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.
...
| Expand |
|---|
| title | Budget categories and groups |
|---|
|
A budget category is a Quicken income or expense category, transfer, savings goal, or loan payment that you track in your budget. Budget categories are listed and organized into category groups such as Personal Income, and Personal Expenses. For each budget category or category group you can easily see the amount you've budgeted, spent or received, and how much remains. Click a category group name, such as Personal Expenses, to hide and show the categories within. |
| Expand |
|---|
| title | Red and green bars or lines |
|---|
|
In Graph View, each category group and category has a either a green, red or grey bar next to it. - For expense categories: A green bar means that you have spent as much or less than you budgeted; a red bar means that you have spent more than you budgeted. The actual amount you've spent appears as a number in the bar.
- For income categories: A green bar means that you have received as much or more income than you budgeted; a red bar means that you have received less income than you budgeted. The sum of your income in the category appears as a number in the bar.
- A grey bar (no green or red at all) means that there has been no income or expense activity in the category group or category during the selected date range.
- A light green or light red segment within a bar means that there are reminder transactions (transactions that will occur in the future) included in the category group or category. The sum of the reminder transactions appears as a number in the segment.
In Annual View, each month has either a green or red line under its column header(s). - For each month: If you are on budget, or under budget, the line is green; if you are over budget, the line is red.
|
...
| Expand |
|---|
|
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.
|
To set or copy budget amounts
| Expand |
|---|
|
- 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.
|
...
| Expand |
|---|
| title | Extend your budget into next year |
|---|
|
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
|
| Expand |
|---|
| title | Budget using category groups only |
|---|
|
It's possible to budget for an entire category group instead of entering a separate amount for each category within it. If you do this, any difference between the amount you enter for the category group and the total of the individual amounts for the categories in that group will be assigned to Everything Else line in your budget. - Select the Everything Else line of the category group.
- Enter the amount(s) as necessary.
For more information, see Working with category groups. |