PocketSmith first week: accounts, budgets on the calendar and your first forecast

Pick the plan before you pick the import method

PocketSmith's tiers differ in features you will hit in the first week: whether bank feeds are included, how many accounts and budgets you can create, and how far ahead the forecast runs. The table uses USD list prices from the plans page and each plan's help page, read on 30 October 2026.

There is a conflict between two official pages. The plans page lists 'Automatic bank feeds' in the Free column, but the Free plan help page says it 'does not include automatic bank feed support'. Until PocketSmith reconciles them, plan Free as a file-import setup.

Day-by-day plan

Built from PocketSmith's four-step getting-started guide, spread over a week.

How much history your first feed brings in

PocketSmith publishes a guideline for maximum history by data provider. It says results vary by bank and country. To go further back, upload older bank files after the feed is running. PocketSmith suggests letting each new file overlap the last import by one day and choosing to replace transactions on overlapping dates, so nothing goes missing.

Worked example: recurring bills as calendar budgets

This is an invented household. Checking holds $3,000 today. Salary of $2,600 arrives every second Friday. Rent of $1,800 leaves on the 1st, a $65 phone bill on the 18th, and $540 car insurance every six months. Each becomes a repeating budget on its real date, assigned to checking. Groceries become a weekly budget, because they have no fixed date.

The forecast starts at the $3,000 actual balance and adds or subtracts each budget event on its date. If rent on the 1st lands before the next paycheck, the forecast dips on that day. That dip is the main thing a calendar budget shows you that a monthly category total does not. Change any budget on the Calendar and the forecast graph updates immediately.

When you edit a repeating budget later, PocketSmith asks whether the change applies to that one event, to all events from a date forward, or to the whole series. Use the date-forward option for a rent increase, so past months keep the old figure.

Reading your first forecast

• Forecast balances are always calculated from the current actual balance, so a wrong opening balance distorts every future date. Fix balances first.
• Each budget event moves only the account it is assigned to. A bill assigned to savings will not show up in the checking forecast.
• Turn on 'Show actuals in history' to compare past forecasts with what really happened. It is the quickest way to see which budgets are wrong.
• Your plan sets the horizon: 6 months on Free, 10 years on Foundation, 30 on Flourish and 60 on Fortune. A first-week forecast only needs the next 2 to 3 months to be useful.
• If the line looks too optimistic, look for a missing budget, usually an annual or six-monthly bill.

Which first-week steps need a paid plan

Based on the plans page and plan help pages on 30 October 2026. Collaborator access and bank file uploads are listed for all plans.

Before you pay, and what this guide cannot tell you

PocketSmith offers a 14-day money-back guarantee instead of a free trial. Cancelling or downgrading within 14 days of purchase qualifies for a full refund of the last payment if you contact them. One practical approach is to do days 1 to 4 on Free with a bank file, then upgrade and finish days 5 to 7 inside the 14-day window.

This is a research guide built from PocketSmith's official pages, not a hands-on test. It cannot tell you whether a feed for your bank is reliable. Check 'Does PocketSmith have a feed for my bank' in the Learn Centre before you pay.