The Lab is BudgetLabs's analysis surface. Insights is its main tab — a stack of sections that together tell you where you are, where you're heading, and what looks unusual.
Open it
Go to Lab. Insights is the default tab.
What's in it
The Insights view is composed of independent sections you can reorder. By default they appear in this order:
- HUD — current-month summary at a glance: income, expenses, savings, remaining gap.
- Forecast — twelve-month cash-flow projection based on your recurring categories and historical actuals.
- Net worth — assets minus debt, charted over time. Pulled from your Assets and Debt accounts (see those articles).
- Cash-flow Sankey — same flow visualization as the monthly archive, but for the rolling window you choose.
- Debt Pay-Down — interactive payoff chart. Pick All debts or a single account, drag the slider to model an extra monthly payment, and the chart redraws two trajectories: current pace (gray, dashed) versus with extra (emerald, solid). The summary tiles below show the new debt-free date, total time saved, and total interest saved. When All debts is selected, choose avalanche (highest-APR first) or snowball (smallest-balance first) — the freed-up minimum payment of each cleared debt automatically cascades into the next target, so the simulation reflects how avalanche/snowball actually compound. If any debt's minimum is too small to cover its monthly interest, a callout flags it as growing forever at the current rate.
- Trends — area charts of expenses and savings over the last several months, with rolling averages.
- Action layer — anomalies and prompts: spending spikes, unreviewed recurring categories, projected misses.
Customize the layout
Insights sections are draggable. Tap and hold a section header (or the drag handle on web) and move it where you want. The order saves to your account and follows you across devices.
If you change your mind, Reset layout in the section menu puts everything back in default order.
What it's good for
- A weekly five-minute "where am I?" check-in.
- Catching a recurring category that quietly drifted out of plan.
- Confirming that a savings goal is actually on track, not just promised.
What it's not
- A real-time bank dashboard. Numbers reflect transactions you've logged, not your bank account.
- A tax prep tool. The numbers are accurate to what you entered, but the categories are yours, not the IRS's.
Related
- Lab — Scenarios — what-if planning that builds on the same forecast.
- Lab — Goals — persistent financial targets (debt payoff, savings target, emergency fund, net-worth target) that the action layer surfaces in Insights.