Current Budget Report - Budget Column Incorrect

Chris Harris

Greetings,

I'm having a problem with the "Current Budget" report and I'm not sure why. The "Actual" column accurately shows spending for the time period while the "Budget" column is incorrect. In the screen shot, the "Budget" column for "Food & Dining ~ Eating In" should be $500 but shows $33.33 instead. All of the other values in the actual column are incorrect as well.

In case its important, I enter transactions at the subcategory level (Groceries), but budget at the top level (Food & Dining ~ Eating In) and only top level categories are included in my budget. No transactions during this time period were entered at the top level category.

These are my categories.

Food & Dining ~ Eating In
- Groceries
- Milk
- Filtered Water

I'm not sure what to check.


Year: 2019
Version: R18.16
Build: 27.1.18.16

Jim_Harman

Aha! The "Month to date" date range you have selected for the report pro-rates the monthly budget based on the current date. Today is the 2nd so 2/30 * $500 = $33.33

I bet if you choose Monthly instead you will see the whole month's budget. 

mshiggins

From C. D. Bales:
I believe your budget column is correct - it appears to be working as designed.

When you choose a named date range ending in "... to date", Quicken pro-rates your budget amounts ... to the current date. The displayed budget amount of $33 is about what you should expect for two days of a month when the budget for the month is $500.

If you want to see your actuals compared to the budget for a full report period, avoid the " ... to date" date ranges. In your case, try the date range, "Monthly".

Jim_Harman

If you go to Tools >  Category list, have you set up extra Category Groups and assigned some subcategories to different groups? For example I have assigned some expense subcategories to a group called "Needs".

That can make the budget report confusing because the top level categories appear twice.  If you have done this, try clicking the gear to customize the report and on the Display tab next to Organization, pick "Category Group"

Chris Harris

Hi Jim,

I do have custom Category Groups (see screenshot) in my budget although all the categories for food share the same group. I went into the report settings and filtered the report down just to my "Family - Food (10-15%)" category group and I still get the same result (see screenshot). The "Budget" column shows $33.33 when it should be $500; the amount I have my budget set to. I can't guess what the $33.33 represents although it is certainly very specific.

Thank you for your assistance.

Jim_Harman

Aha! The "Month to date" date range you have selected for the report pro-rates the monthly budget based on the current date. Today is the 2nd so 2/30 * $500 = $33.33

I bet if you choose Monthly instead you will see the whole month's budget. 

mshiggins

From C. D. Bales:
I believe your budget column is correct - it appears to be working as designed.

When you choose a named date range ending in "... to date", Quicken pro-rates your budget amounts ... to the current date. The displayed budget amount of $33 is about what you should expect for two days of a month when the budget for the month is $500.

If you want to see your actuals compared to the budget for a full report period, avoid the " ... to date" date ranges. In your case, try the date range, "Monthly".

UKR

Chris Harris said:

Greetings,

...

In case its important, I enter transactions at the subcategory level (Groceries), but budget at the top level (Food & Dining ~ Eating In) and only top level categories are included in my budget. No transactions during this time period were entered at the top level category.

AFAIK ... you cannot budget at the top-level category and expect budget amounts to trickle down to the subcategory level. You need to budget individually at the subcategory level, so amounts can "roll up" to the top-level categories.

Chris Harris

Thank you Jim & mshiggens. That makes a lot of sense and when I changed it to the "Monthly" date range, the "Budget" column returned $500 as expected!

It did illuminate a related question though. Do either of you know how to make the "Difference" column display the actual rollover amount available to spend that month. For example, while my monthly budget for "Food & Dining ~ Eating Out" is set to $40, due to a previous month's overspending, I really only have $22 left to spend in that category (see screenshots).

I'm trying to set up this report for my wife who is not interested in learning Q.

Again, thank you both.

Jim_Harman

Chris Harris said:

 Do either of you know how to make the "Difference" column display the actual rollover amount available to spend that month. For example, while my monthly budget for "Food & Dining ~ Eating Out" is set to $40, due to a previous month's overspending, I really only have $22 left to spend in that category (see screenshots).

I don't think you can do that on the report, but if you go to the Planning > Budgets page and pick Annual view and Details, I think the Balance column is what you are looking for. In the monthly graph view, take a look at the column just to the right of the bar graph.

You can print either of these views by going to File > Print budgets (or Ctrl-P if that is grayed out) but the print formatting is a little funky.

Chris Harris

> @UKR said:
> Chris Harris said:
>
>> AFAIK ... you cannot budget at the top-level category and expect budget amounts to trickle down to the subcategory level. You need to budget individually at the subcategory level, so amounts can "roll up" to the top-level categories.

UKR, I've found that you can which was a surprise to me too. The key critical rule seems to be that you can't enter any transactions at the top-level. If even one is entered there, it throws the Monthly Average off in the Budget module (see screenshot).

Doing it this way means my budget is far shorter with fewer categories to consider. It also means I don't have to dink around with budgeting $5 for this sub-category and $10 for that sub-category. Instead, I just worry about the $15 budgeted at a top-level.