Setting up a budget for next year

MJGarry

I am trying to set up a budget for next year using this year’s actuals to date. I know my income is going to go up and I adjust the monthly income based on my income projection. However, each month shows a red bar indicating I'm making more than last year. So how do I reset the budget to show the new amount as the budget?

Same issue with expenses. I know certain expenses are going to increase next year (taxes Insurance utilities etc.). I edit the monthly expense for next year for each month. I get a red bar showing the increased amount as over budget. How can I be over budget when I'm setting the amount as the budget? For example, an expense goes from $100 per month to $110 per month. The monthly total shows $10 over budget (red) and the year shows $120 over budget (red).

I also want to add expenses that were not previously budgeted. I added the category and the estimated expense for next year. It shows each as over budget for the entire expense.

In short, how do you adjust a budget going forward for a new amount with the new amount being the budget amount? I don't want to have to create a new budget from scratch each year or each time I change different amounts.

Scooterlam

Just a hunch, check to see if your "show reminders" is turned on or off. When I extended my 23 budget they were turned back on which caused some head scratching. This is on the gear icon pulldown.

Chris_QPW

Are you talking about this red bar?

For these Quicken isn't comparing to your 2023 estimates provided this is showing 2024:

To explain what might be going on, let's first start with what the actuals for the 2024 are, they are your reminders. There clearly aren't any real actuals in 2024 yet. As such, if you turned off showing the reminders the bar should go to grey (Budget Actions → View options → include reminders).

The next important thing to know is that the red bar is comparing the balances, which might not be what you expect.

Look at the Balance total at the bottom of the month to see if it is negative (gives red bar) or zero or positive (gives green bar)

MJGarry

Thanks Kathryn

UKR

Typically, you extend your current budget to the next year, within the same budget table. There is no need to create a new budget table from scratch unless you're planning on a major revision for next year.
To extend the budget, you can do so by waiting until you use the budget feature for the first time in the new year. Or you can extend the table anytime throughout the year by working with the Annual View and clicking the ">" button to switch to the next year. This will give you this popup. Select from the options shown.

Once the budget has been extended, work with the January 2024 budget column.
Define for each category how much you want to budget for January.
To copy the budgeted amounts forward to all other months in 2024 click the "v" triangle in the January column header choose from the options:

MJGarry

Yep that what I did to create / extend the budget to next year. The issue and my question is how do you get rid of the red bar? I change the budget amounts in the comming year mostly increasing the expenses (yep prices keep going up). Quicken keep showing me that I have overspent my budet. It is comparing my 2024 estimates to my 2023 estimates and saing I have exceeded my budget. I want to make the new budget the new baseline. Then I'm going to want to change the 2024 budget amount as amounts become known. When I do that I am going to want that amount to become the new baseline.

Scooterlam

Just a hunch, check to see if your "show reminders" is turned on or off. When I extended my 23 budget they were turned back on which caused some head scratching. This is on the gear icon pulldown.

Chris_QPW

Are you talking about this red bar?

For these Quicken isn't comparing to your 2023 estimates provided this is showing 2024:

To explain what might be going on, let's first start with what the actuals for the 2024 are, they are your reminders. There clearly aren't any real actuals in 2024 yet. As such, if you turned off showing the reminders the bar should go to grey (Budget Actions → View options → include reminders).

The next important thing to know is that the red bar is comparing the balances, which might not be what you expect.

Look at the Balance total at the bottom of the month to see if it is negative (gives red bar) or zero or positive (gives green bar)

MJGarry

Yep it was the reminders that were causing the problems. Thanks

Kathryn See

Yep…the reminders are the first thing I check when encountering a problem in my budget. Usually, you'll find the problem there.

MJGarry

Thanks Kathryn