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Commander Finance offers three modes that change how your budget lines behave. You can switch between modes freely at any time. All modes support custom time periods (yearly, quarterly, monthly, semi-monthly, biweekly, or weekly) with customizable start dates.

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Tracking mode

Tracking Mode records spending patterns on each budget line without enforcing limits or goals. Each budget line maintains a running total of activity in the cycle: expenses accumulate as spending, and income offsets that spending in the same line. This approach is particularly useful for tracking reimbursements or refunds—a refund logged against the same line nets out the original expense. Tracking Mode compares your spending and income in the current cycle against the equivalent totals from the previous cycle, showing you how your finances change over time. Totals in each line reset at the start of each new period.

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Targets mode

Targets Mode adds spending limits and income goals to your budget lines. Each budget line tracks spending against a target amount you define, where assigned transactions accumulate toward the line’s total activity which is then compared against the defined target. The app tracks all spending regardless of whether it exceeds the target amount. Each budget line operates independently, meaning overspending in one category doesn’t affect tracking in others. Target amounts reset each period with no rollover of unused budget capacity, and there are no automatic adjustments or transfers between budget lines. Target amounts, when set, apply for that cycle and future cycles. Setting a target now doesn’t affect past budget cycles.

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Envelope mode

Envelope Mode implements zero-based budgeting where you allocate funds to budget lines before spending. Unlike Tracking Mode and Targets Mode, where spending and income accumulate over the budget cycle and then reset, Envelope Mode uses a depletion model where funds can be continuously added to a line at any time during the cycle and then spent. When you transfer funds into your budget-included accounts, the app doesn’t assign them to any budget line by default and instead refers to them as Unbudgeted Funds. You can then allocate money from this pool into your budget lines, also referred to as envelopes, move money between envelopes as needed, and can fill or refill envelopes either from Unbudgeted Funds or from other envelopes at any point during the cycle. If you assign an income transaction to a line, its value is added to that line for later spending or transfers. You can spend from an empty or negative envelope—the app tracks all spending regardless of envelope balance. Negative envelopes indicate a deficit, which you can address by transferring from other envelopes or Unbudgeted Funds. Unused money or an unaddressed deficit in envelopes automatically rolls over to the next period. The cycle selector on the Budget page lets you navigate to a future cycle, marked with an Upcoming chip (a Past chip marks a cycle you’ve navigated back to). While viewing an upcoming cycle, you can fund envelopes ahead of time—transfers you make there are dated inside that cycle and draw from its own Unbudgeted Funds pool rather than the current cycle’s. Funds you schedule ahead aren’t available to spend until their cycle starts.