A cycle is the time between one paycheck and the next. For most people that’s two weeks or a month. For some it’s irregular. Lefover uses your cycle as the unit of time for every calculation.
How we detect your cycle
When you connect your bank, Lefover scans the last 90 days of deposits looking for a pattern. The same employer landing on the same day of the week (or the same day of the month) tells us your paycheck rhythm.
Most people have a clear pattern in their first cycle. If yours doesn’t, Lefover may take one or two cycles to confirm. During that time, the safe-to-spend math runs on a conservative estimate.
Cadence types
Lefover supports four cadence patterns:
- Weekly — paycheck lands every 7 days (often Friday)
- Biweekly — every 14 days (every other Friday is the most common)
- Semimonthly — twice a month (often the 1st and the 15th, or the 15th and the 30th)
- Monthly — once a month
If none of these fit, you’ll be offered runway mode instead.
What happens when a paycheck is late
Sometimes a paycheck lands a day or two late (holidays, bank processing). When that happens, Lefover automatically extends the current cycle to wait for it. Your safe-to-spend number stretches the remaining money over the extra days.
If a paycheck is more than three days late, Lefover sends you an inbox notice so you can investigate. (Usually nothing’s wrong, but it’s worth knowing.)
Runway mode
If your income is irregular (freelance, contract work, side income that doesn’t repeat on a schedule), Lefover switches to runway mode. Instead of “until your next paycheck,” you see “how many days of runway you have at your usual pace.”
The runway calculation: your current balance, minus your upcoming bills, divided by your average daily spend. The result is days. Watch it shrink with normal spending; watch it stretch when income lands.
You can switch between cadence and runway modes from Settings → Cycle.
Cycle rollover
When your paycheck lands, Lefover automatically rolls over to the next cycle. No button to press. The math reanchors to the new paycheck, your bills shift to the new cycle’s view, and your safe-to-spend number recalculates.
Why this matters
The personal finance world thinks in months because calendar months are easy to talk about. People don’t live in months. People live paycheck to paycheck. Anchoring to your actual paycheck rhythm is the only way to give you a number that’s true today, not approximately true on average.