A bill goes through three moments, and every spreadsheet picks a different one to call it spent. Some count it on the day it is written down, because that is when it gets seen. Others count it on the day it falls due, because that is the date on the invoice. Almost none count it on the day the money leaves the account, which is the only day it has actually been spent.
It sounds like a bookkeeping detail. It is not. The choice of moment decides whether the number you see mid-month is one you can make a decision with or one that only makes you feel better, and it also decides whether the same bill shows up in the month once, twice, or not at all.
Mayora picked the third moment. This piece explains why, and what that changes on the screen.
Which bills are we talking about when budgeting for bills?
The ones with a date and an amount known before they arrive.
Rent or the mortgage, broadband, the gym, monthly insurance, school fees. It also covers bills with a fixed date and an amount that moves a little, like electricity and water: you know they are coming and when, you just do not know the last cent.
What sets them apart is not the amount always being the same, it is that they are already decided. There is no choice to make this month about paying the rent. How this differs from the rest of a budget is set out in fixed and variable expenses, and it is the foundation for everything that follows.
Why don't bills count as spent on the day you write them down?
Because on that day the money is all still in the account.
If you write down the rent on the 1st and it counts as spent straight away, the budget shows a month in which you have already spent seven hundred euros that are still sitting there. For four weeks every number says you have less than you do. That looks prudent and in practice does the opposite: nobody trusts a number they know is wrong, and people who stop trusting it stop checking it.
And a worse problem turns up at the end of the month. The rent leaves the bank, the person sees the movement and logs it as an expense, because it is one and it has just happened. The same bill is now in the month twice: once from the 1st, once from the day it left. It is the most common mistake people make when they start a budget, and it stays invisible until someone adds it up and the month does not match the bank.
So why not on the day a bill falls due?
Because a due date is a promise, not a payment.
A direct debit can leave a day early or two days late. An invoice can be paid ahead of time, or a week late because the salary came in late. If the budget treats the bill as spent on the 28th just because the calendar says 28, and it has not left yet, the number stops matching the bank again, this time in the other direction.
And in some cases the date says nothing at all: the bill you pay when the invoice arrives, the quarterly one that comes one month and not the next. A rule that depends on the due date fails exactly on the bills that surprise people most.
Then when does a bill become spent?
When it leaves the account. Until then it is reserved.
There are two states, not one, and each does something different to the number you see:
| State | What it is | What it does to "available" |
|---|---|---|
| Reserved | Has a date and an amount, has not left yet | No longer available to spend |
| Paid | Has left the account | Becomes spent, and is no longer reserved |
At no point does the bill vanish or get counted twice. It changes state. While it is reserved, "available" already takes it out, because that money has an owner; once it is paid, it moves from reserved to spent, and "available" stays exactly the same. What changed is the reason that money is not yours to decide about.
It is the same distinction between "I have spent it" and "I have only promised it" set out in how to make a household budget that survives month two, applied one bill at a time.
How do you mark a bill as paid in Mayora?
In one of two ways, and the second is for people who would rather not think about it.
By hand. In Expenses, on the bills tab, every bill shows the day it falls due. On the day you pay it, you mark it paid. If the amount changes from month to month, like electricity, that is when you enter the real figure. The month updates itself: the bill leaves "reserved" and joins what has been spent.
Automatic payment. If the bill comes out of your account on its own, by direct debit or a scheduled transfer, you turn on automatic payment and the app stops asking you to confirm it every month. It counts as paid in the month it falls due, with no tap at all. Turning it on halfway through the year leaves earlier months alone; it applies from then on.
In neither case do you log the bill again as an expense. It is the rule the Overview itself reminds you of, and it is the one that prevents the double count: the bill is already in the month, it only changes state.
If your current account is with a bank Mayora can read, there is a third route: importing the statement. Payments of bills the app recognises arrive already grouped as "bills to mark as paid", not as new expenses.
What does the Overview show while bills are still unpaid?
Two lines that answer different questions.
At the top is available now: what came in, minus what has already gone, minus what is reserved for bills with a date. That is the number you use to decide whether you can eat out on Saturday.
Further down, the bills section says how much is committed and how much is still to go this month. "Of 900 committed, 250 to go" means three quarters of the month's bills have left and two hundred and fifty euros are still reserved. When nothing is left to go, it says "all paid", and from then on whatever remains in the month is yours to decide about with no further surprises on the calendar.
The two lines never contradict each other, because they come from the same calculation: a reserved bill sits in "to go" and outside "available"; a paid bill sits in what has been spent and also outside "available". The place changes, not the total.
What if I forget to mark a bill as paid?
"Available" stays right; only the list falls behind.
This is the least obvious advantage of reserving instead of waiting: a bill that has left the bank but that you have not marked yet is still outside "available", because it was reserved. The number you decide with does not get inflated by a forgotten tap. What goes wrong is the split between what has gone and what is to go, and that gets fixed whenever you remember.
The dangerous slip is the opposite one: logging the bill as an expense and not marking it paid. Then the month counts it twice, once as an expense and once as reserved, and "available" ends up lower than it should be. If the Overview shows you less than the bank does, this is the first place to look.
So as not to depend on memory, every bill can warn you before it falls due, at the time you choose, with a notification on your phone.
In a shared household, who marks the bills as paid?
Whoever pays them, and everyone else sees it at the same moment.
In a shared budget, the state of each bill is the same for everyone. If one person marks the rent paid, the rent shows as paid on the other person's phone, and "to go" drops for both. That settles on its own the question asked most often in a two-person home, "have you paid the electricity?", and settles it without anyone having to ask.
It also prevents the classic duplicate in shared finances: one person pays the bill and logs it, the other sees the movement at the bank and logs it too. With the bill changing state instead of being logged, there is a single line, and it records who paid. The rule for who pays what is a separate conversation, covered in how to split expenses as a couple.
Where to start budgeting for bills, today
Three steps, and they fit in five minutes.
- Write down your bills with the day each one falls due. Every one with a date, even those whose amount varies. For those, put a likely figure; the real one goes in when you pay.
- Turn on automatic payment for the direct debits. They are the ones that do not need you, and they stop asking for confirmation.
- For the rest, mark each one paid on the day you pay it, and do not log it as an expense. It is the only rule to remember, and it is the one that keeps the month right.
If you have not set up the budget yet, the full walkthrough is in starting in Mayora in 10 minutes, and the bills are minutes three to six.
We keep a page of frequently asked questions about budgeting and everyday money, with a short answer to each one and the full piece one click away. If you want to see it, it is here: frequently asked questions.
This is educational writing. It is not financial advice or an investment recommendation; for advice on products, speak to a professional registered with the CMVM.