Free Feature

Budget Period

Your budget period determines the time window Pocket Clear uses to calculate your spending totals, budget limits, and reports. Think of it as the rhythm of your financial tracking — some people think in weeks, others in months.

Pocket Clear supports five budget periods: weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, and yearly. When you change your budget period, all totals on the Home screen, budget progress bars, and reports automatically recalculate to match the new timeframe.

Most users start with monthly since it aligns with salary cycles. If you get paid every two weeks or prefer tighter spending windows, weekly, bi-weekly, or semi-monthly can help you stay on top of things more frequently.

How to change your budget period

1. Open Pocket Clear and tap Settings (gear icon).
2. Tap Budget Period.
3. Select your preferred period: Weekly, Bi-weekly, Semi-monthly, Monthly, or Yearly.
4. If you choose Semi-monthly for either Budget Period or View Period, a Semi-monthly Days row appears in Settings. Open it to set the two days your month splits on, defaulting to the 1st and 16th — for example, if you're paid on the 15th and the 30th, choose those two days. The two days can never be the same, and a day past the 28th shifts to the last day of shorter months, so a day set to 30 shows as the 28th in February.
5. Your Home screen totals and any active budgets will immediately update to reflect the new period.

Semi-monthly vs. bi-weekly

These sound similar but produce very different budgets, which is exactly why semi-monthly exists as its own option:

• Bi-weekly is a fixed 14-day cycle — 26 periods a year — and it drifts relative to a monthly pay date. Anchored to the 15th, it slips by about a day every cycle: Jul 15–28, then Jul 29–Aug 11, then Aug 12–25, and so on.
• Semi-monthly is 24 periods a year and stays put on the two days you choose. It never drifts.

If you're paid on the 15th and the 30th, bi-weekly will not stay aligned to those dates over time — choose Semi-monthly and set your two days to 15 and 30 instead, and your budget will always reset on the dates your paycheck actually lands.

Things to know

• Changing budget period does not delete or modify any transactions — it only changes how totals are grouped.
• If you have active budgets set up, their limits stay the same but the period they cover will change. You may want to adjust your budget amounts after switching.
• Yearly tracks the full calendar year — January 1 to December 31. This is useful if you manage an annual allowance or want to see full-year totals at a glance.
• Your semi-monthly days, like the bi-weekly start day, are saved on your device only — they don't sync through your account. If you and a partner share a budget, each of you sets your own days, so the same shared budget can be measured over a different window on each phone.
• Budget period is separate from view period, which controls the date range shown on your Home screen.