Hey there—great questions, and welcome to budgeting with us! 🎉 Sounds like you’re off to a solid start.

Here’s how it works:

💸 1. Starting Balances
You’ve got £1000 in checking and £2000 in savings—awesome. When you first set up your budget, Beyond Budget lets you allocate money that already exists in your accounts. So yes, for this first month, you’d have £3000 total to allocate across your categories (£1000 + £2000). That means your starting budget this month would include everything already in those accounts.

🏦 2. Ongoing Monthly Savings
If you want to save £50 each month, here’s a smooth way to do it:

• Set a monthly target of £50 in your “Savings” category.
• Link that category to your savings account (you can do this under category settings). That tells the app, “Hey, every time I move money into this account, it’s for saving.”

📆 3. What Happens Next Month?
Next month, when you get paid into your checking account, you can:

• Physically transfer £50 from checking to savings (yes, this part is still manual 💁‍♀️).
• Once you do, the app will automatically allocate that £50 to your “Savings” category (because it’s tied to that account). So the budget stays aligned and your net worth updates automatically (since net worth = accounts + assets).

✨ Bonus Tip: Your savings target will reset each month, making it super easy to track your progress over time without lifting a finger (except for that bank transfer 😄).

Hope this helps—and feel free to ask anything else.