The five measures
Each measure is read from the transactions and balances you record in Balans.finance, and scored from 0 to 100 between two fixed points. A measure's weight is how many points it carries in the score.
Savings rate20 of 75 points
The share of your income you kept over the last three months: income minus spending, divided by income. Transfers between your own accounts count as neither.
Keeping nothing, or spending more than you earn, scores 0. Keeping 30% or more scores 100.
Emergency fund15 of 75 points
How many months of your usual spending the money in your cash, current and savings accounts would cover. Usual spending is the average of the months with spending among the last three complete months.
No cover scores 0. 6 months or more scores 100.
Debt15 of 75 points
What your loan and credit card payments cost you each month, interest included, as a share of your monthly income over the last three complete months.
Paying 40% of your income or more scores 0. Paying nothing scores 100.
Net worth trend15 of 75 points
How fast your net worth moved over the last six complete months, counted in months of spending gained or lost each month, so the same pace means the same thing at any level of wealth.
A flat or falling net worth scores 0. Gaining a month of spending every month scores 100.
Income stability10 of 75 points
The income you can count on in most months, as a share of a typical month's income, read from up to twelve complete months.
Nothing you can count on scores 0. A floor as high as a typical month scores 100.
How the measures become one score
The score is the average of the measures that can be read, with each one counted by its weight. A measure worth 20 points moves the score twice as much as one worth 10.
A measure with nothing to read is left out, not scored as zero
Some measures need history before they can be read. With no income recorded there is no share of income to work out, and a new account has no three months of net worth to compare. Such a measure is left out and the others share its weight, so missing data is never counted as poor finances.
The score appears once the measures that can be read carry at least 30 of the 75 points. Until then, the dashboard says there is not enough data yet.
What the score means
| Score | Band |
|---|---|
| 0 to 24 | Low |
| 25 to 44 | Short |
| 45 to 64 | Fair |
| 65 to 89 | Strong |
| 90 to 100 | Flourishing |
An example
Someone keeps 15% of their income, has 4 months of spending set aside and pays 12% of their income in debt. Their net worth and income have too little history to read yet. The savings rate scores 50, the emergency fund 67 and debt 70. Averaged over the 50 points those three carry, the score is 61 of 100, in the Fair band.
What the score does not count
The score is about your finances, not about how you use the app. Keeping to a budget, how often you record and which days you spend on all have cards of their own on the dashboard, and none of them moves the score.