Yearly Budget Maximum Set at Beginning of Fiscal Period

JCC555

I'm not sure how to ask this question.

A friend of mine said he establishes at the beginning of the fiscal year the budget for a given category by entering initially the maximum amount available. Then, as his expenses occur, the budget amount decreases, and he can tell (dynamically?) how much money he has left in the category -- somewhat like, I take it, an envelope system.

Does this make sense to anyone? If so, how could one do it? And, why not simply use the budget aspect of Quicken? BTW, I am using Quicken 2013 Deluxe.

Thank you.

Chris_QPW

It has been a long time since I fired up Quicken 2013, so I'm not exactly sure of all the details.  I certainly know this can be done in Quicken Subscription, but it would be a bit cumbersome at each quarter.

Quicken's budget allows for "rollovers".  As in you can set a budget in the first month, and if you don't use it have it rollover into the next month.   And as such you would make sure everyone of your categories has a zero balance or a positive amount.  Each quarter you would have to go in and reset the rollover so that it doesn't flow into the next one.

JCC555

Thank you, Chris, for your response.

Question: Why " Each quarter you would have to go in and reset the rollover so that it doesn't flow into the next one."? Does the envelope system run via quarterly (re)adjustment?

Again, thank you.

Chris_QPW

Quicken's rollovers keep rolling over, and no nothing about "quarters".  The only reason I mentioned that you would have to reset the rollover is because it sounded like you wanted to restrict this to a number you set each quarter.

Chris_QPW

Here is an example of the use of a rollover.

JCC555

Got it. Thank you so much. Have a great day.