Budget Calculations don't work out
I've been using financial software for over a decade and I have
always had trouble creating a budget. I read ch 6 in the MD help
manual, but it did not answer my questions. What is the correct way
to create a budget that will tell me how much I should save each
month for expenses throughout the year.
For example, I spent $100 on fuel, $500 on groceries - both monthly
expenses
I spend $1,200 on auto insurance - a yearly expense that happens in
april
Everything works how I expect until I mix and match different
intervals. I expected my example budget to have monthly expenses of
$700, but neither pro-rating nor non-pro-rating produces the
expected result.
In order to get my expected result, I have to change the year on
the start date - I made it start in 2000. This creates very complex
budgets and I get different numbers when I calculate it by
hand.
Can anyone explain how pro-rating and start/end dates work to
create a budget that covers expenses with various complex
intervals?
I created a budget using mint.com and it was very intuitive. When I
checked the calculations manually it made sense. However, mint.com
has poor customer support and is owned by Intuit - who I prefer not
to do business with. Please help.
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1 Posted by Jon Hoover on 20 Jul, 2010 07:04 PM
Hi JP, I've attempted to set up a budget similar to yours and have not encountered the issue encountered but this may be because I am not clear on quiet what your issue is. I've included a screenshot of the budget I set up, please tell me if this arrangement I have works for you. If this does not address your issue, please send me a screenshot of your budget and that may help us figure out what the problem may be.
I did have to set the yearly car insurance payment to starting in april 2009 to get a yearly total that included paying it in years prior but I had no problem getting a monthly total of $700 by having everything set to pro-rated.
Please take a look at the screenshot I've included and let me know if it works for you or not.
Jon Hoover, Moneydance Support
Angie Rauscher closed this discussion on 24 Jul, 2011 08:03 PM.