Yearly question: budget start date and topping

Steve Jordi

Hi,
Like every year, I come here to check whether Quicken has eventually implemented two essential $10 shareware-like features in its budget tool....

1) Has Quicken eventually implemented a way to set a budget fill/rollover date other than the first of the month?
For people who get paid twice a month, or for, say, people who get their check on the 26th of the month...
For those people, a budget doesn't start on the 1st of the month and they're left in the dark for the 5 remaining days of the month. This is ridiculous. A budget is an adjustable window, not a static one.

2) Budget topping: if you budget 150 each month, say, for gas, and you have 100 left, the next budget period should be topped by 50 so you have 150 instead of being topped by 150, leaving you with 250 than you then have to manually modify down back to 150.

Again. basic features... very basic.
Aren't they supposed to be the accounting and budgeting professionals out there in the crowd?

Thanks for any hopefully positive answer in 2020.
Steve J

jacobs

No, neither of those changes have been implemented. I think the latter (monthly rollovers) will come in time as they make additional improvements to budgets that began earlier this year with being able to select accounts to include in a budget. There is an Idea thread for this feature which has been marked as "Under Consideration."

Your first issue (budgeting by pay periods rather than months) seems to me to be unlikely to be implemented. (That's just my assessment; I'm just a fellow user and have no inside knowledge). While people's pay periods vary, most expenses are monthly -- loan payments, rent, electric, cable, cell phone, credit cards, etc. -- with dues dates that vary through the month. It seems to me if you adjusted a budget around the day you got paid, you'd solve one problem but create others with which bills are due when. For instance, I get paid biweekly, which means two paychecks 10 months a year and 3 paychecks in two months a year. I can adjust my budget for the extra income in the two months that have an additional paycheck.

jacobs

No, neither of those changes have been implemented. I think the latter (monthly rollovers) will come in time as they make additional improvements to budgets that began earlier this year with being able to select accounts to include in a budget. There is an Idea thread for this feature which has been marked as "Under Consideration."

Your first issue (budgeting by pay periods rather than months) seems to me to be unlikely to be implemented. (That's just my assessment; I'm just a fellow user and have no inside knowledge). While people's pay periods vary, most expenses are monthly -- loan payments, rent, electric, cable, cell phone, credit cards, etc. -- with dues dates that vary through the month. It seems to me if you adjusted a budget around the day you got paid, you'd solve one problem but create others with which bills are due when. For instance, I get paid biweekly, which means two paychecks 10 months a year and 3 paychecks in two months a year. I can adjust my budget for the extra income in the two months that have an additional paycheck.

Steve Jordi

Jacob,
Thanks for your input. I totally understand your points.
But a lot of friends also tell me that they don't use Quicken because it's 1st to last day of the month.
In my case, I get the check on the 26th and pay all the monthly bills on the 27th.
And my budget for each category runs from the 27th to the next 26th.

I may send the two points as suggestions.

Thanks for your help
Steve

jacobs

@Steve Jordi  So what would go wrong if your budget followed the calendar month? As of the end of the month, your actual income versus budget would be accurate and your actual expenses versus budget would be accurate. Whether you got paid on the first of the month or the 26th, the end result is the same; whether you pay your bills on the 3rd, throughout the month, or all on the 27th, the end result is the same. 

Steve Jordi

My counters are reset to zero on the 26th.
The idea is envelope budgeting. So each budget category is refilled to the expected monthly amount.
If this occurs on the 1st of the month, I don't have the correct picture for about 5-6 days before the new month.
But it's fine. I wrote a software for myself. If time permits, I'll add all the features I need
Thanks again.

Jackfe

I have been paid on the 10th of the month for 40 ++ years. I have developed my budget using the Apple Numbers App and I track my spending from the 10th to the 9th on successive months. By using a spreadsheet I have to transfer expenditures and credits by manually entering the data into the spreadsheet. I have been a quicken user since the early 1990's, I believe version 3 for Windows and transferred to Quicken for Mac when I purchased my first Mac in 2009. It would really be appreciated if the start and end date could be adjusted.