[moneydance] Envelope budgeting

[Graham Borland]

Hello,

I'm a refugee from Mvelopes who have just canned their UK service.

I have been investigating ways to make Moneydance use enevelope-style 
budgeting rather than its built-in budget manager. I have written up 
some notes here:

http://moneydance.com/trac/wiki/Envelope_Budgeting

It involves using categories as budget envelopes, but they all have to 
be Income categories (rather than Expense) to make the numbers work. So, 
when you have money available to spend in a certain category, it shows 
up with a positive balance, and when you've overspent it is negative. 
You have a special Income Cash Pool category (borrowing Mvelopes' 
terminology) to which all income is assigned, and from there you split 
into the various envelopes.

I'm still working on the Wiki page and making sure the technique works. 
It's a bit fiddly - in some ways you're fighting against Moneydance 
rather than working with it. I find myself getting confused sometimes 
when transferring between envelopes; I can never remember if the 
transfer amount goes in the Increase or Decrease column.

Let me know your thoughts.


-- 
Graham Borland
graham at moonbog.net