Money came in. Now you want some of it in Rent, some in Groceries, some in Taxes. Set aside does that in one step, straight from the deposit, without a funding schedule.

What You’ll Accomplish

By the end of this guide, you’ll know how to:

Split one deposit across several slices in a single confirm
Enter amounts in dollars or as percentages of the deposit
Read the summary bar so you always know what is left
Tell when a deposit can and cannot be set aside

Prerequisites

✅ A Cake Budget account with a bank connected or a manual account
✅ At least one slice created
✅ A deposit showing on your Transactions page

Who This Is For

Funding schedules are great when your paycheck arrives on a rhythm. If your income does not, Set aside is the tool.

Examples:

A contractor paid per invoice, on whatever day the client pays
A gig worker with several small deposits a week and nothing the next
Anyone with a bonus, refund, or side-income deposit that a paycheck schedule would never recognize

You can also use it on a regular paycheck if you would rather decide each time than automate it.

How It Works

Set aside moves money inside your budget, not between bank accounts. Your bank balance does not change. What changes is how much of your money each slice claims, and how much stays in Safe to Spend.

Example:

Deposit: $254.00 from a client

Set aside:
- Rent: $100.00
- Groceries: $80.00
- Taxes: $50.00

Result:
- Rent, Groceries, and Taxes each gain that amount
- $24.00 stays in Safe to Spend
- Your bank account balance: UNCHANGED

Step by Step

1. Find the deposit

On the Transactions page, deposits show in green. Under the amount you will see a Set aside button. It is also in the row’s menu, and inside the transaction’s details.

The button only appears on deposits that qualify. See “When the button does not appear” below.

2. Add a slice

The sheet opens with no rows. Tap Add slice, pick a slice from the dropdown, and type an amount. Each slice’s current balance shows next to its name so you can see where it stands.

Tap Add slice again for each slice you want to fund. A slice already chosen in one row will not appear in another row’s dropdown.

3. Dollars or Percent

At the top of the sheet, choose Dollars to type exact amounts, or Percent to type a share of the deposit. Switching converts what you have already typed, so nothing is lost.

Percent is handy when every deposit gets the same split, like 30 percent to Taxes.

4. Watch the summary

Under the deposit amount, a summary updates as you type:

Set aside $180.00 on the left is the total you have placed so far
$74.00 stays in Safe to Spend on the right is what is left
The bar between them fills as you allocate

If you go over what you can set aside, the numbers turn red and the right side reads how much over you are. The Set aside button stays disabled until you bring it back down.

5. Confirm

Tap Set aside. Every slice you listed is funded at once, and the deposit’s row now reads Set aside $180.00 instead of showing the button.

What Is the Cap?

You can set aside up to the deposit amount, or up to your Safe to Spend, whichever is lower.

Usually that is the deposit. If you have already spent part of it, or Safe to Spend is low for other reasons, the sheet says so at the top: “Safe to Spend covers $X of this deposit.”

When the Button Does Not Appear

A deposit shows the Set aside button only when:

It is money coming in, not a purchase or a transfer between your own accounts
It has finished posting (pending deposits wait)
It has not been split into parts
It has not already been set aside
A funding schedule did not already fund your slices from it

That last one matters. If your paycheck schedule recognized a deposit and funded slices, Set aside stays out of the way so the money is not allocated twice.

Automate It with a Rule

If the same kind of deposit should always split the same way, a rule can do the set-aside for you.

Go to Rules and create a transaction rule.
Add a condition that identifies the deposit, such as Description contains “Upwork”. The rule preview shows which past deposits would have matched.
Pick the Set aside action. Cake adds a Direction is Money in condition for you, so the rule only ever looks at deposits.
Choose Dollars or Percent, add your slices and amounts, and save.

From then on, each matching deposit is split the moment it posts, and the rule email tells you what went where. If Safe to Spend cannot cover the whole split, every line is reduced by the same share and the email says so.

The rule steps aside when it should: it does nothing for a deposit you already set aside by hand, or one a funding schedule already funded, and it never runs on purchases.