Budeting monthly savings on Mac 2019

jlimato@

How do I budget for a monthly savings deposit (like paying myself each month) moving from my checking to my savings.  It doesn't show on budget report. My transaction category is my Savings account...  What am I missing?  Thanks

John_in_NC

You could try the dual entry of the transaction in each account, and not indicate it is a transfer (either via the Transfer column or using that [Account Name] shortcut.)

The catch is that it must have different categories on each side of the mock transfer. The one going out of your checking (the expense) would be tracked in your budget, while the savings account side would not be.

I have never tried this, so I don't know if that auto-transfer detection logic would bow up. But, I don't think it will.  You will have to try it.

John_in_NC

At this time, you cannot do this.

Transfers are not included in the budget because no spending/income is occurring. That is why the budget module is not seeing them. 

Being able to see transfers in the budget is supposedly on the developer's roadmap.

jlimato@

Any suggested work arounds?

jlimato@

Thanks for your reply, BTW.

Do you think a reasonable work around can be just recording transfers as payments with "budget-able” categories, rather than using the account in the category?  eg. $200 monthly payment to Savings.  Savings will be a category rather than [SavingsAcct].  It would require double entry of the transaction, though, for both Checking and Savings — unless when I sync my savings with my bank, it will already contain my transfer. (I will have to make sure the category for that transfer is Transfer[SavingsAcct] so not think it's income..  Thoughts?  Thanks again.

John_in_NC

You could try the dual entry of the transaction in each account, and not indicate it is a transfer (either via the Transfer column or using that [Account Name] shortcut.)

The catch is that it must have different categories on each side of the mock transfer. The one going out of your checking (the expense) would be tracked in your budget, while the savings account side would not be.

I have never tried this, so I don't know if that auto-transfer detection logic would bow up. But, I don't think it will.  You will have to try it.