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Savings & community moneyLive

Show customers where their money goes, before it's gone.

Category budgets, auto-categorisation and spending goals.

Talk to us about budgets & goalsAPI reference →
Illustrative
Why it matters

What it changes for you.

Most people find out they overspent at the end of the month, when it's too late to change anything. A budget that only reports the past is a reminder of a mistake, not a tool.

Budgets on Bridge sit on the money as it moves. Every payment a customer makes is filed into a category, matched against their limits for the period, and checked against the warnings they chose. They can add cash spending and income by hand, so the picture is whole, and spending goals tell them when to stop.

It runs on the same ledger events as the rest of Bridge, so you build it once and every payment, on every rail, counts.

How it works

Step by step.

  1. Pick a cycle

    Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly or custom dates. A month can run payday to payday.

  2. Set limits by category

    Food, transport, bills and the rest, with the customer's own categories alongside yours.

  3. Payments file themselves

    Every posted payment is categorised automatically. Re-filing one can become a rule for next time.

  4. Warnings before it's too late

    Alerts at the thresholds the customer chose, such as half, 80% and over the limit.

  5. The period rolls over

    Unspent money can roll into the next period, and the analytics keep the history.

What you can switch on

Built in, not bolted on.

Categories that learn

Automatic filing, with rules the customer creates by moving a payment to the right category once.

Thresholds they choose

Warnings at the percentages that matter to them, not just when they've already gone over.

Cycles that fit pay

Payday-to-payday months and custom periods, because salaries don't land on the first.

Cash counts too

Add cash spending and income by hand, so a market trip or a side job shows up in the picture.

Spending goals

A cap for the week or month with one alert when it's passed, for the categories people struggle with.

Analytics from real data

Where money went, cash flow by period, category trends and top payees, all from the customer's own transactions.

  • Budgets by category and cycle, with rollover
  • Payments filed into categories, with rules
  • Spending goals with alerts
Use cases

How businesses use it.

Illustrative businesses, not customers. Figures are made up to show the flow.

A digital bank for civil servants in Abuja · Fintechs & neobanks

Payday-to-payday budgets for salary earners

Customers are paid on the 25th, but every budgeting app assumes the month starts on the 1st. By the 20th, the numbers make no sense.

  1. The bank sets the default cycle to start on salary day
  2. Customers set limits for the categories they care about
  3. Every payment is filed and counted the moment it posts
  4. An alert at 80% gives them a week to adjust

Budgets line up with how customers are actually paid, and warnings arrive while there's still time to act.

Illustrative

A savings and lending app for traders in Kano · Fintechs & neobanks

Cash and transfers in one picture

Traders run much of their business in cash, so an app that only sees transfers shows half the story and they stop opening it.

  1. Traders add cash income and spending in two taps
  2. Transfers and bills are filed automatically
  3. Categories for stock, transport and family sit alongside their own
  4. A weekly summary shows money in against money out

Traders see their whole week, cash and all, and the app becomes somewhere they check rather than somewhere they ignore.

Illustrative

A personal finance app for students in Ibadan · Fintechs & neobanks

A spending goal for the hardest category

Students blow their allowance on food delivery in the first two weeks. A full budget is too much effort, but one limit would help.

  1. A student sets one spending goal: ₦15,000 a week on eating out
  2. Payments to food vendors are counted against it
  3. One alert arrives when the goal is passed
  4. The week resets on Monday

One clear limit on one habit, which is the budget most people actually keep.

Illustrative
Who uses it

Built into these products.

Fintechs & neobanks

Launch a full money app without building the plumbing.

Fintechs & neobanks
For developers

Create a budget.

Endpoints in the Budgets & goals API reference, with every parameter and response.

State changes arrive as signed webhooks. How webhooks work

POST /budget

curl -X POST "https://api.bridgemoni.com/budget?ownerType=value&ownerReference=value" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BRIDGEMONI_TOKEN" \
  -H "X-Tenant: $BRIDGEMONI_TENANT" \
  -H "X-Environment: $BRIDGEMONI_ENV" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Ada Obi",
    "description": "March payroll",
    "currencyCode": "NGN",
    "periodType": "DAILY",
    "startDate": "2027-03-14",
    "endDate": "2027-03-14",
    "limitAmount": 250000.0,
    "rolloverMode": "NONE",
    "alertThresholds": [
      1
    ],
    "categories": [
      {
        "categoryReference": "b3f1c2d4-5e6a-4b7c-8d9e-0f1a2b3c4d5e",
        "allocationAmount": 250000.0
      }
    ],
    "includeInternalTransfers": true,
    "enforcementMode": "text",
    "enforcedAccountReference": "b3f1c2d4-5e6a-4b7c-8d9e-0f1a2b3c4d5e",
    "categoryReference": "b3f1c2d4-5e6a-4b7c-8d9e-0f1a2b3c4d5e",
    "allocationAmount": 250000.0
  }'

Questions about budgets & goals

Does a budget stop a payment?

Budgets warn; they don't block by default. A hard cap that stops spending is a separate, optional setting.

Can customers make their own categories?

Yes, alongside yours, with rules that file future payments automatically.

Does it work with cash?

Customers add cash spending and income by hand, and it counts the same as everything else.

Related capabilities

Savings

Live

Plan types, funding rules, rotating groups and daily interest.

Family support

Live

A separate pot for the people a customer supports, with asks and limits.

Communities

Live

Group pots with roles, campaigns and multi-signature payouts.

Bridge for Business

Tell us what you're building.

We'll come back with what's live for you today, and what's next.

Talk to usRead the docs