Adding discretionary category in Budget Manager
I've just started working with Moneydance's budget feature, so please excuse this question if I've overlooked the obvious.
I'm trying to create a discretionary category in the Budget Manager. For example, after paying all my fixed bills, I want to specify a maximum amount that can be spent on everything else. Ideally, I'd like Moneydance to eliminate all the individual categories I've explicitly identified for other budget items and sum the remaining categories (for example, add all expenses except those in the Bills and Loans parent categories). I realize this may be asking too much, so at the very least I'd like to be able to specify an amount for the Personal parent category (the sum of all the child categories' expenses).
However, when I test this method (I set a budgeted amount of $500 for the parent Personal), it doesn't display any expenses, even though I know there are some in the child categories (like Groceries and Personal Care). Other parts of the Budget Manager are working fine; it is accurately pulling budget expense data from child categories (like Bill: Rent).
Is there something I need to specific to allow the summation of child categories? Or any other recommendations on how to establish a discretionary budget category that spans multiple parent and/or child categories? Thanks in advance for any advice you might have!
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2 Posted by Randy on 10 Jan, 2010 03:23 PM
I don't know of any way to do this with the budget manager directly, but if you are looking for the answer to the question "how much is left after I pay the bills", you might want to consider cash flow forecasting instead.
You put in reminders (recurring reminders if appropriate) in Moneydance. You need to put in reminders for any income you have, as well as any expenses.
Then get the extension mentioned in this thread:
http://help.infinitekind.com/discussions/switching-to-moneydance-fr...
Pay particular attention to the installation instructions on the download page.
If you have all your reminders , this extension will give you a graph of what your future balance will be after you pay the bills. If you look at the low point in any given month, you will see how much Moneydance calculates you will have left after paying all the bills. You can look several months out if you want. Since some bills don't come due every month, I find it is more helpful to look several months out and see that low point. It may be that I have a little surplus this month that I need to save for a bill that is coming 2 months later, for example.
If may take you a while to get all your reminders set up to make it accurate, but after you do, you will find it invaluable.
You could also take that low point number for each month and plug it into a budget category if you need to, but I find that the forecaster extension does enough for me.
Support Staff 3 Posted by Ben Spencer on 11 Jan, 2010 03:12 PM
Hi
I am not able to reproduce the problem you are describing. In my test example I created a transaction in my checking register for $100 charged to Personal:Dining. I then created a budget on the Personal parent account for $200 a month. See attached screenshot 1. I then run the budget report fomr the the graphs and reports section and the budget on the parent account includes the child expense. see screenshot 2:
How is the behaviour you are seeing different from this?
Sincerely
Ben Spencer
4 Posted by Tethys on 12 Jan, 2010 03:39 PM
Ben,
Thanks for taking a look at this! It's lead me to an interesting discovery. It looks like Moneydance is pulling my expenditures correctly in some reporting tools, but not others (ironically, the reporting tool I was looking at). Here's some more details (I'm not sure I'm using the right names for everything, but hopefully you'll be able to understand):
In the "Budget" reporting tool under the Graphs & Reports sidebar menu (the one you used in your screenshot), all is working fine. Additionally, on the home page, the "This month" tool (with the progressive green/yellow/red bars) is also fine.
However, the reporting tool under the Budgets sidebar menu that displays my custom menu is not pulling the parent expense info. This is the one I was looking at when I wrote my post, and this is the one that only displays the amounts that have actually been paid so far this month (it uses gray and yellow bars displaying the amount paid - or $0.00). Unlike the other tools based on the same categories defined in my custom budget, this one is not pulling expenditure info. It still reads $0 for my parent Personal category, even though the other reporting tools are recording that some money has been spent.
If you'd like me to show you some screen shots, I can; I didn't post them here due to privacy concerns.
I'm glad to see that the program is doing what I want it to, just not in the tool I was looking at. Thanks for opening my eyes and making me look for other ways to visualize the information I needed!
Support Staff 5 Posted by Ben Spencer on 12 Jan, 2010 06:03 PM
Hi
You are correct this is a known problem. Here is the bug ticket for it.
http://moneydance.com/trac/ticket/2181
Sincerely
Ben Spencer
6 Posted by DStew on 10 Apr, 2010 09:15 PM
Hi Ben, I do not believe this problem is the same as the ticket you referenced. Also, I am currently experiencing this bug, so it has not been "fixed" as the ticket reports. Maybe I can further explain the issue.
If I view my budget from the "Budget" link on the sidebar, all of the parent categories show $0, even though the child categories have recorded expenses.
Alternatively, if I view my budget from the "Home Page" link on the sidebar, the parent categories show the total expenditures from their respective child categories.
I have attached two images to help explain the problem. The issue is relevant to those of us who budget using parent categories instead of every child category. Thanks in advance for your help!
Dave
Support Staff 7 Posted by Ben Spencer on 11 Apr, 2010 04:08 PM
Hi Dave
I believe this is now fixed in Md2010r3 build 746, see the attached screenshot. It is not yet available on the main download page but you can get it from the link below:
http://moneydance.com/trac/wiki/Moneydance2010Beta
Ben
8 Posted by DStew on 11 Apr, 2010 04:43 PM
Thanks Ben! It works great.
Dave
Ben Spencer closed this discussion on 11 Apr, 2010 04:56 PM.