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Duplicating Budget Month to Month?

A very easy question, I'm sure but I want to duplicate my budget month to month with a few minor tweaks here and there for things I don't set to roll over. Can someone explain the most efficient way to work with your budget (largely staying the same) when a new month rolls around?



Thanks!



Quicken 2016, Windows, R8
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  • UKRUKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2019
    When you originally created your budget or when you extended you budget to a new year it should have already pre-populated the budget numbers for the entire year.

    To fine tune your budget, go into the Annual View.
    You can copy the budget values of a selected month for all categories and
    - either copy them forward to the rest of the year
    - retroactively apply them to the prior months of this year
    - or copy them over the entire year
    To do so click the "BUDGET" column header for the month that contains the monthly (already fine tuned) budget and decide on how to copy it forward / backward over the entire year.

    You can do the same copy forward / backward for a single category. Click on the budget amount in a month. Click the gear icon that shows after you selected the amount and select from the options.

    So, yes, you can set up a monthly budget that's your model for most of the year, populate it across all the months of the current year and then go in and fix the budget for those months where you have exceptional income or expenses, like year-end-bonus pay or annual home insurance payment.

    When you extend your budget into 2017 by clicking the right arrow in the "< 2016  >" button you will be asked about how to populate the new year's budget.

    If you're unsure on
    how to do something, you can find more information about a specific task,
    function, feature or report in Quicken Help.

    To access Quicken Help simply press the F1 key from anywhere in Quicken (or
    click Help in the Menu bar, then click Quicken Help).

    Use the Contents tab to see the available books in Quicken Help. Click on one
    of the books to open it. Click on a chapter to drill down to more
    details.

    Or use the Search tab to search using keywords, e.g., "buy
    security".

    Some Quicken view screens may have a yellow button with a question mark. Click
    it to get view - specific help.

  • Unknown Member
    edited December 2016

    I'm using Quicken 2017 and it doesn't automatically carry over to next month. For example, I made a budget for Nov. When I switch to Dec, the budget is blank. The categories carried over, but the dollar amounts are empty, read zero, instead of the amount I set for it.  Is this a bug, or am I missing something.  Also, this is the first time I got Quicken early, is it usually this horribly buggy when first released that it's almost useless to use?

  • Dan GlynhamptonDan Glynhampton SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2019
    The budget is blank for December because you haven't set a budget for December. I think this misunderstanding occurs a lot. When you set a budget up in the Monthly view it is specific to the month you set, not a generic budget that is the same every month. It's easier to see if you work in the Annual view where you can see all months of the year. If you set up one month in that view you can then copy it across the other months of the year, but you have to take that step yourself, it doesn't happen automatically.



    Have you any specific examples of horrible bugs that are making Q2017 almost useless, or is that just a non-specific complaint?
    US Quicken Deluxe for Windows Subscription R27.42 on Windows 10 Pro v2004
  • Unknown Member
    edited January 2018
    UKR said:

    When you originally created your budget or when you extended you budget to a new year it should have already pre-populated the budget numbers for the entire year.

    To fine tune your budget, go into the Annual View.
    You can copy the budget values of a selected month for all categories and
    - either copy them forward to the rest of the year
    - retroactively apply them to the prior months of this year
    - or copy them over the entire year
    To do so click the "BUDGET" column header for the month that contains the monthly (already fine tuned) budget and decide on how to copy it forward / backward over the entire year.

    You can do the same copy forward / backward for a single category. Click on the budget amount in a month. Click the gear icon that shows after you selected the amount and select from the options.

    So, yes, you can set up a monthly budget that's your model for most of the year, populate it across all the months of the current year and then go in and fix the budget for those months where you have exceptional income or expenses, like year-end-bonus pay or annual home insurance payment.

    When you extend your budget into 2017 by clicking the right arrow in the "< 2016  >" button you will be asked about how to populate the new year's budget.



    If you're unsure on
    how to do something, you can find more information about a specific task,
    function, feature or report in Quicken Help.

