If you have a irregular income or work on commission then make sure you add an income budget line item for each paycheck for the month but make sure that you enter a low estimate for each paycheck in the Planned column. If you need to look back on pay statements to come up with that low estimate that may be helpful. Create your budget off of the low estimated income and then once you actually get paid and add the income transaction to the budget item then you can adjust your Planned column amount to what the Received column shows. You can then adjust your budget at that point to allocate the extra money you actually received.
Example:
Let's say you earn between $3000 and $4000 a month. In that case, list $3000 as your Planned income. You might have one paycheck set at $1,500 and another paycheck at $1,500 as well if you get paid twice per month.
The reason is that, if you budget for $3000 and then earn $3500, you can change the Planned income to $3500 (maybe $1,750 per paycheck if you get paid twice) and then find a job for that extra money you received. If you budget for $4000 ($2,000 for each payheck if you get paid twice per month) and only earn $3300, you have to start making cuts.
💡 Pro Tip: You might consider creating a "Hill & Valley Fund" if you have irregular income as well, read the "Over the Hill, Through the Valley" section of this article to learn more:
Paycheck Frequency