Your first session with Cake Budget
About 15 minutes of setup, once. After that, the app does the upkeep, not you.
Your coach recommended Cake Budget because it does not depend on daily willpower. This guide walks you through setting it up one time. You will not need to do it again.
Open your coach's link
Sign up through the link your coach gave you (it looks like trycakebudget.com/?via=their-name). Signing up through it gives you a 30-day free trial instead of the usual 14, and you will not be asked for a credit card.
Create your account
Email and password, or sign in with Google. Choose the plan that fits; most people start with Starter. Nothing is charged during your trial, and there is no card on file to forget about.
Connect your bank
Cake connects through Plaid, the same secure service used by major financial apps. The connection is read-only: Cake can see your transactions to sort them, but it can never move your money or change anything at your bank.
Let Cake propose your budget
Cake reads your recent transactions, finds your paycheck pattern, and proposes budget categories (called slices), auto-sorting rules, and a payday funding plan. This takes a few minutes and happens automatically.
Review and confirm
Keep what looks right, rename or remove what does not. This is the part worth doing with your coach if you are in a session together. When you confirm, your plan is live.
After today
These things happen on their own. Doing nothing is the system working.
On payday
Your paycheck is detected when it lands, even a few days early, and splits itself across your categories.
When you spend
Transactions sort themselves into the right categories. There is nothing for you to log or enter.
When you are deciding
Open the app and look at the traffic light. Green means safe to spend. Red means hold off. That is the whole habit.
If you drift for a while, that is fine. Disappear for two weeks and nothing breaks. Paychecks keep funding your categories, transactions keep sorting, and you come back to a calm summary of what went right. There is no backlog and no catching up.
Your account is yours alone
Your coach cannot see your account, your balances, or your transactions. Nothing in Cake Budget is shared with anyone. What you discuss in your sessions is entirely up to you.