    To access Quicken Help simply press the F1 key from anywhere in Quicken (or
    click Help in the Menu bar, then click Quicken Help).

    Use the Contents tab to see the available books in Quicken Help. Click on one
    of the books to open it. Click on a chapter to drill down to more
    details.

    Or use the Search tab to search using keywords, e.g., "buy
    security".

    Some Quicken view screens may have a yellow button with a question mark. Click
    it to get view - specific help.

    Outstanding! UKR! UKR! UKR!
  • Unknown Member
    edited December 2018
    I second nogester's complaint.  I have the same issue working in Quicken 2017.  It's not an egregious error, but for the $ Quicken should copy the monthly budget I meticulously set up month to month.  The average Joe (myself) will look at a monthly budget before they consider annual implications.
  • Unknown Member
    edited December 2018
    I've got Quicken set up correctly, and aside from some headaches of memorized payees and recategorization, I'm rolling along.



    What is challenging for me is that I suck at budgeting to begin with. Month to month seems easy enough to conceptually understand and manage, but it's the simple things like looking at my monthly total being off because I got paid on the last day of previous month. The overall average of my income is consistent, I understand that. But, it becomes abstract when I need to understand how I am doing with my budget tactically.



    What I'm learning is that adaptation takes a while and, that getting everything set up correctly is absolutely required. I've spent more hours in the last few months on managing my finances than I have, cumulatively, my entire life; probably.



    I have to laugh when I see that Quicken is able to reconcile my accts down to the penny. Each time I see it successfully reconcile, I think to myself..."Seriously?? It reconciles??" LOL.
  • Unknown Member
    edited January 2019
    UKR said:

    When you originally created your budget or when you extended you budget to a new year it should have already pre-populated the budget numbers for the entire year.

    To fine tune your budget, go into the Annual View.
    You can copy the budget values of a selected month for all categories and
    - either copy them forward to the rest of the year
    - retroactively apply them to the prior months of this year
    - or copy them over the entire year
    To do so click the "BUDGET" column header for the month that contains the monthly (already fine tuned) budget and decide on how to copy it forward / backward over the entire year.

    You can do the same copy forward / backward for a single category. Click on the budget amount in a month. Click the gear icon that shows after you selected the amount and select from the options.

    So, yes, you can set up a monthly budget that's your model for most of the year, populate it across all the months of the current year and then go in and fix the budget for those months where you have exceptional income or expenses, like year-end-bonus pay or annual home insurance payment.

    When you extend your budget into 2017 by clicking the right arrow in the "< 2016  >" button you will be asked about how to populate the new year's budget.



    If you're unsure on
    how to do something, you can find more information about a specific task,
    function, feature or report in Quicken Help.

    To access Quicken Help simply press the F1 key from anywhere in Quicken (or
    click Help in the Menu bar, then click Quicken Help).

    Use the Contents tab to see the available books in Quicken Help. Click on one
    of the books to open it. Click on a chapter to drill down to more
    details.

    Or use the Search tab to search using keywords, e.g., "buy
    security".

    Some Quicken view screens may have a yellow button with a question mark. Click
    it to get view - specific help.

    I am using Quicken 2017. I want to populate my 2019 budget from the budget I set up in 2018. When I am in the 2018 annual view and click on the arrow in the header to switch to 2019, no questions came up about my preferences. Also, the budget that appeared only carried income categories & amounts over - everything else was totally different. Re-selecting correct categories & entering proper amounts is a bit time-consuming; I'd love to find a way to carry over the previous year's budget to 2019. Since clicking the right arrow to change the year did not work, any other suggestions? I already tried the help menu and it gave the same information on carrying over budget categories & values to the next year. However, the carryover options buttons did not come up when I tried it. Any suggestions on work-arounds to get the budget to carry over into the new year at this point?
  • Gay DasherGay Dasher Member ✭✭
    edited January 2019
    UKR said:

    When you originally created your budget or when you extended you budget to a new year it should have already pre-populated the budget numbers for the entire year.

