Archive - Creating a budget using the 'Mixed Interval' (Older) format

This is an archived document. Please refer to the more recent knowledge base articles on this page

You can read about the two budget formats available within Moneydance in this article.

Moneydance 2014 introduced a new budgeting format for creating and working with budgets. The old budget format was retained as well and is referred to as the Mixed Interval budget format. If you prefer to use this budget format, you can create a budget using it by going to Tools -> Budget Manager, then clicking the New button and selecting mixed intervals (old style) as the time period. It is not possible to convert budgets created in older versions of Moneydance to the new Moneydance 2014 format. If you're using Moneydance 2012 or earlier, this is the budget format you'll be working with.

You can view a mixed interval format budget by clicking on it in the left sidebar column.

After selecting a budget, you can edit it by clicking on the “Edit” button in the upper right corner of the screen.

Setting Budgeted amounts manually

To add a new budget item, press the “+” button and enter the appropriate values for each column. You can print and copy the budget from this screen.

Budget Name Name your budget.

Calculate See Calculating a Budget below

Here's an explanation of each of the fields when creating or editing a budget line entry:

Amount Enter the amount of money you'd like to budget for this category.

Category Click on the drop-down menu to select the category you'd like to budget for.

Interval Use the drop-down menu to select the frequency at which your budget will repeat. When selecting the interval, you can also choose whether you want the time period to be prorated or not.

Start Date Select the date you'd like your budget for this item to begin.

End Date Select the date you'd like your budget for this item to end. If you do not enter an end date, the budget will continue indefinitely.

Total Income/Expenses Use the drop-down menu to the left of these values to specify the time period for which you'd like this information to be displayed.

Note that if you have an expense or income item that has an irregular interval or changes amounts throughout the year, you will need to enter individual line items for each instance, using the Start Date and Interval fields to define them. In this case you may find it easier to use the new budgeting format.

Calculating a Budget

To have Moneydance automatically calculate a budget based on your past spending, click the Calculate button in the Budget Editor window.

The Effective On field is the date when you'd like your new budget to begin. In the Date field, select the range of transactions you'd like to have used in the calculations. If you're using the “Custom Date” option, use these fields. The final field allows you to select the range you'd like to use when calculating this budget: Annually, Tri-Monthly, Bi-Monthly, Monthly, Semi-Monthly, Tri-Weekly, Bi-Weekly, and Weekly.