Recurring Bills & Auto-Detection

What Are Recurring Bills?

Recurring Bills is Purpose Budget's comprehensive system for tracking and managing your regular expenses and income. Unlike simple recurring transactions (which create templates), Recurring Bills combines multiple powerful features to give you complete visibility and control over your recurring financial obligations.

The Tabs Explained

In the app this lives at Bills & Subscriptions, which opens on an Overview tab summarizing what's coming up, which patterns still need review, and what your commitments add up to. Five more tabs sit beside it: Upcoming, Recurring, Debt minimums, Matches (Premium), and Credit Cards. Let's walk through the four you'll spend the most time in:

1. Recurring Tab

Purpose: Create and manage manual recurring items for expenses and income you expect regularly. Premium users also see the recurring patterns bank sync detected from their transaction history here.

What you can do:

• Create manual recurring items (payee, amount, account, category, date, repeat frequency)
• Filter by status (All, Active, Suggested patterns, Ignored) and search by merchant, category, or account
• Edit items from the row's action menu - manual items can also be deleted there
• View the next due date for each bill, sorted by what's due next (a stale pattern shows when it was last observed instead)

When to use:

• Bills that aren't auto-detected by Plaid (even if you have Premium)
• Annual subscriptions or irregular payments
• When you want to track expected bills before they occur
• As your only option if you have Essential tier (no bank sync)

Premium Detection in the Recurring Tab

Purpose: Premium users can view recurring bills that Plaid automatically detected from bank transaction history in the Recurring tab.

How it works:

1. Connect your bank accounts via Plaid (Premium feature)
2. Plaid analyzes your transaction history using AI
3. Identifies recurring patterns (same merchant, similar amounts, predictable dates)
4. Adds each one to the Recurring tab as a "Suggested" row
5. You open Review on that row, read the bank evidence, then choose "Create this bill", "Track without a bill" or "Not recurring" - an income pattern offers "Track and set up expected income" instead of a bill - and when a suggestion overlaps a pattern or scheduled bill you already track, the dialog offers reconcile choices like "Update existing pattern" or "Use existing bill" instead

What each detected pattern shows:

• Merchant Name: Who charges you
• Amount: The typical charge, averaged from your bank history
• Frequency: Weekly, Every 2 weeks, Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly
• Category and Account: Where the charge lands and which account it hits
• Due Date: When the next charge is expected
• Status: Suggested until you review it, Active once you track it, Ignored if you hide it. An Active pattern that stops matching your bank is grouped under Stale in the list - a due-date grouping, not a separate status

Actions you can take:

• Refresh from Plaid: Manual sync to get latest detected bills
• Review: Opens the pattern's bank evidence - observations, last observed date, expected next date, and the recent charges behind it. Nothing changes until you act.
• Create this bill / Track without a bill / Not recurring: The main decisions in that dialog - create the bill the pattern describes and connect the two, just watch the pattern, or tell Purpose Budget this isn't recurring. When a suggestion overlaps something you already track, the dialog instead offers choices like "Keep as separate", "Update existing pattern", "Track as a different bill", or "Use existing bill"
• Filter by Status: All, Active, Suggested patterns, Ignored

2. Matches Tab

Purpose: Review and approve AI-powered suggestions linking your actual transactions to expected bills (either a bank-detected pattern or a manual recurring item).

How matching works:

1. New transaction syncs from your bank
2. Purpose Budget's matching engine analyzes it
3. Compares against all your recurring bills (detected patterns and manual recurring items)
4. Calculates similarity scores based on:
   • Merchant name (fuzzy matching - "NETFLIX.COM" matches "Netflix")
   • Amount similarity (within expected range)
   • Date pattern (occurred when expected?)
5. Creates match suggestion with confidence score (0-100%)
6. You review in Matches tab and approve or reject

Confidence levels:

• High confidence (95-100%): Safe to one-tap approve
• Likely match (80-94%): Quick glance, then approve
• Needs review (60-79%): Open the score breakdown before approving
• Below 60%: Not suggested - anything scoring below the minimum confidence (60% by default) isn't shown as a suggestion

Tip: the Matches tab groups pending suggestions into those buckets for you and sorts by confidence, so the safest ones are the first thing you see.

Actions available:

• Approve Single: Confirm one match at a time
• Reject Single: Dismiss incorrect suggestion
• Select Multiple: Check boxes to select several matches
• Approve selected: Approve every selected match at once - or use "Reject selected" to clear them (massive time-saver!)

3. Upcoming Tab

Purpose: Timeline view showing upcoming bills from all available sources in chronological order.

