Why It Matters
Tracking how your actual expenses compare to your budget is essential for:
Identifying overspending early
Adjusting future budgets based on reality
Keeping an eye on cash flow trends
Making sure your investment is performing as expected
Where to Find the Monthly Expenses Card
The Monthly Expenses card appears at the bottom of each Property Dashboard and shows a visual meter for each category. Each meter helps you instantly see:
How much of your budget (pro forma) has been used
Whether you're under, on target, or over budget
Understanding the Pro Forma Data
Pro forma data represents your budgeted or projected expenses for the property. These figures are entered manually and should reflect your best estimates for each category over the next 12 months. If you don’t have formal budgets, you can enter current monthly averages or estimates based on historical data.
To edit pro forma values
Go to the Property Dashboard.
Scroll down to the Monthly Expenses card.
Click the three-dot menu to edit all pro forma fields, or use the pencil icon to edit each category individually.
Enter or update the monthly pro forma value.
Some pro forma lines may auto-populate
Mortgage and Insurance amounts are filled in automatically if you’ve set up those details in Stessa.
Property Taxes may populate from public records if available.
These budgeted numbers are key inputs for performance metrics across your dashboards and reports, including the Rent Roll and Cash-on-Cash Return.
Understanding the Actual Expenses
The Actual portion of each category is calculated automatically from your Transactions page and reflects the trailing 12-month average for that expense. These figures represent real, recorded costs from your connected accounts and manually entered transactions.
Actual values can’t be edited directly.
If something looks off, review and adjust your transactions instead.