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DO YOU HAVE VIDEO TO SHOW HOW TO USE BUDGET

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Donna M Burch

08 Feb, 2026 02:32 AM

DO YOU HAVE VIDEO TO SHOW HOW TO USE BUDGET?

1. 1 Posted by dwg on 08 Feb, 2026 02:40 AM

   

   There are no Videos on Moneydance

   There are a set of Knowledge Base articles on using Moneydance Budgeting you can access them at: https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/kb/budgeting-2

   There is no need for shouting.

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2. 2 Posted by mhoggie on 08 Feb, 2026 11:37 PM

   

   just a user,

   I've used the MD budget tool for years, but it does have some quirks and limitations.
   First of all, don't waste time with the default "new calendar format" (the new calendar format requires you to manually move the budgets forward each month) Instead use the original "Mixed Interval" format ( you chose that when you set up your budget period),

   Here are some links you can follow to set up your budget, Remember, use the "Mixed Interval" format to help maintain sanity.

   https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/kb/budgeting-2/mixed-interval-bu...

   A couple of issues I've experienced over the years.

   Keep your budget simple. Do not overwhelm yourself with dozens and dozens of items to budget.

   When you begin to add budget items using the + sign at the bottom, you will notice the new entry will appear at the bottom of the budget list. That's OK until your edit window fills up and clicking the +sign seems non-responsive. But it's simply putting the new entry at the bottom below your page. Just scroll down and you can edit as needed.

   Also you will note that once you start entering the new budget item, the line will stay in place until you enter the category and start to enter the interval. Then it will seem to disappear. Don't be alarmed, the entry is still waiting on you but it resorted itself alphabetically by the category name. Scroll as needed and just continue editing.

   I would recommend only using the "Non Prorated" intervals. I've found it works better in reports.

   One of the biggest quirks with the MD budget feature is trying to budget a loan payment of any kind where the loan or credit card is set up in MD.

   For instance,
   You want to budget your lodging or auto expenses.
   If you don't have a home loan or auto loan set up in MD, then it's simple. Just make a budget for Lodging Expense and Auto Expense, and make those payments against those simple categories. When you watch your budget progress, you will see activity posted against your budget. That's good. But if you have a home loan, or car loan set up in MD, your payments will be to those MD loans. But MD budget will ignore the activity because it sees you just moving funds from one account to another. You can set them up in your budget, but the budget reports and status feature will ignore them. Many of us have complained about this issue, but MD seems to be hard set to not provide any method to budget loan payments of any kind if they are set up in MD. Accounting principles are the argument, but the fact remains that money moved from you to someone else. Some of us have developed methods to get around this limitation. Mostly it involves extra payments to a normal expense category along with the normal loan payment and offsetting the amounts to keep your checking amount correct. You can set that up in transactions reminders so it fairly easy,

   What's nice about the Mixed Interval budget is setting up time frames for each budget entry. Most of your budget items will probably just be set up as monthly (non prorated) with no End Date. Then you just adjust your budget amounts as needed. But sometimes you have budget items that change each year like medical insurance or social security payments. You can then add an additional budget entry for the same item with a different start and end date. For instance, you set up your 2025 social security payment to end on 2025 with the duplicate entry starting on 2026 with the new amounts. Works great.

   But I will strongly suggest that you use the MD Tools, Foresight Forecast feature.
   You can set it up against your checking account where it will follow all your payment and income reminders to chart out your future checking balance. That is a real nice feature and I use it almost exclusive to the budget feature. The only quirk I've found is the lag to paint the graph. It can take up to a minute. I have all my financial activity set up in reminders, Retirement income, taxes, credit card payments, mortgage payments, car payments, insurance payments, charity, fuel cards, all utilities, cell phone bills, etc, etc , etc.. I tweak the reminders occasionally as things change and for several years now, I can forecast my checking balance and make any financial changes needed to keep everything in order. Very Very Nice, much better than just relying on the MD budget feature. Currently I have my Foresight graph set up to forecast 13 months in the future. That allows me to see how my property tax and estimated tax payments affect me with plenty of time to make provisions. Can't recommend it any higher.

   Good luck with all.
   Mike

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