[Feature] Pay Periods #2516

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opened 2026-02-28 20:16:45 -06:00 by GiteaMirror · 3 comments
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Originally created by @code-with-jov on GitHub (Oct 4, 2025).

Verified feature request does not already exist?

  • #975 seems similar

💻

  • Would you like to implement this feature?

Pitch: what problem are you trying to solve?

The biggest challenge with any budget is knowing you’ll have the right amount of money at the right time. Actual Budget’s envelop method does a great job of tracking this by encouraging you to plan only with the money you currently have.

A Pay Period view would allow for planning in income driven slices. Instead of an arbitrary month, a user could select whether they get paid weekly, bi-weekly, etc. and there budget view would be broken down in that time range (e.g Aug 29th - Sep 12th). This allows for planning with numbers proportional to and with the time reference of your income.

Additionally, a Pay Period view solves the Tracking Budget’s biggest issue. Since the time slices are income driven, you can be more confident you’ll have the right amount of money when you need it.

Describe your ideal solution to this problem

This approach emphasizes backwards compatibility by adding additional "months" to YYYYMM. 1 - 12 remain Calendar Months, while 13 - 99 are leveraged for Pay Periods. It is calculation heavy, as it uses the Frequency and Start Date configurations set on the settings page (only visible after enabling the experimental feature) to derive date ranges. A "Show Pay Periods" checkbox is displayed at the top of the budget page - allowing users to quickly toggle between Month and Pay Period views.

I did already start this: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/pull/5730 but re-read the contributing docs and realized I missed creating an issue. Still very much a work in progress, a lot of clean up left to do!

Teaching and learning

Add docs to Experimental features Section on how to enable and how the date ranges are calculated.

Originally created by @code-with-jov on GitHub (Oct 4, 2025). ### Verified feature request does not already exist? - [ ] #975 seems similar ### 💻 - [x] Would you like to implement this feature? ### Pitch: what problem are you trying to solve? The biggest challenge with any budget is knowing you’ll have the right amount of money at the right time. Actual Budget’s envelop method does a great job of tracking this by encouraging you to plan only with the money you currently have. A Pay Period view would allow for planning in income driven slices. Instead of an arbitrary month, a user could select whether they get paid weekly, bi-weekly, etc. and there budget view would be broken down in that time range (e.g Aug 29th - Sep 12th). This allows for planning with numbers proportional to and with the time reference of your income. Additionally, a Pay Period view solves the Tracking Budget’s biggest issue. Since the time slices are income driven, you can be more confident you’ll have the right amount of money when you need it. ### Describe your ideal solution to this problem This approach emphasizes backwards compatibility by adding additional "months" to YYYYMM. 1 - 12 remain Calendar Months, while 13 - 99 are leveraged for Pay Periods. It is calculation heavy, as it uses the Frequency and Start Date configurations set on the settings page (only visible after enabling the experimental feature) to derive date ranges. A "Show Pay Periods" checkbox is displayed at the top of the budget page - allowing users to quickly toggle between Month and Pay Period views. I did already start this: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/pull/5730 but re-read the contributing docs and realized I missed creating an issue. Still very much a work in progress, a lot of clean up left to do! ### Teaching and learning Add docs to Experimental features Section on how to enable and how the date ranges are calculated.
GiteaMirror added the needs votesfeature labels 2026-02-28 20:16:45 -06:00
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@github-actions[bot] commented on GitHub (Oct 4, 2025):

Thanks for sharing your idea!

This repository uses a voting-based system for feature requests. While enhancement issues are automatically closed, we still welcome feature requests! The voting system helps us gauge community interest in potential features. We also encourage community contributions for any feature requests marked as needing votes (just post a comment first so we can help guide you toward a successful contribution).

The enhancement backlog can be found here: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues?q=label%3A%22needs+votes%22+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc+

Don’t forget to upvote the top comment with 👍!

@github-actions[bot] commented on GitHub (Oct 4, 2025): :sparkles: Thanks for sharing your idea! :sparkles: This repository uses a voting-based system for feature requests. While enhancement issues are automatically closed, we still welcome feature requests! The voting system helps us gauge community interest in potential features. We also encourage community contributions for any feature requests marked as needing votes (just post a comment first so we can help guide you toward a successful contribution). The enhancement backlog can be found here: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues?q=label%3A%22needs+votes%22+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc+ Don’t forget to upvote the top comment with 👍! <!-- feature-auto-close-comment -->
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@humrochagf commented on GitHub (Oct 6, 2025):

This exactly what I was looking for, I moved from google sheets 4 months ago and it was a great usability upgrade, but It came with the downside that at home we started to feel less on the control of our budged in comparison to the sheets because there we had the budget matching exactly our bi-weekly payments and bills that we also split to match our payment.

Even to automate it became a bit clumsly since now we have to calculate the porportion of bi-weekly regarding the month to alocate in the budget and do it 2 or 3 times a month acoording with how many payments lands on that month.

@humrochagf commented on GitHub (Oct 6, 2025): This exactly what I was looking for, I moved from google sheets 4 months ago and it was a great usability upgrade, but It came with the downside that at home we started to feel less on the control of our budged in comparison to the sheets because there we had the budget matching exactly our bi-weekly payments and bills that we also split to match our payment. Even to automate it became a bit clumsly since now we have to calculate the porportion of bi-weekly regarding the month to alocate in the budget and do it 2 or 3 times a month acoording with how many payments lands on that month.
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@code-with-jov commented on GitHub (Oct 6, 2025):

Absolutely! I'm right there with you.

Progress is going pretty well if you want to try it out - I'm definitely looking for feedback:

https://deploy-preview-5730.demo.actualbudget.org/

I do still need to get it working on mobile and clean the code up.

@code-with-jov commented on GitHub (Oct 6, 2025): Absolutely! I'm right there with you. Progress is going pretty well if you want to try it out - I'm definitely looking for feedback: https://deploy-preview-5730.demo.actualbudget.org/ I do still need to get it working on mobile and clean the code up.
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Reference: github-starred/actual#2516