Every BudgeFlow SMS Command, Explained

The default shape is amount + free-text description. Send "12.50 starbucks coffee" and BudgeFlow extracts $12.50, identifies Starbucks as the merchant, and routes it to your Dining envelope. Natural-language forms like "spent 45 on gas at shell" or "$14.99 netflix #entertainment" work too — keywords like *spent*, *paid*, *bought*, *for*, and *at* are all parsed.

To log income, start with a + or the word "income": "+2000 salary" or "income 850 freelance". Anything after the amount becomes the source label.

Any #category hashtag overrides the AI guess. You can also add modifiers to any log: trailing @YYYY-MM-DD backdates it, note <text> attaches a note, and project <name> tags it to a project. Forwarded bank-alert SMS from Chase, Amex, BofA, etc. are auto-detected — just forward the text and BudgeFlow pulls amount, merchant, and account on its own.

If we mis-categorized the last log, reply "no, <category>" (e.g. *no, groceries*). BudgeFlow moves the entry and sends a fresh confirmation.

On Pro, follow that with ALWAYS to make the rule permanent for that merchant — every future log with the same merchant routes to that category. To delete a numbered entry from the most recent LIST or TRANS reply, send REMOVE <n>.

One-word commands cover almost every check-in:

• BAL — net across all accounts (`BALANCE` and `ACCOUNTS` work too)
• BAL <account> — balance for one account
• SUMMARY — month-to-date income, expenses, net, and top three categories
• TODAY / WEEK / MONTH — entries with running totals
• TRANS [n] — the last N transactions (defaults to 5)
• TOTAL <category> today|week|month — period total for one category
• STATUS — compact health check: balance, MTD spend, RTA, over-budget envelopes

Zero-based budgeting controls map directly to text:

• BUDGET or ENVELOPES — every envelope with spent/allocated
• ENVELOPE <name> — single envelope detail
• AVAILABLE — current Ready-To-Assign
• REALLOCATE 50 from groceries to dining — move money between envelopes

For accounts:

• TRANSFER 200 from checking to savings (or MOVE)
• PAY CARD 250 from checking — generic CC payment
• PAYMENT #chase 250 — pay a named card from the default cash account (Pro)
• PAY chase 250 from checking — same idea with an explicit source account

Browse any entity in the workspace:

• LIST bills (or expenses, incomes, subscriptions, budgets, goals, categories, rules, projects)
• LIST <category-name> — recent expenses in that category
• LIST ACCOUNT <name> or LIST PROJECT <name> — scoped activity
• MORE — next page of the most recent list
• PROJECTS — month-to-date totals per project

Full CRUD lives behind a small key/value grammar. Recognized keys include `amount`, `due`, `date`, `category`/`cat`, `account`, `every`/`cycle`, `target`, `note`, `client`, `status`, `rate`, `minimum`, `keyword`, and `color`.

• ADD ENVELOPE Groceries 500 / UPDATE ENVELOPE Groceries 600 / DELETE ENVELOPE Groceries
• ADD GOAL Vacation 3000 / UPDATE GOAL … / DELETE GOAL …
• ADD BILL Rent amount 1800 due 1 cycle monthly
• ADD SUBSCRIPTION Netflix amount 15.49 cycle monthly
• ADD CATEGORY Coffee / ADD INCOME CATEGORY Freelance
• ADD RULE keyword starbucks category Dining — auto-categorize a merchant
• ADD PROJECT Acme client Acme Inc

Goals:

• GOALS — list all active goals
• FUND GOAL Vacation 100 — contribute $100
• GOAL Vacation — single-goal status with ETA
• GOAL SUMMARY — multi-goal digest
• GOAL HISTORY Vacation — recent funding events

Bills and subscriptions:

• PAID BILL rent — close the next instance of a recurring bill
• MARK BILL rent PAID — long form
• MARK SUBSCRIPTION netflix BILLED

Debts:

• DEBTS — list active debts
• ADD DEBT Car Loan 12500 @6.5%
• PAY DEBT Car Loan 250
• DELETE DEBT Car Loan

IOU commands use names exactly the way you'd say them out loud:

• "i owe alex 25 for movies" — creates an open IOU you owe
• "alex owes me 40 for dinner" — mirror
• "paid alex 25" — settles oldest IOUs first (FIFO), splits partial payments
• "alex paid me 25" — same FIFO settlement for amounts coming back
• "split 200 between me, mark, priya for dinner" — divides evenly and creates reciprocal IOUs (`between`, `among`, and `with` are interchangeable)
• "balances" — your net position with everyone in one shot
• "how much do i owe alex?" / "how much does alex owe me?" — per-contact balance

Contacts are created on first mention with name normalization, so "Alex", "alex", and " Alex " all resolve to the same person.

Period digests arrive in-thread (no PDF email today — that's on the roadmap):

• REPORT month — month-to-date digest. Supported periods: `week`, `last week`, `biweekly`, `month`, `last month`, `quarter`, `last quarter`, `ytd`, `year`, `last year`.
• REPORT month vs previous — add `VS previous` or `VS yoy` for a delta column
• WRAPPED — Pro monthly recap for the most recently completed month. Use `WRAPPED 2026-05` for a specific month.

USAGE (or LIMIT / PLAN) returns your billing plan, subscription status, and SMS segments used this period. FEEDBACK <message> routes a note straight to the team with your workspace attached.

HELP (or ?, COMMANDS, INFO) returns a short cheatsheet. STOP is the standard US-carrier unsubscribe keyword (`STOPALL`, `UNSUBSCRIBE`, `CANCEL`, `END`, and `QUIT` all work); START (or `UNSTOP` / `YES`) re-enables.

Every command above also works over WhatsApp once you verify your number in Settings.