Biweekly Budgeting (17 merged votes)

BukChaser

@Chris_QPW

re biweekly budgeting (see below) - please, can you explain further as I could not see how to implement on my side in Quicken. Thanks.

Chris_QPW Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭October 2020For what it is worth I realized that one could actually do this in the current budget report (not the view).

If you set the custom dates to start on the day of your paycheck and then set the interval to two weeks, you should get what you want.

Jim_Harman

re biweekly budgeting (see below) - please, can you explain further as I could not see how to implement on my side in Quicken. Thanks.

@BukChaser

Set up your budget using the Planning > Budgets tab. Set up your ongoing bills and income using Reminders and the Paycheck Wizard.

Click on Reports at the top right of the Budgets tab and select Current budget.

Click on the gear at the top right to customize the report. On the Display tab, next to Date range, select select the date range you want to see. After the first interval, weeks start on Sunday, so you may want to set the start date to the Sunday before you receive your paycheck. Next to Column, select Two weeks.

Because the budget is set by month and the two week intervals do not line up with month boundaries, the report pro-rates the monthly budget amounts. The report does not carry over unspent amounts from the previous period, but there are overall totals in the last column

It is not perfect, but you might want to give it a try. Please let us know if you find it useful.

Also if you have your expected income and most expenses set up as Reminders, you can go to Quicken's Bills & Income tab in and select Projected Balances. This view is also available on the Home Tab. This will show whether any of the selected accounts will be overdrawn in the future. Another useful view of your cash flow is the In/Out/What's Left panel on the Home tab.

Another way that is often recommended for handling income and expense intervals that do not line up with the budget intervals is to keep a cash buffer of a month or more worth of expenses in your checking account.