How IHAB works
Zero-based budgeting in three steps.
Most budgeting tools ask you to sort money into categories after you get paid. IHAB works differently. You define your income, your obligations, and your priorities once. Then every dollar flows through your budget automatically — obligations first, then scheduled set-asides in the order you set. Nothing is left over. Nothing is forgotten. And if you use Sequence, your planned amounts become the numbers that drive the transfers Sequence executes.
Enter your income and expenses
Start with your monthly income amount. Then add your recurring expenses. Each one gets a name, amount, and type:
- Fixed vs. variable — rent is fixed, groceries are variable. IHAB tracks both but treats them identically in the allocation. The distinction is for your awareness, not the math.
- Base vs. non-base — base expenses are the ones you'd keep if you stripped your budget to survival mode. They drive your emergency fund target if you set one.
- Debt flag — mark which expenses are debt payments for your own reference.
Once your expenses are in, you see a budget summary: total income, total expenses, and remaining funds. That remaining amount is what flows into your scheduled set-asides.
Need to handle a one-off month? Monthly overrides let you change an expense amount for a single month without touching your baseline. The compact dashboard view keeps your top expenses front and center so the summary stays readable at a glance.
Add your set-asides and set priorities
The remaining funds from Step 1 flow into your scheduled set-asides — a unified list of savings goals and non-monthly expenses.
Add any set-aside you want: an emergency fund, a vacation, a car down payment, annual insurance, quarterly taxes. Each one has a name, target amount, and optional deadline. IHAB calculates how much you need to contribute each month to stay on track.
Arrange your set-asides in priority order by dragging them up or down the list. The set-aside at position 1 receives funding first. If there's enough left, position 2 gets funded. Then position 3, and so on. If there isn't enough for all set-asides, the lower-priority ones get partial funding or nothing — and you can see exactly where the money ran out.
Change a priority and the entire allocation recalculates instantly. No manual rebalancing.
Watch it cascade
The allocation chart is the core of IHAB. It shows the full path of your income, in real time, in one view.
Starting from the top:
$5,000 — Your monthly income.
−$2,500 — Recurring expenses.
= $2,500 — Available for set-asides.
−$1,200 — Emergency Fund (priority 1, fully funded).
= $1,300 — Remaining for lower priorities.
−$800 — Vacation (priority 2, fully funded).
= $500 — New Car (priority 3, partially funded; target contribution was $600).
= $0 — Remaining set-asides unfunded this month.
Every tier is a horizontal bar. The bars shrink as money flows downward. You see exactly where every dollar went and exactly where the allocation ran dry.
Adjust an expense up by $200? The chart instantly shows $200 less flowing to set-asides. Delete a subscription? That money immediately cascades to the next unfunded priority. The chart is not a report — it is the live state of your allocation.
But what about the money movement?
Budgeting tells you where money should go. It doesn't put it there. That's the gap every budgeting app ignores.
IHAB closes it — if you use Sequence.
Sequence.io is a financial router that automates transfers between your bank accounts. You set rules ("move $800 to savings on the 1st"), and Sequence executes them. The problem: maintaining those rule amounts manually. When your budget changes, your rules drift. You update one and forget another. The amounts stop matching your actual plan.
IHAB fixes this as a passive amount provider. Sequence calls IHAB when its rules execute — sending a request for the current planned amount for each linked item. IHAB responds with the number in cents. No manual updates. No drift. Sequence always gets the current figure from your live budget.
And it works both ways. IHAB reads actual balances back from Sequence for every linked goal and budget category. You can see real progress against every set-aside inside IHAB — not just what you planned to contribute, but what's actually there.
Your budget isn't a plan anymore. It's the control layer for your financial automation.
What the integration does:
- Sequence calls IHAB when rules execute; IHAB responds with the current planned amount in cents
- No manual sync needed — amounts always reflect your live budget
- IHAB reads actual balances back from Sequence for every linked goal and category
- Track real progress against every set-aside inside IHAB
- Available via REST API with authenticated API key
What it does not do:
- IHAB does not move money. Sequence does.
- IHAB does not require a Sequence account. The budget works standalone.
- IHAB does not access your bank accounts. Sequence handles bank connections.
IHAB works great on its own, too. You do not need Sequence to use zero-based budgeting — it just means you move the money yourself.
Free to budget. Premium to automate.
IHAB's free tier gives you a full working zero-based budget with unlimited recurring expenses. Premium unlocks scheduled set-asides, smart spread planning, cash flow projections, and Sequence integration.
Free
- Unlimited recurring expenses
- Monthly income input
- Monthly budget overrides
- Budget summary dashboard
- Google SSO authentication
- GDPR data export
Premium
- Everything in Free, plus:
- Scheduled set-asides (savings goals + non-monthly expenses)
- Smart spread planning
- 24-month cash flow projection
- API access and key management
- Sequence.io integration (amounts + balance tracking)
See your allocation in 60 seconds.
Enter your income. Add your expenses. Set your priorities. IHAB builds your complete allocation before you finish your coffee. Free. No credit card. No setup calls.
Get Started Free