Add accounts and balances
Enter the cash, debts, and other balances that matter to the plan. These are the starting values Clearflow uses for its projections.
Using Clearflow
A practical guide to the plan.
Clearflow puts the dates and amounts that matter on one timeline. This guide shows what to enter, what each screen means, and how to use the plan before you make a money decision.
01 · Start here
Start with what you know.
You do not need a perfect financial history. Start with the balances, income, bills, and payments that affect the next few weeks.
Add expected income
Record the timing and amount you expect. Expected income is a planning baseline until you confirm what actually arrived.
Add required commitments
Add bills, debt minimums, savings contributions, and other obligations. Required items are protected before optional allocations.
Add goals and changes
Use purchases, savings goals, and temporary changes to test decisions without hiding their impact on the rest of the plan.
02 · The planning model
What Clearflow is calculating.
Clearflow does not throw away the plan at the end of a month. A month is a useful view; the dated ledger is what connects one month to the next.
Expected
Income, bills, payments, and goals you have planned but have not confirmed yet.
Protected
Required commitments and safety buffers that must be covered before money is treated as available.
Optional
Extra debt payments, flexible spending, purchases, and goals that compete for the remaining room.
Confirmed
Activity you have reviewed and marked as real. Confirming an event updates the forecast rather than silently rewriting history.
03 · The app screens
What each screen is for.
Use the screen that matches the question in front of you. The same plan is behind each view.
Dashboard · Living Plan
Can I safely move money right now?
Start with the plan status and Safe to Spend. Read the explanation underneath: it shows what Clearflow is protecting before it calls anything available.
- Plan status and review prompts
- Safe to Spend with its assumptions
- Monthly mix across income, expenses, debt, and savings
- Overview cards for the next useful drill-down
Planner · Strategies
Which payoff path fits the plan?
Compare strategies before making an extra payment. Review the time horizon, average payment, projected interest, and interest saved. Set a strategy active only when the tradeoff makes sense for you.
- Compare multiple payoff paths
- Keep minimum payments protected
- Extend the preview when a result is beyond the window
- Open advanced options only when you need a different assumption
Ledger
What is expected, confirmed, or changing?
The ledger is the detailed timeline behind the summary. Filter it by time or type, inspect individual events, and update the plan when reality changes.
- Projected events stay labelled as projected
- Confirmed activity can be separated from estimates
- Skipped or adjusted items remain understandable
- Use details to trace a summary back to its source
Suggestions · More
What should I review next?
Suggestions surface optional next steps. They are prompts, not warnings, and you remain in control of accepting, dismissing, or revisiting them.
- Review what changed
- Inspect a plan that needs attention
- Open accounts, budgets, savings, purchases, or settings
04 · A useful routine
A simple way to keep it current.
You do not need to rebuild the plan every month. Review what changed, confirm what happened, and leave the next few weeks understandable.
Confirm the event
Mark it confirmed if the amount and date are known. The plan can then distinguish what happened from what is still expected.
Check Safe to Spend
Read the protected amount and the explanation. If the purchase changes a future obligation, add it to the plan first.
Compare the impact
Use Strategies, savings, or the purchase planner to compare the choice with the current active plan.
Use the ledger
Filter the relevant period, confirm or adjust what changed, and leave the next projection understandable.
05 · Reading the numbers
A forecast is not a promise.
Safe to Spend is the amount left after Clearflow accounts for the commitments and protections currently in the plan. It is not the same as your bank balance.
Projected means the event is part of the future plan but has not been confirmed. Confirmed means you reviewed it as real. Keep those states separate when you are making a high-consequence decision.
Beyond the preview means the current comparison window is not long enough to show the full result. Extend the window before treating a payoff date or long-range outcome as known.
Clearflow intentionally exposes assumptions and limitations so you can decide how much confidence a number deserves.
Want the comparison?
See where Clearflow fits.
Compare it with budget apps, trackers, debt calculators, and spreadsheets.