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Question on Budget Report Window

was_a_guruwas_a_guru Member ✭✭
What is function of (difference between) the Budget drop down vs. the Budget Year drop down in terms of what the budget report displays? For instance what is displayed if I select Budget_2016 and Budget Year 2015 instead of Budget Year 2016. Any help appreciated. Thanks.

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Comments

  • UKRUKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2018
    What you're seeing there as "Budget - 2016" is just simply the name you gave the budget. It has nothing to do with the actual year, aka Budget Year that's selected using the next button. A single budget (by name) can extend over multiple years.

    You can change the Budget Name from the Planning tab, Budgets view.
    Click Budget Actions / View options / Edit Budget Name.
    Simply call it "Budget" or "Budget 1" or "My Budget".
  • bmciancebmciance SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2017
    You can have multiple years in each Quicken budget and you can have multiple Quicken budgets.  For example, my budget is just called "My budget" and includes the years 2014 - 2017 at this point.  I just keep adding another year rather than doing a whole new budget.  Those dropdowns give you the flexibility to do it either way in the reports.
  • was_a_guruwas_a_guru Member ✭✭
    edited January 2017
    Thanks. I played around and was able to understand better how the budget report is created. I create a new budget for each calendar year. This is because I adjust the budgeted amounts from year to year based on previous years income and expenditures and if I add new accounts or categories (i.e. a new loan, etc.)

    So when I create a budget report I see the following (see the attached screen shot):
    1. The column "Actual" totals are determined by the selected date range, my 2016 actual totals.
    2. The column Budget(ed) amounts are determined by the selected "Budget Year" drop-down, my 2015 budgeted amounts.
    3. The column "Categories" are determined by the selected "Budget" drop-down, my 2016 categories.

    I'm not sure why one would want to see one years/periods actual totals with a different years/periods budgeted amounts and a different years/periods categories but the flexibility is there if you want it.

    image 
  • Unknown Member
    edited October 2018
    I don't actually use the budgets very much (mostly just to test for other people), but I don't create new budgets in my Quicken data file, I just let it "extend" it into the next year.  If is just a little less "cluttered" that way.  Given that you are always doing the compare against one year, even if it is picking that year out of the "extended" years in a budget the only "benefit" I see is you just don't have a long list of budgets.

    All the budget numbers for given years will be separate.  So just like your creating of a new budget each year, when it extends into the next year the numbers for this year really have nothing to do with the ones from last year.

    Actually I did think of one reason for the extended budget and that is the rollover amounts.
    The rollover amounts will rollover to the next year for the "extended" year.
    That might something that people want depending on the category.

    I should note two things about "extending".  First off I have noticed that if you open say last year's budget in this year, Quicken is going to extend it into this year, and you can't stop it.
    Also if you extend the budget there is no function to "truncate" it.
  • Unknown Member
    edited October 2018
    P.S. I think in past years if would ask if I wanted to extend it or not when opened in the new year, but I just opened my budget in Quicken 2016 and it said it was creating (which is really "extended" the current budget), and it didn't give me a choice.
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