Colorful Budget power-up brings fun and clarity to budgeting directly in your Trello boards. Categorize your expenses and incomes, track spending goals, and visualize your finances with powerful charts - all while keeping the familiar Trello workflow and providing beautiful user interface.
Getting started
To start budgeting with Colorful Budget, complete three quick steps listed below. If you're an experienced power-up user, you can skip reading this section.
Enable power-up
First, you'll need to enable Colorful Budget on your Trello board. To do so, click Power-Ups (the rocket icon) in the board header, then Add Power-Ups. Search for "Colorful Budget", and click Add. See Enabling power-ups if you have trouble with this step.
Authorize power-up
Next, authorize the power-up to grant it access to your board data. Trello authorization window will appear automatically after you've enabled the power-up in previous step. Review the requested permissions and click Allow.
Start subscription
This power-up requires a paid subscription (with a 1-week free trial). Click the Add category button on your board. If you don’t have an active subscription, a window will appear prompting you to subscribe. Click Subscribe, and you will be taken to your Stripe customer portal where you can safely process the payment. After that, you will be redirected back to your board. See Managing subscriptions if you want to learn more.
Creating budget categories
Categories are the foundation of your budget. Think of them as containers for expenses and incomes - for example, "Office supplies", "Software licences", or "Client payments".
To create a category, click Add category in the board header, give it a name, choose a color, and click Create.
A new Trello list will appear with a summary card showing your category totals. You can add as many categories as you need and edit them anytime using the list actions menu (click three dots icon, then Edit budget category button).
Adding expenses and incomes
Expenses and incomes are represented by Trello cards. To add one:
- Choose a category (list) and click Add a card.
- Open the card and fill in the Expense or Income field in the Colorful Budget section.
- Close the card - the summary card will update automatically.
This setup lets you combine budgeting with native Trello features: due dates for reminders, labels for tagging, templates for recurring costs, and more.
Visualizing your budget
Colorful Budget includes a dedicated budget dashboard with interactive charts to help you understand your finances. Click Budget dashboard button (the chart icon) in the board header to open it. Some of the available charts include:
Expense and income categories charts
See where your money goes, and where it comes from.
Overview chart
Compare total income, total expenses, and remaining balance.
Burndown chart
Track budget progress over time (when expenses have dates).
Setting goals
Goals help you stay in control of your finances. You can set both spending goals (do not exceed a limit) and funding goals (save toward a target).
To add a goal:
- Click three dots icon, then Edit budget category button on a list.
- Enter your goal amount in the Goals section and save.
- A goal badge will appear on the summary card.
Goal progress is also visible on the Budget Dashboard under the Goals chart.
Exporting your budget
Need a backup, report, or printout? Click Budget export (the coins and arrow icon) in the board header. Choose your format - Excel and CSV is available - and click Export. Your file will download with all expenses, incomes, categories, and labels included.
Advanced features (Trello Standard plan and above)
If you’re on Trello’s Standard plan, Colorful Budget unlocks additional features:
- Custom fields support - store budget data in Trello custom fields for mobile app compatibility and automations.
- Mobile app support - add expenses and incomes on the go using Trello mobile app.
- Automations - use Trello automation rules (e.g., receive email notifications for expenses above a set amount).
You can enable these features by turning on Custom fields support in the Colorful Budget settings, available from any Trello card.