What's included:

• Manual recurring items, badged Scheduled - real future transactions that will auto-post
• Tracked detected patterns, badged Predicted (Premium) - estimates from bank history that don't create a transaction
• Credit card due dates (from Credit Cards tab), badged Card due
• Expected inflows like paychecks, badged Income

Features:

• Month Navigation: Previous/Next month arrows, "Today" button
• Date Grouping: Bills organized by due date
• Bill Details: Merchant, amount, and a source badge - Scheduled, Predicted, Card due, or Income
• Visual Timeline: See the entire month at a glance

Why it's valuable:

• Know exactly what bills are coming this month
• Plan your budget allocation around due dates
• Spot missing payments (expected bill didn't occur)
• See total recurring expenses for planning

4. Credit Cards Tab

Purpose: Set a payment due day for each credit card and choose how much it should forecast, so cards show up in your Upcoming Bills calendar.

What's displayed:

• Card Name: Your credit card account name
• Current Balance: Amount currently owed on the card
• Forecast: How much the card should forecast - Full balance, or a Custom amount you type in
• Payment Due Day: Day of month (1st-31st) when your payment is due, or Not set

How it works:

• Your credit card accounts automatically appear in this list
• Set the payment due day using the inline dropdown (e.g., "15th")
• Credit card due dates appear in your Upcoming Bills calendar
• The calendar uses the forecast amount you picked - the full balance, or your custom amount

Use cases:

• Never miss a credit card payment deadline
• Track multiple cards with different due dates
• See upcoming CC payments in the Upcoming view
• Plan your budget around payment dates

Essential vs Premium: What's Different?

Recurring Bills vs Transaction Rules

These two features work together but solve different problems. Here's how they differ and complement each other:

Common Workflows

Essential User Workflow (No Bank Sync)

1. Initial Setup:
   • Go to the Recurring tab
   • Create templates for all your known recurring bills (rent, utilities, subscriptions)
   • Set frequency and next occurrence date for each
2. Add Credit Card Due Days:
   • Go to Credit Cards tab
   • Set a due day for each card and choose how much it should forecast
3. Monthly Review:
   • Check Upcoming view at month start
   • See all upcoming bills for the month
   • Budget accordingly in your categories
   • Adjust category funding for anything you can't cover yet
4. Maintenance:
   • Update template amounts when bills change
   • Delete cancelled subscriptions
   • Add new recurring expenses as they occur

Premium User Workflow (With Bank Sync)

1. Initial Setup:
   • Connect bank accounts via Plaid (enables auto-detection)
   • Go to the Recurring tab
   • Filter to Suggested patterns and open Review on each one
   • Choose "Create this bill" (or "Track without a bill") for the ones you want in your plan, "Not recurring" for the rest
2. Fill Gaps with Templates:
   • Go to the Recurring tab
   • Create manual templates for bills Plaid didn't detect (annual subscriptions, irregular bills)
3. Weekly Match Approval (Recommended):
   • Go to Matches tab
   • Review pending match suggestions
   • Select the High confidence matches (95%+)
   • Click "Approve selected" to approve them in one go
   • Work through the Likely match and Needs review buckets individually
4. Monthly Planning:
   • Check Upcoming view at month start
   • See ALL bills (scheduled entries, predicted patterns, card due dates) in timeline
   • Budget for upcoming expenses
   • Spot any missing expected payments
5. Ongoing:
   • System auto-creates match suggestions for new transactions
   • Approve matches as they appear (takes 30 seconds)
   • Refresh Plaid sync if you notice missing bills

Best Practices

For All Users

• Review Calendar monthly: At the start of each month, check what bills are coming
• Keep templates updated: When bill amounts change, update your templates immediately
• Use consistent naming: Always "Netflix" not varying between "Netflix Inc." and "Netflix Subscription"
• Track credit card due dates: Never miss a payment deadline
• Combine with category targets: Set targets to automatically save for bills

For Premium Users

• Approve matches regularly: Don't let pending matches pile up - review weekly
• Bulk approve high confidence: Safe to approve everything in the High confidence bucket (95%+) at once
• Review new patterns early: Open Review on new suggested patterns within first week
• Sync Plaid when needed: If you notice missing bills, use manual refresh
• Let automation work: Trust the AI - Plaid's detection is very accurate

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• ❌Creating duplicate templates: If Premium, Plaid already detected it
• ❌Ignoring match suggestions: They pile up and lose value
• ❌Leaving suggested patterns unreviewed: They stay out of Upcoming and your commitment totals until you track them
• ❌Forgetting to update amounts: Templates with wrong amounts create false matches
• ❌Confusing bill tracking with categorization: Remember, these are separate systems

Frequently Asked Questions