How to enter transactions used to budget income into a savings account using "Tags".

MJNowinski

On a monthly basis I receive retirement income and automatically enter them into my Checking Account. A couple of days later I want to transfer a fixed amount from my Checking Account into my Savings Account using "Tags" to assign dollar values for different annual budget categories such as Life Insurance, Car Insurance, etc.

What is good procedure to accomplish this?

Thanks very much,
Mike N

dpaulsims

@MJNowinski Mike, please explain how you want to reconcile the budgeted amount to the amount spent. Would it be okay to produce a report that shows a zero-sum balance for each of the tags? In that case, tag the amount transferred and use the same tag against each expense in your checking account. Create a "Spending -> Itemized Tags" report for all spending categories you want to track, showing the tagged amounts. Does that make sense? In the report, you can limit the entries to only the tagged transactions. I use tags to keep track of money family members and friends owe us. It's a slightly different application, but it works in a similar way. The reports show a zero-sum balance when people have paid us, just as your report will show a zero-sum balance if the expenditures equal the budgeted amount.