expenses don't show up in budget report

mk102

I generated a budget. I thought when I reconciled my account the various debits and credits would show up in my budget and give me balances but my budgeted figures aren't there. All that appears are the various debits and credits. What am I doing wrong?

Michael Jones

First, the budget report doesn't have anything to do with reconciliation.  As soon as you put a transaction in a register against a budget category, it will show in the budget report.  Reconciliation is only so you make sure your accounts are in line with your financial institution and you aren't missing any transactions.  

Second, the budget report has a bunch of filters that you can manipulate to show it in various ways depending on how you set things up. The default report will show budgeted only categories for instance and not necessarily real spending if you spent money in non-budgeted categories.  

So first, check that you are looking at a timeframe on the default budget report screen that has the items in it in question you are looking.  Sometimes the report will default to last month, to date, or something other than the timeframe you are looking for.  

Another set of filters to try after opening the budget report is then going to the cog wheel in the top right corner.  Check each tab and make sure the accounts you want to see are checked (in accounts), the categories you want to see are checked (i leave mine as all checked), same with Payees and tags (I leave those all checked as well which is the default).  The last tab Advanced has probably the 3 most important options at the bottom of this whole dialog which is Transfers (I personally exclude internal), SubCategories (I personally have Show All), and Categories (for which I have Non-Zero Actual/Budgeted).  

If you make any of those changes in the cog wheel menu to get what you want to see, then you need to save a copy of the report using the disk icon that's two to the left of the cog wheel.  You can name it and it will show up in My Saved Reports and Graphs on the report menu.  You can also pin it as an icon on the icon bar to run your copy of the report vs the default.

Michael Jones

First, the budget report doesn't have anything to do with reconciliation.  As soon as you put a transaction in a register against a budget category, it will show in the budget report.  Reconciliation is only so you make sure your accounts are in line with your financial institution and you aren't missing any transactions.  

Second, the budget report has a bunch of filters that you can manipulate to show it in various ways depending on how you set things up. The default report will show budgeted only categories for instance and not necessarily real spending if you spent money in non-budgeted categories.  

So first, check that you are looking at a timeframe on the default budget report screen that has the items in it in question you are looking.  Sometimes the report will default to last month, to date, or something other than the timeframe you are looking for.  

Another set of filters to try after opening the budget report is then going to the cog wheel in the top right corner.  Check each tab and make sure the accounts you want to see are checked (in accounts), the categories you want to see are checked (i leave mine as all checked), same with Payees and tags (I leave those all checked as well which is the default).  The last tab Advanced has probably the 3 most important options at the bottom of this whole dialog which is Transfers (I personally exclude internal), SubCategories (I personally have Show All), and Categories (for which I have Non-Zero Actual/Budgeted).  

If you make any of those changes in the cog wheel menu to get what you want to see, then you need to save a copy of the report using the disk icon that's two to the left of the cog wheel.  You can name it and it will show up in My Saved Reports and Graphs on the report menu.  You can also pin it as an icon on the icon bar to run your copy of the report vs the default.