Schedule and By templates must be the same priority level. F

Error message

Schedule and By templates must be the same priority level. Fix by setting all Schedule and By templates to priority level ${lowestPriority}

What it means

All `schedule` and `by` templates in a budget must share one common priority level. During init the engine computes the lowest priority among them and throws if any schedule/by template has a different priority, instructing you to align them.

Source

Thrown at packages/loot-core/src/server/budget/category-template-context.ts:515

          if (!scheduleNames.has(t.name.trim())) {
            throw new Error(`Schedule ${t.name.trim()} does not exist`);
          }
        } else {
          throw new Error('Schedule template has no scheduleId or name');
        }
      });
    //find lowest priority
    const lowestPriority = Math.min(
      ...templates
        .filter(t => t.type === 'schedule' || t.type === 'by')
        .map(t => t.priority),
    );
    //warn if priority needs fixed
    templates
      .filter(t => t.type === 'schedule' || t.type === 'by')
      .forEach(t => {
        if (t.priority !== lowestPriority) {
          throw new Error(
            `Schedule and By templates must be the same priority level. Fix by setting all Schedule and By templates to priority level ${lowestPriority}`,
          );
          //t.priority = lowestPriority;
        }
      });
    // check if the target date is past and not repeating
    templates
      .filter(t => t.type === 'by' || t.type === 'spend')
      .forEach(t => {
        const range = monthUtils.differenceInCalendarMonths(
          `${t.month}`,
          month,
        );
        if (range < 0 && !(t.repeat || t.annual)) {
          throw new Error(
            `Target month has passed, remove or update the target month`,
          );
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to d4334cb6e6)

Solutions

Change every schedule and by template's `priority N` clause so all use the same priority shown in the error message (the lowest one found)
Or remove the priority clause so templates use the default priority, keeping all schedule/by templates consistent

Example fix

// before (category A)
#template schedule Paycheck priority 2
// after
#template schedule Paycheck priority 1

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const prios = templates.filter(t => ['schedule','by'].includes(t.type)).map(t => t.priority);
if (new Set(prios).size > 1) throw new Error(`Schedule/By priorities differ: ${[...new Set(prios)].join(',')}`);

Try / catch

try {
  await init();
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message.includes('must be the same priority level')) {
    const target = Number(e.message.match(/priority level (\d+)/)?.[1]);
    // rewrite all schedule/by templates to priority ${target}
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

Use one project-wide priority value for all schedule/by templates
Grep notes for `priority ` when adding a new schedule/by template
Prefer omitting the priority clause unless ordering is required

When it happens

Trigger: `checkByAndScheduleAndSpend` (init) finds at least one template of type 'schedule' or 'by' whose `priority` differs from the minimum priority of all such templates — e.g. `#template schedule X priority 1` in one category and `#template by Y priority 2` in another.

Common situations: Adding new schedule/by templates with a different `priority N` clause than existing ones; editing priority on one category but not the others; copying templates from another budget with different priorities.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of actualbudget/actual@d4334cb6e6 (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0b54e0fb3bedeb59. Report an issue: GitHub.