[moneydance] Budget manager questions

[Yehudit Winiarz]

Don,

To answer your questions:

1. a budget can be created either for comparative purposes or to track
different income and expenses. Take for example, your budget for heating
your home in the winter is much different than it is in the summer (unless
you live in sub zero areas).

2. I don't find that putting a different past or present date in the
"effective date" changes the bottom right calculations in that it will
calculate how much income and expenses will be used from this month, year,
past 30 or 365 days, by following this particular budget. If you put a
future date, you are not yet using this budget, thereby giving you a $0.00
output for the current month or any previous dates.

3. From what I gather, yes. But if you are making a Winter budget and a
summer budget you'll probably want them to start and end at different times.

4. It's a good idea to have some budget goals in mind, written down on
paper, before using the budget manager. If you are starting without any
prior records, you'll have to use your own estimates. If you already have a
few months' worth of data entered, you can print a copy of the Cash Flow
Report for those months and use them to estimate your budget. I saved up and
entered all my data over a few months and then used the manager to calculate
estimates, and then tweaked them when necessary.

5. That's how I understand it.

6. See #3

7. See #3

8. That is what I have found. However, this is where I have questions -
which I will post separately. BTW,you can use the + and - in the lower left
corner to remove or add budget lines. Also, usually everything is editable -
just double click the field.

Take care,
Yehudit



On 9/3/07, Don <dlbrett at zoominternet.net> wrote:
>
> I'm trying to figure out how to best use the budget manager.  I read the
> online instructions, but it's still not obvious to me, so I have some
> questions: (Note - Starting path is: Tools -> Budget Manager -> New)
>
> 1. What is the intent of a given budget plan?  The manager supports up
> to ten plans, so it must not be a monthly thing.  Is it a plan for the
> entire account or ......?
>
> 2. Pressing the "Calculate" button offers some options.  If I enter a
> date from a future month, the totals at the bottom right are zero.  A
> future date from this month gives low numbers, a past date from any past
> month gives a high number.  What is the purpose of the "Effective On"
> entry?
>
> 3. When calculating, the "Effective On" date ends up in the "Start Date"
> column.  Does "Effective On" equal "Start Date"?
>
> 4. What should be the "Effective On" date for the budget plan?  Should
> this be a future date, or match the first date of the selected "Date"
> field, or today, or the first date of some month, or ....?
>
> 5. Pressing the "Calculate" button results in the amount field being
> populated.  It looks like the amount values are based upon past
> payments, averaged over the selected "Date" period, for a period
> (monthly, yearly, etc).  Is this correct?
>
> 6. What is the intended purpose of the "End Date" column.  Is it a
> monthly payment, or approximate payment time, or ....?
>
> 7. Is the "End Date" field meant for one-time or recurring payments?.
> If recurring, what time span should it cover?
>
> 8. The calculate function results in values populated in the "Amount"
> column.  It seems to search every account for every transactions, in
> every category, for the specified time period.  Is this correct?
>
> Well, that's probably enough for today.  Thanks for the help!
>
> Don
>
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The entire purpose of our existence is to overcome our negative habits.
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