The model
Closing a cycle: the gap isn't a telling-off
When you close, the app asks how much money you actually have and compares it with what you should have left. That difference is the gap.
What the gap is
There's no close button: when the date arrives, the close is what greets you on opening the app. And it asks you one very specific thing — how much money you have right now, for real. Then it compares that with what you should have left according to everything you logged.
That difference is the gap. It's usually money that left without being recorded — the daily drip — or, the other way round, money that came in and never got logged.
It isn't the same as overspending a category
Two different things, and mixing them up muddles both:
- The verdict compares one category against its target and tells you if you're under, on track or over. You see it all cycle long.
- The gap compares your actual pocket against what the app thought you had. It shows up once, at the close.
You can close with every category in the green and still have a gap. It means real spending never made it into the app.
It lets you log before it asks
Right before asking for your real balance, the close opens one last door to add anything this cycle missed. That's deliberate: the gap only tells the truth once everything is in.
That's also where you go through your recurring expenses: which ones you paid, which get skipped because they didn't happen, and which you cancel so they don't come back.
What the app does about it
It shows you. That's all.
It doesn't correct the next cycle, doesn't dock you anything, and there's no streak to break. A cycle with a gap isn't a failure: it's information about what slips past you unlogged.
What was left over, or missing, gets recorded and carried from cycle to cycle — again as information, not as a penalty.
How to read it
Three readings that are usually right:
- A small but constant gap is the daily drip: coffee, the odd fare, tips.
- A big one is almost always a specific expense that happened and never got logged.
- If the gap lands in your favour, look for income you forgot to record before celebrating.