Starting a budget with no previous year amounts

mezzeta

I can't figure out how to create a budget with NO previous year data. I want to start at January 1, 2019 as a starting date with no history. Am I missing something?

John_in_NC

It isn't obvious, but you can in Quicken for Mac:

1. Create a New Budget with 1/2018 as the starting date. (Yes, a year old)
2. Once created, change the "Budget as of" date to 2019 (select the year and hit the up arrow
3. You will then be prompted how to create values for the 2019 budget. Select the "Zeros values" option

You will now have a zeroed out budget for 2019.

Quicken Sarah

Hello @mezzeta

Thank you for taking the time to share your question with the Community, although I apologize that you have not yet received a response.

When creating a Budget, Quicken for Mac, as a default, will automatically gather your last 12 months of transaction data and build the budget based off the data in your Quicken file.

Once the Budget has been created, it may be edited to add/remove categories and budget values.  More information is also available at https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-mac-12-month-budget-overview-and-getting-started.

Thank you,

Sarah

mshiggins

From C. D. Bales:
I'm a Quicken for Windows user, so what I do may not work in the Mac version.

I started by telling Quicken to create a New budget - which comes with amounts computed from pervious period's actual transactions.

I edited that budget to remove all categories. I named that budget "Empty Budget".

Now when I want to create a new budget with "no previous year amounts", I do this:

- Open "Empty Budget"
- Copy "Empty Budget" to a new budget
- Give the new budget a name of my choice
- Customize the new budget to include desired categories
- Assign budget amounts to selected categories as necessary

I never actually use "Empty Budget", it stays permanently empty: it's only used to create a new duplicate empty budget.

[You could use one or more variations on that theme to create various beginning budgets with certain categories selected, but no amounts included.]

John_in_NC

It isn't obvious, but you can in Quicken for Mac:

1. Create a New Budget with 1/2018 as the starting date. (Yes, a year old)
2. Once created, change the "Budget as of" date to 2019 (select the year and hit the up arrow
3. You will then be prompted how to create values for the 2019 budget. Select the "Zeros values" option

You will now have a zeroed out budget for 2019.