Bills and Due Dates

Set up bill categories with due dates and amounts, understand bill statuses, and record or mark bills as paid.

Setting up a bill

Open Menu → Planning Hub → Bills, or open a category’s settings, to set up its bill amount, due date, payment account, and planning options. These settings feed Expected Income, Payment Schedule, and Dashboard views.

Due date (day of month)

Set the day of the month the bill is due. For most bills, this is a fixed date like the 5th or the 22nd. InfinitelyZero uses this to determine which paycheck window the bill falls in.

Amount

Set the expected bill amount. For a variable bill, enable Amount varies monthly and keep an estimate for planning. Enter the actual amount when recording payment; paying a different amount does not automatically change the estimate.

Frequency

Most bills are monthly. Some are quarterly, annual, or have another pattern. Set the frequency so InfinitelyZero knows when to next expect this bill.

Payment account

Choose the account normally used to pay the bill. It helps route forecast obligations and prefills payment entry. When recording an actual payment, check the selected account and the category money backed by that account; funding elsewhere does not by itself move cash to the payment account.

Paycheck assignment

You can assign a bill to a specific paycheck (or leave it to be assigned automatically based on its due date). This controls which Expected Income window the bill appears in.

Which paycheck owns a bill?

Automatic assignment uses Planned Pay Date when one is set, otherwise Due Date, and scheduled paycheck boundaries. An obligation on payday belongs to the previous paycheck window; one on the following day belongs to the new window.

Example: If paydays are May 10 and May 24, a bill due May 24 belongs to the May 10 paycheck. A bill due May 25 belongs to the May 24 paycheck.

Bill statuses

Paid / Already Paid: The occurrence is settled by effective recorded payments or its manual paid status.
Scheduled: A future-dated payment is recorded. It remains scheduled until its payment date; it is not paid today.
Ready to pay: The remaining obligation has category funding. Check the payment account’s backing before recording payment.
Short / Below est.: Funding or payment remains below the obligation or variable-bill estimate. Review the amount and source.
Overdue: The effective payment date has passed and the occurrence is still open; a shortfall may also be shown.
Projected covered: Forecast income is expected to cover the bill. This is an estimate, not money already received or assigned.
Projected short / At risk: The forecast indicates a shortfall or timing problem. Review income, funding, and the payment account.

Funded, paid, and projected covered are different

Funding reserves category money. Recording a payment changes the ledger on its effective date. A projection uses future assumptions. None of these actions sends a bank payment for you.

Partial payments

Payments reduce only the remaining obligation for the occurrence. Future scheduled payments are counted once. For variable bills, the full-bill choice also determines whether a payment below the estimate settles the occurrence.

Marking a bill paid

Transaction-matched payment

The cleanest way to mark a bill paid is to record a transaction for the payment with the correct date, amount, and category. InfinitelyZero will recognize the category's Spent against its plan and update the status accordingly.

Manual paid status

For bills where you want to mark the cycle paid before recording the full transaction — or where the payment is handled outside InfinitelyZero — you can manually mark a bill as paid from the Expected Income or Payment Schedule view.

Paid before setup

Manual paid status applies only to that bill cycle. It does not create a transaction, change an account balance, or fund the category; it tells planning and forecast surfaces to treat that occurrence as settled.

If you add a bill category after the payment has already been made in the current cycle, mark it as already paid so InfinitelyZero does not show it as overdue.

Correcting a paid status

If a bill was marked paid by mistake, you can undo the manual paid status. This returns it to its regular funding-based status.

Tip: Recording the actual payment transaction is preferred over using the manual paid flag. Transactions keep your account balances and category Spent values accurate; the manual flag is a planning override and does not update the ledger.

Upcoming payments

Dashboard Upcoming Payments

The Dashboard’s Upcoming view shows payment timing, amount, and coverage. It uses Planned Pay Date when set and otherwise Due Date, showing the other date when it provides useful context. The upcoming window is configurable.

Alert window

Bills appear in Upcoming Payments when they are within the configured alert window — a set number of days before the due date. Bills outside the window are tracked but not shown in the urgent list.

Record Payment action

Use Pay or Record Payment from Upcoming or Payment Schedule. On a wide Dashboard, payment entry opens in the right-column action card; on narrower screens it opens in a side sheet. Check the prefilled account, category, date, and amount before confirming.

Credit card bill handling

Credit card payment categories also appear in upcoming views. Their payment action uses the dedicated card-payment flow and records a transfer from the chosen cash account. Fund the payment category and its account backing first.

Variable bills

Enable Amount varies monthly in the bill’s settings. When paying, enter the actual amount and review the money available in the chosen account.

This is the full bill settles that occurrence on the payment date even if it is below the estimate. Clear it for a partial payment; the occurrence stays open until a full payment is recorded.

If the payment needs more funding, Review money shows the exact shortfall and eligible sources in the payment’s backing account. To use cash held in another account, record the real transfer first or choose another payment account. Review the proposed assignment before using Assign & Record. If money remains, explicitly choose Keep in category or Release selected money. Release returns eligible Normal-account money to that account’s Ready to Budget, or restores On-demand availability. Protected commitments stay reserved; no bank transfer is created.

When three eligible completed occurrences exist, Review estimate from 3 payments shows their posted payments with installments combined. Updating the estimate is a separate confirmed action. A linked fund-bill plan follows it, custom funding stays unchanged, and your entered payment amount is preserved. If balances or settings change, review current balances again before recording.