    To fine tune your budget, go into the Annual View.
    You can copy the budget values of a selected month for all categories and
    - either copy them forward to the rest of the year
    - retroactively apply them to the prior months of this year
    - or copy them over the entire year
    To do so click the "BUDGET" column header for the month that contains the monthly (already fine tuned) budget and decide on how to copy it forward / backward over the entire year.

    You can do the same copy forward / backward for a single category. Click on the budget amount in a month. Click the gear icon that shows after you selected the amount and select from the options.

    So, yes, you can set up a monthly budget that's your model for most of the year, populate it across all the months of the current year and then go in and fix the budget for those months where you have exceptional income or expenses, like year-end-bonus pay or annual home insurance payment.

    When you extend your budget into 2017 by clicking the right arrow in the "< 2016  >" button you will be asked about how to populate the new year's budget.



    If you're unsure on
    how to do something, you can find more information about a specific task,
    function, feature or report in Quicken Help.

    To access Quicken Help simply press the F1 key from anywhere in Quicken (or
    click Help in the Menu bar, then click Quicken Help).

    Use the Contents tab to see the available books in Quicken Help. Click on one
    of the books to open it. Click on a chapter to drill down to more
    details.

    Or use the Search tab to search using keywords, e.g., "buy
    security".

    Some Quicken view screens may have a yellow button with a question mark. Click
    it to get view - specific help.

    Mine also carried over only the income categories. When I try to add Expense categories, they do not show up. 
  • ScooterlamScooterlam SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2019
    UKR said:

    When you originally created your budget or when you extended you budget to a new year it should have already pre-populated the budget numbers for the entire year.

    To fine tune your budget, go into the Annual View.
    You can copy the budget values of a selected month for all categories and
    - either copy them forward to the rest of the year
    - retroactively apply them to the prior months of this year
    - or copy them over the entire year
    To do so click the "BUDGET" column header for the month that contains the monthly (already fine tuned) budget and decide on how to copy it forward / backward over the entire year.

    You can do the same copy forward / backward for a single category. Click on the budget amount in a month. Click the gear icon that shows after you selected the amount and select from the options.

    So, yes, you can set up a monthly budget that's your model for most of the year, populate it across all the months of the current year and then go in and fix the budget for those months where you have exceptional income or expenses, like year-end-bonus pay or annual home insurance payment.

    When you extend your budget into 2017 by clicking the right arrow in the "< 2016  >" button you will be asked about how to populate the new year's budget.



    If you're unsure on
    how to do something, you can find more information about a specific task,
    function, feature or report in Quicken Help.

    To access Quicken Help simply press the F1 key from anywhere in Quicken (or
    click Help in the Menu bar, then click Quicken Help).

    Use the Contents tab to see the available books in Quicken Help. Click on one
    of the books to open it. Click on a chapter to drill down to more
    details.

    Or use the Search tab to search using keywords, e.g., "buy
    security".

    Some Quicken view screens may have a yellow button with a question mark. Click
    it to get view - specific help.

    I'm pretty sure that your QW 2017 behaves similar to my QW 2019 in this feature....

    If you clicked on the arrow to switch to 2019 and did not get the dialog in Image 1, then it is likely that you have previously selected an option for 2019.  That's been my experience. Pls. note that the image shows references to 2019/2020 - Should show 2018/2019 in your case.

    Once the 2019 option is selected (for the new budget) you will no longer get this dialog when moving between budget years.  So maybe that explains your current situation.

    If you haven't invested too much effort in 2019....you might consider starting the 2019 budget over again by deleting it.  Deleting 2019 budget can be done in "Budget Options" menu, shown in Image 2.  Once 2019 is deleted, you can arrow over to 2019 from 2018 and you should get the options dialog showing strategies to populate the new 2019 budget.

    Of course, be sure to backup your Quicken data file before starting this.  Its easy to mistake budget years and work on the wrong one.   Done that....

    Hope this helps gets you restarted.

