What is the "Difference" in the upper right corner of budgets supposed to represent?

drumsdb

Several questions related to my primary.

1) What is the "Difference" in the upper right corner of budgets supposed to represent?
** If this is supposed to be Income-Expenses for the date range (Full Year), why doesn't it match the total shown when I edit the budget.

2) Can you change the date range on this to YTD instead of full year?

John_in_NC

1. Correct-it is the difference for the entire year. The only time it will match the values in the Edit Budget screen is the beginning of a new (budget) year and you have yet to enter any transactions affecting it. 

2. You cannot change the amount shown in the upper right. You can however, show year to date in the Yearly summary that you can show at the left.

Make sure you have the annual summary shown by clicking on the toggle icon at the top of the budget (highlighted in red). Then, click on the dropdown to choose to show Budget YTD Totals.

drumsdb

John,
Thanks for the response. I'm good on point #2 and use that function. However, I'm still not clear on the first answer.

Is this supposed to be the PROJECTION of full year Income - Expense? Meaning for any closed or any progress month, it uses actuals... but future months use all budgeting value?

John_in_NC

Hi again, drumsdb:

I wouldn't call it a "projection" as it is using actual values for future months. And you likely have no (or few) posted transactions, so those are figured as $0. (Your budget in Edit mode is using all "goals" and not actuals when coming up with its difference.)

You can go ahead and enter a transaction that will affect the budget in a future month. You will see the Difference change accordingly. Don't forget to delete the transaction if you try.