To work with a budget, you must first create a budget. After you've created a budget, you can view and work with it as described below.
- Click the Planning tab.
- Click the Budgets button.
Things you can see in the Budget window
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At the top of the window is a budget summary for the selected date range. - If you are budgeting expenses (most people do) the summary shows the total amount you have budgeted, how much you have spent, and how much you have left (or how much you have overspent).
- If you are budgeting income and you have unbudgeted money remaining, this "extra" amount is displayed as Savings in the summary.
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Everything Else within a category, such as AutoEverything Else appears within a category if you've selected the parent category and at least one, but not all subcategories within that category. It represents the sum of amounts spent or received in the unbudgeted subcategories within a category. Here are some things you can do with the amount: - Ignore the amount: If you are not concerned with the amount, you can just ignore it.
- Reduce or eliminate the amount: Take a look at the subcategories included in the Everything Else amount, then add those subcategories to your budget; or, remove all of the subcategories and track only at the category level.
- Budget the amount: Assign a budget amount to Everything Else to create a collective budget for all of the subcategories it contains. To do so, click the Everything Else line and enter an amount.
Everything Else within a category group, such as Personal ExpensesIn Graph View only, Everything Else within a category group represents the sum of amounts spent or received in the unbudgeted categories in a category group. Here are some things you can do with the amount: - Ignore the amount: If you are not concerned with the amount, you can just ignore it.
- Reduce or eliminate the amount: Take a look at the categories included in the Everything Else amount, then add those categories to your budget. To do so, click the add icon (the green circle with the plus sign in it) to the right of each category and enter an amount.
- Budget the amount: Assign a budget amount to Everything Else to create a collective budget for all of the categories it contains. To do so, click the add icon (the green circle with the plus sign in it) to the right of the Everything Else line and enter an amount.
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To set or copy budget amounts
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- If necessary, use the options at the top of the Budget window to select the Monthly date range and then select the budget month you'd like to set amounts for.
- To enter a single budget amount, click the budget amount you'd like to set and type a new amount.
- To copy, calculate, or enter multiple budget amounts, click
 next to an amount and then choose:- Apply [the selected month] budget forward to the end of [the budget year]. This copies the currently selected category budget amount to all future months of the budget year.
- Apply [the selected month] budget to all of [the budget year]. This copies the currently selected category budget amount to all months, past and future, of the budget year.
- Edit Yearly Budget. This lets you manually enter monthly budget amounts for the currently selected category for any or all months of the budget year.
- Calculate Average Budget. This lets you set monthly budget amounts for a category based on an amount per time period. Quicken then calculates a monthly budget amount based on the amount per time period you specify and inserts it into your budget.
- Set [the selected month] budget based on average [spending or income] for this category. This calculates and enters a budget amount that is the average spending or income for the category over the past 12 months.
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In Annual View - If necessary, at the top of the Budget window select either the Details or Budget only filterfilter.
- Click the budget amount you'd like to set and type a new amount.
- To copy, calculate, or enter multiple budget amounts, click
 next to an amount and then choose:- Apply [the selected month] budget forward to the end of [the budget year]. This copies the currently selected category budget amount to all future months of the budget year.
- Apply [the selected month] budget to all of [the budget year]. This copies the currently selected category budget amount to all months, past and future, of the budget year.
- Set [the selected month] budget based on average [spending or income] for this category. This calculates and enters a budget amount that is the average spending or income for the category over the past 12 months.
- Edit Yearly Budget. This lets you manually enter monthly budget amounts for the currently selected category for any or all months of the budget year.
- Calculate Average Budget. This lets you set monthly budget amounts for a category based on an amount per time period. Quicken then calculates a monthly budget amount based on the amount per time period you specify and inserts it into your budget.
- To copy all budget amounts from one month to other months in your budget, click the Budget column header of the month you want to copy, and then choose how you want to copy the amounts: to future months, to past months, or to all months in the current year.
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Other things you can do in the Budget window
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If you have more than one budget, choose the budget you want to work with at the top of the window. |
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| title | Extend your budget into next year |
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The first time you view a prior year's budget in a new year, Quicken asks you if you want to extend it to the new year. Just click OK and Quicken creates a new budget for you automatically, copying all of your current budget categories and budget values to the new budget. If you want to get an early startIf you want to create next year's budget before the start of the new year, or if you want more control over how the budget is created: - Use the date control at the top of the budget window to change the year.
- Quicken asks you how you want to create the new budget:
- Copy budget categories and budget values to the new budget
- Copy budget categories and actuals as budget values to the new budget
- Copy budget categories only to the new budget
- Click OK to create the new budget.
Notes- Your new budget will report income and expense actuals based on transactions from the year it represents.
- You can edit your new budget without affecting your previous budget.
- You can change budget years using the date control at the top of the window.
- You can create budgets for prior years
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