About Balance
What is Balance?
Balance: Tip & Income Tracker is an iPhone app for people paid by the shift. You log your card tips, cash tips and wages after each shift, and Balance shows what your next paycheck will be and which shifts are in it. Connect your bank and it also estimates your balance for every day ahead, after bills.
Who is Balance for?
Anyone whose pay changes every shift: servers, bartenders, barbers, stylists, and hourly workers whose tips and hours move around. If you get a paycheck but can never guess what it will be, Balance is built for you.
How does Balance estimate my next paycheck?
You tell Balance when you get paid and how often. It then adds up every shift you log inside that pay period: card tips, wages, and cash tips if your job pays those out on the check. The total, before taxes, sits at the top of your calendar, and you can tap it to see each shift in it.
Does Balance take out taxes?
No. Your paycheck estimate is what you earned before taxes and other deductions: your wages plus the tips on your check. The amount that lands in your bank will be lower, depending on what your employer withholds. Your estimated daily balance starts from your real bank balance and adds upcoming paychecks before taxes, so days after a payday can run a little high. Once the paycheck lands, your real balance comes in from your bank and the forecast catches up.
Does Balance count my cash tips?
Yes. You log cash tips with every shift. For each job, you choose whether cash tips come on your paycheck or go home with you that night, and Balance only counts them toward the check when they’re actually on it.
What if I have more than one job?
Add each job with its own pay schedule. If two jobs pay on the same day, Balance combines them into one paycheck on your calendar.
What pay schedules does Balance support?
Weekly, every two weeks, twice a month (the 1st and 15th, or the 15th and the last day of the month) and monthly. If you’re paid per shift or only in tips, you can skip the pay schedule and just log your shifts.
Do I have to connect my bank?
No. Logging shifts and seeing your next paycheck work without a bank. Connecting one adds your estimated balance for every day ahead, and Balance adds the recurring bills it finds so you can see what’s left after them.
Is connecting my bank safe?
Balance connects to banks through Plaid, the same service many finance apps use. Your bank username and password go to Plaid, not to Balance. You can disconnect a bank at any time.
What is Ask Balance?
Ask Balance is the assistant inside the app. Ask it things like “When’s my next paycheck?” or “How does this August compare to last year?” and it answers from your own data. It can also set up your paydays or recurring bills for you. It runs on Claude by Anthropic through Amazon Web Services, and your conversations are not used to train AI models.
Is Balance a budgeting app?
Yes, just not the usual kind. Most budgeting apps assume the same paycheck every month and split it into categories. Balance budgets by date: put a bill or a purchase on the day it happens and, with your bank connected, see what your balance will be on every day ahead. That’s how budgeting works when your pay changes every shift.
How much does Balance cost?
Balance is free to download on the App Store.
Is Balance on Android?
No. Balance is on iPhone only.
Does Balance sell my data?
No. Balance doesn’t sell your personal or financial data and doesn’t share it with advertisers. The privacy policy has the details.
Money when your pay changes every shift
How do I figure out my next paycheck if I work for tips?
Add up everything that will actually be on the check for the pay period: your wages (hours times your hourly rate) plus any tips your employer pays out through payroll. At many restaurants, card tips come on the paycheck while cash tips go home with you that night, so leave cash out unless your employer runs it through payroll. Then expect taxes and other withholding to come out; your pay stub shows how much. The hard part is doing that math every shift. That’s the part Balance does for you.
How do I plan my money when my income changes every shift?
Start with dates, not categories. Put your paydays and your bills on a calendar, then look at what your balance will be on each day ahead. When a slow week or a big bill makes a day dip too low, you see it in time to pick up a shift or move a payment. That’s the idea Balance is built on.
Still have a question? Email support@balance.cash.
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