How much should you spend on evals? Set the limit before the first checkout
A $145 evaluation is not a $145 decision. Add the resets and the activation the same path can carry and the worked example below reserves $484 before a trade is placed, and the moment that arithmetic is easiest to skip is right after a breach, with the reset button one click away and no written number to check it against.
In this guide
The short answer
Start here
Before the first purchase, total every charge the chosen path can carry (entry at the price you actually pay, each reset you would allow, renewals, and funded activation) in one currency, and write that ceiling down with the event that stops new spending. After every charge, add what you have already paid to every charge still reserved ahead on the path, and compare that sum with the written number. Crossing it means the next purchase is already refused; sitting under it approves nothing.
What matters
- Price the full path before checkout: entry plus every allowed reset plus activation, in one currency, with unpublished prices left unresolved.
- Write the stopping event with the ceiling (a spend total, a retry count, or a review date) before the first breach makes it urgent.
- Re-check after every charge: when spend already paid plus every charge still reserved on the path crosses the ceiling, refuse the purchase before checkout opens.
1
Price the whole path, then choose the number
The ceiling is computed first and chosen second. Price the path: the evaluation entry at the amount you actually pay, each reset (paying the firm to restore a breached evaluation) you would genuinely allow, any renewal months on a subscription-style plan, and the activation fee some firms charge to open the funded account after a pass. In the worked example that path reserves $484, which is 3.3 times the $145 entry, before a single trade is placed.
Keep each currency in its own total, and mark any unconfirmed price unknown. Not every retry or activation price is published for every plan; when a price is not published, write that in place of a number and leave the path unresolved, or hold a buffer sized to cover the gap. A ceiling built on a guessed fee is fiction with a dollar sign on it.
2
Write the stopping event while nothing is breached
The plan is easiest to abandon in the minute after a breach, when the reset checkout is open and the price on the button looks small next to the money already gone. That is why the stopping event gets written before the first purchase: cumulative spend reaches the ceiling, the allowed retry count is used, the next known charge would cross the line, or a stated review date arrives. "I will decide later" is a plan to decide under pressure.
The count gate and the cash gate work together. In the worked example, two resets at $95 are allowed; a third is refused twice over, it exceeds the written retry count, and it takes the priced path from $484 to $579, past the $500 line. A retry that clears both gates can still fail the operating review: the rule set never matched how you trade, the same process error ended two attempts, or the retry price cannot be confirmed. Any one of those stops the path with money still unspent.
3
Headroom under the ceiling is unassigned money
Reading the $16 left under the example's $500 ceiling as room for a small add-on fee is how a written plan leaks one charge at a time. The ceiling states the most this path is allowed to cost; money never spent stays outside the path's result and counts toward nothing. A charge that was never priced into the plan needs a new written plan before checkout, even when it fits under the line.
Worked example
Assumptions, not a forecastA path priced before checkout
- Spend ceiling, chosen by the trader: $500.
- Evaluation entry at the paid price: $145.
- At most two resets allowed by the plan: $95 each.
- Funded activation if the evaluation passes: $149.
The planned path reserves $145 + $190 + $149 = $484, leaving $16 under the $500 ceiling. That $16 is unassigned buffer; any charge not on this list requires a new written plan before purchase.
The ceiling, prices and retry count are hypothetical choices made for the arithmetic. They estimate nothing about pass probability, trading losses, or whether the attempt should begin at all.
Tool tutorial
Keep the ceiling beside the ledger
- 1
Before buying, write the same-currency ceiling, the allowed retry count and the stopping event; confirm the total covers entry plus every reset and activation the path allows.
- 2
Log the evaluation in Bank (NANO's same-currency record of what you actually paid) then add each reset, renewal and fee as it lands.
- 3
After every charge, add your logged spend to every charge still reserved ahead on the path; if that sum crosses the written ceiling, the stopping event has fired and the next purchase is off.
- 4
Before any retry, put the sourced retry price beside your logged attempts and passes: the ceiling caps what the path may cost, the record decides whether the next attempt is worth buying at all.
Keep every campaign dollar in one record
Manual Bank keeps account costs, resets, subscriptions and fees in the same-currency ledger needed to review a written campaign ceiling.
Pro required. The ledger records the spend you compare against the ceiling you wrote; NANO does not store the ceiling, block a firm checkout or authorize spend below it.
Evidence boundary
What NANO can and cannot know
NANO totals the same-currency charges you record in Bank and keeps sourced retry prices beside them. It cannot infer a charge you never logged, merge currencies into one converted total, or estimate whether another attempt passes, the ceiling and the stopping event live or die on what you wrote down before the first purchase.
Common questions
- How much should I spend on prop firm evaluations?
- Enough to cover one fully priced path and never more than a number you wrote before the first purchase, in the worked example, a $500 ceiling over a $484 path. NANO will not choose the amount for you, because sizing personal spending is a financial decision it refuses to make; the substitute is mechanical: price the path, set the ceiling above it, and let the Bank ledger keep score against it.
- Do I count the activation fee before I pass?
- Reserve it when it is a known charge on the chosen path (the example holds $149 for it before any trade) and log it as paid only when the firm actually charges it. If the activation price is not published for your plan, the path stays unresolved until it is.
- Is a spend limit the same as my drawdown limit?
- No, the spend ceiling caps real cash paid to firms, while drawdown caps simulated losses inside the firm's account rules. You can exhaust one with the other untouched, which is why the desk records them in different places.