Suggested changes to newer budget format
Donna
The concept of the newer budget format is good, but it could be great with a few changes that shouldn't be too hard to make and be available in updates. These suggestions are based on my accounting experience and other accounting programs I've used.
1. Replace the menu with the one used on the report pages, with the following changes: (incexp 1)
a. add budget manager button
b. add show categories button to choose which categories to budget (inexp 3)
2. Edit functions - expand on screenshot inexp 2 to:
a. add ability to change budget name
b. choose whether to use round amounts or show as dollars & cents
c. choose how to show negative amounts
3. Change existing format (format 1) to column format (format 2)
a. this makes it possible to show totals and subtotals to make budgeting easier
b. the calculations to show are:
i. Total income
ii. Subtotal by category
iii. Total expenses
iv. Variance
4. Fix the copy and rollover bug (this may take a little more work) – (original) & (manually corrected)
a. correct so each month shows correct amount
b. show a negative amount if budget is totally overspent
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1 Posted by mhoggie on Feb 24, 2020 @ 03:21 AM
just a user,
Don't hold your breath, many of us have asked for budget app upgrades to no avail. Not sure why unless no one in the MD support group uses the budget feature. If they did the problems would be obvious to them. Also many don't know the new style budget will start to freeze once you get several thousand transaction entries. If will freeze for about 1 second per thousand transactions you have in your database. It's as if the new style budget processes all transactions every time you open the budget. Not just the transactions you have budgeted, but all the ones in your database. That issue has been with us for years, but you won't notice until you have more than a few years of transactions. That has been referred to MD support recently, but has been an issue for many years now
2 Posted by Donna on Feb 27, 2020 @ 01:44 PM
I know. MD is great for a lot of things, but definitely not budget, which is the main reason I track my expenses. They don't seem to care about what we have to say.
3 Posted by dtd on Apr 18, 2020 @ 03:00 AM
With 35 years of data, I finally tried the budget area. Yep, nothing works, at all, ever.
Well, I might get a three month view "finally" - I mean after I go get a glass of wine, drink it, and get another. But edit? No way. Do anything like set things up. No way.
4 Posted by mhoggie on Apr 18, 2020 @ 03:21 AM
just a user,
Your probably using the default new style budget. Lots of issues with that setup. After a few years of data, the budget won't even open for several minutes, maybe not at all if you are looking at 35 years. You need to set your budget up using the Mixed Interval (Period) Old Style. Then it will work properly except for budgeting account to account activity like paying a mortgage payment or car loan. Neither style will allow that now. You have to do some special methods to capture the full payments on loans for budgeting. You can capture the interest, but it doesn't prorate for each month unless you use some special work methods. Used to work a few years ago, but it stopped working when they coded the new style.
System closed this discussion on Jul 18, 2020 @ 03:30 AM.