones after a week of real entries than you would from a blank screen today.
Lesson 2: a Space
A Space is a wall around one kind of money. Its own balance, its own entries, its own categories.
Why two, not one
Personal and business money answer different questions. Mixed together, neither number is any use.
Try it now
Rename the Space you already have. If you have any income that isn't a salary, make a second one and name it after the thing it holds. Move nothing yet.
What people get wrong here
Making a Space per category. A Space is for money that shouldn't be mixed, and most households need two. Six Spaces mean six balances you have to hold in your head.
Lesson 3: the calendar
The calendar shows you the same entries you already made, arranged by when they happened or when they're due. Nothing separate to fill in.
It's already populated
Everything you entered is on it. This isn't a second thing to maintain.
Try it now
Put in one repeating bill and scroll three months out. Find the day where your balance is lowest.
That day is where things go wrong if anything arrives late, and knowing it in advance is most of what this app is for.
What people get wrong here
Entering the bills they worry about and skipping the small ones. The small ones are what make the projection wrong, and a projection you don't trust is one you stop looking at.
Lesson 4: the desk
On a computer or in a browser you get a desk: several apps open at once in windows you can drag and resize. On a phone one app fills the screen and the dock at the bottom holds your last two.
Open two things at once
The budget and the calendar is the pair most people keep open.
Try it now
Open the budget and the calendar side by side, then close one and see the other fill the space.
What you should be able to do now
- Record any entry without thinking about where it goes
- Explain what a Space is to somebody else in one sentence
- Read next month's balance before next month arrives
- Get to any app quickly on whatever device you're holding
Next: Household money without a spreadsheet.