Budget category over then reimbursed

Question

I'm not even sure if these questions are for the budget category community or should be under a different heading.  I set up a budget category for orthodontics last year.  We budgeted $2500.  It's actually roughly $4000.  Then we decided to pay the bill in full (category now overbudget), and receive a small discount from Dr.   And then we'll be getting reimbursed a certain amount from insurance as monthly or every 6 weeks payments for the duration of the treatment.  I set this all up in 2020.  I"m not really sure how to proceed with this category for 2021 since it's paid off (sort of).  But we're receiving insurance checks.  Do I add those checks to checking and categorize them as "misc income" or should a make a separate category for them?  Would I just not budget orthodontics for this year, since its paid off?  How do you handle budgeted items that get reimbursed slowly, over two years?  Maybe it should just be left off the budget?

Tom Young · Answer

You paid a bunch of money and accounted for it using a Category called "Orthodontics." Now, over time, you're going to get some of this money back and the "most correct" accounting is to use that same Orthodontics Category.  From a budgeting perspective I see no reason why you would budget for this refund, too.