How does the Calculate Average Budget function work for irregular expenses?

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THEmikehd
THEmikehd Member ✭✭✭
in Budgeting and Planning Tools (Windows)
The average calculated is significantly higher than what I would calculate manually for irregular expenses (not monthly).

For example, I had two expenditures last year for auto insurance for a total of $1400. The planning tool (Calculate Average Budget) suggests ~$202 for my monthly budget for 2022. If you do the math, the average is ~$116/month, based on 12 months.

The help section for this function indicates that the averaging period is over 12 months, yet the result doesn't match this.

When I look at a category with monthly expenditures, like Auto Fuel, the average works out correctly.

I can work around this, but thought I'd throw it out to the community to see if any insights can be had.
Mike - Quicken Deluxe - latest version always

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  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
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    I only changed the date on my machine to prove that was the bug.  They shouldn't be calculating this year to date, it doesn't make sense.  At least that is my opinion on it.
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  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
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    I can hardly believe what they are doing, here is what I'm seeing.



    Actuals for this year (and none in this category for the last two months in last year just in case).
    1253/12 = $104.41.


    So how do they get $104.41?
    divide 1253/10 = 125.3

    But surely that can't be it, right?
    Well lets see we are in the 11 months, so there are 10 months before this one...
    Set date to August 11, 2021 and look at their estimate.


    1253/7 = 179.
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  • THEmikehd
    THEmikehd Member ✭✭✭
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    Thanks @Chris_QPW for checking this out.

    So in conflict with the help file, it appears that the average is for the "year to date"? I'm not clear as to where you're changing the date.

    Even the popup chart when you click the "monthly average" shows a year's worth of transactions.

    In my example above, the average would have to be over a span of 7 months to get their Calculated Average Budget. Which is the amount of time between the two expenditures (4/30/21 and 10/28/21).

    It's the simple things in this app that seem to cause me the most issues. It at least should behave like the help file describes.
    Mike - Quicken Deluxe - latest version always
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
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    I only changed the date on my machine to prove that was the bug.  They shouldn't be calculating this year to date, it doesn't make sense.  At least that is my opinion on it.
    Signature:
    This is my website: http://www.quicknperlwiz.com/
  • THEmikehd
    THEmikehd Member ✭✭✭
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    Agreed, not expected nor desired. Is there a formal channel to submit these types of bugs?
    Mike - Quicken Deluxe - latest version always
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
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    Yes,  Help -> Report a problem
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  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
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    BTW if you think about it, for the repeating expense, what they are doing does make sense.
    Which might imply that they need two options (and better documentation!).

    If all I have is on month of expenses, I can take that month's expenses and push it out for the year.  If I have 3 months of expenses now you would want to have an average of those 3 months and push that value to the rest of the year.

    But given operations like create budget for next year, then clearly this kind of operation should be looking at last year or at least at the last 12 months, not at year to date.
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  • THEmikehd
    THEmikehd Member ✭✭✭
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    I reported the bug via the Help>report a problem link in the app. I hope that they will deal with it in a way that provides a useful average budget value and not just update the help file to reflect how it currently works, or even better provide a few ways to calculate it like you describe.
    Mike - Quicken Deluxe - latest version always
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