    Scott
    2019 QW HBR R17.5

    IMAGE 1

    image

    IMAGE 2
    image
  • Unknown Member
    edited January 2019
    I tried deleting the 2019 budget, but the options to carry over the 2018 figures to 2019 still did not come up. However, it didn't take too long to duplicate the 2019 budget from Dec. 2018 by doing the following:

    First, print out a copy of the 2018 budget figures you want. Then, go to Planning>Budgets. With Jan 2019 budget open to
    graph view and the budget you want to modify selected, click on “Budget Action”
    and choose “Select Categories to Budget.” A box will come up with a number of
    options, including “select categories.” Using your Dec. 2018
    budget as a reference, adjust the Jan 2019 budget categories & amounts to match your printed copy.

    Next, change the view from Graph to Annual. When you
    click in the blank spaces of the first column (categories), one of the icons that appears is
    a gear. If you click on the gear, there’s an option to copy the amount budgeted
    for January to the rest of the year. I did this for each category or item. The whole process didn't take long. 

    That should give you a replica of your December 2018 budget
    amounts; categories can then be further adjusted by month, as needed. 
  • mshigginsmshiggins SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2019
    UKR said:

    When you originally created your budget or when you extended you budget to a new year it should have already pre-populated the budget numbers for the entire year.

    To fine tune your budget, go into the Annual View.
    You can copy the budget values of a selected month for all categories and
    - either copy them forward to the rest of the year
    - retroactively apply them to the prior months of this year
    - or copy them over the entire year
    To do so click the "BUDGET" column header for the month that contains the monthly (already fine tuned) budget and decide on how to copy it forward / backward over the entire year.

    You can do the same copy forward / backward for a single category. Click on the budget amount in a month. Click the gear icon that shows after you selected the amount and select from the options.

    So, yes, you can set up a monthly budget that's your model for most of the year, populate it across all the months of the current year and then go in and fix the budget for those months where you have exceptional income or expenses, like year-end-bonus pay or annual home insurance payment.

    When you extend your budget into 2017 by clicking the right arrow in the "< 2016  >" button you will be asked about how to populate the new year's budget.



    If you're unsure on
    how to do something, you can find more information about a specific task,
    function, feature or report in Quicken Help.

    To access Quicken Help simply press the F1 key from anywhere in Quicken (or
    click Help in the Menu bar, then click Quicken Help).

    Use the Contents tab to see the available books in Quicken Help. Click on one
    of the books to open it. Click on a chapter to drill down to more
    details.

    Or use the Search tab to search using keywords, e.g., "buy
    security".

    Some Quicken view screens may have a yellow button with a question mark. Click
    it to get view - specific help.

    From C. D. Bales:

    "When I am in the 2018 annual view and click on the arrow in the header to switch to 2019, no questions came up about my preferences".


    If the real-world year is 2019 (for example), the first time you open a Quicken budget whose most current budget year is earlier than 2019, Quicken will automatically create a year 2019 budget (and a new budget for all years between the original budget year and 2019) ... without offering any options (meaning the default option will be used).


    To see the Add Budget (year) options, click the next-year arrow in your most current budget year: you can cancel the resulting dialog after viewing it.


    "Also, the budget that appeared only carried income categories & amounts over - everything else was totally different".


    When Quicken automatically created the 2019 budget in my Q2017 test file, all the 2019 categories and their budget amounts (income and expense) were exactly equal to the categories and budget amounts in the 2018 budget that was the source of the Copy - which is exactly what the default selection is when you manually initiate the creation of a new budget (year) by clicking the next-year arrow to a year that does not yet have a budget.


    If you're experiencing something different, you could try Validating a Quicken Copy of your data:

    _ File > File Operations > Copy

    _ Open the Copy

    _ File > File Operations > Validate and Repair

    _ Put a check mark in "Validate file"

    _ Click OK


    If the Validated Copy does not exhibit the problem, make that your regular Quicken file.
    Quicken user since Q1999. Currently using QW2017.
    Questions? Check out the  Quicken Windows FAQ list
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