How to get started with a budget

Go to Tools > Budget Manager > New. This brings up a blank budget form for you to build a new budget. At the lower left corner of the window you will see a "+" and "-" symbol. Hit the "+" to get a new line to create a new budget item. Then you can begin filling in the columns by double clicking on the line under each column. If you double click in the "category" column it will bring up all the categories you have created along with the standard MD ones. Keep hitting the "+" to add additional categories.

When you select "Interval" make sure you pick whether you want the budget to prorate the data. For example if you enter $100 "monthly" you will see $25 the first week, $50 week 2, etc. If you enter $100 "monthly not prorated" you will see the entire $100 displayed from the first day of the month onwards.

Use "start date" and "end date" to signify when you want an expense or income item to show up. For example, if you want to show an income item (Dividend Income @ $100/month) to show up Jan, March and Oct. you would would set up 3 separate line items as follows:

$100/Dividend Income/Monthly (not prorated)/Jan 1, 2010 to Jan 31, 2010 $100/Dividend Income/Monthly (not prorated)/Mar 1, 2010 to Mar 31, 2010 $100/Dividend Income/Monthly (not prorated)/Oct 1, 2010 to Oct 31, 2010

If you want the same amount showing up throughout every month of the year you can just put in Jan 1, 2010 and the program will insert for each month.

(Thanks to user jbnyt for writing this wonderful explanation!)