Monthly Budget rollover does not work

I cannot get monthly budget roll to work. Has someone successfully setup monthly budget rollover and be able to explain the process?

Answers

  • Myself as well. Decided to try that feature this year (2022) and....nothing. I'm open to the possibility of it being operator error but...?
  • Scooterlam
    Scooterlam SuperUser, Windows Beta Beta
    Do you see the green rollover icon displayed in either Annual view or Graph view?  See images.  Or have you made a rollover selection from the menu and it appears not working as expected?  Or something else?  Please elaborate.   

    From Quicken Help> https://help.quicken.com/display/WIN/Work+with+a+budget  Reference "Use rollover categories" section.

    Rollover icon in Annual View


    Rollover icon in Graph View

  • Saw it and clicked the second option on numerous, not all, categories as I was setting up my 2022 budget late last year. Yet, no rollover happened today (2/1/22) from January, at least that I can tell. As an example, one of my categories I have budgeted at $200 each month. None was used in January so I would expect to see that zeroed out for January and $400 now being shown for February. Instead, I see $200 for January and $200 for February. Same as it was when I set it up. Am I missing something?
  • Scooterlam
    Scooterlam SuperUser, Windows Beta Beta
    edited February 2022
    So Quicken budget doesn't "zero out" (or otherwise adjust your prior and current category budget figure based on your under or overspend, when using the rollover feature.   

    If you go to Annual View and select Details in the adjacent pull-down, you will see that Quicken uses the Balance column to "accrue" to the next month any over or under spend in the prior month, based on your rollover option selection.  Image 1.    In your example, you should see $400 rolled forward in the balance column for February.  So, in February, you have $400 to spend, even though your Budget column shows $200. 

    Rollover is useful when you know you have category expenses but not sure exactly when they will hit and/or how much they will be.   

    Excerpts from the Budget help link I gave above post are shown in Images 2/3. 

    <edit>
    the help link is currently throwing strange errors...  You can access same help content in-app by clicking into the rollover icon and selecting "rollover help".

     
      











  • saajjata
    saajjata Member
    That seems like Quicken is just adding and subtracting monthly, but not keeping real time information. Example, when I run a budget report for Jan. 2022, it will appear that I ran at plus budget, then any excess will rollover to Feb. 2022. Without correcting Jan budget totals to actual, it will skew all budget totals; like you have have created or lost money in the budget
  • Scooterlam
    Scooterlam SuperUser, Windows Beta Beta
    edited February 2022
    @saajjata Okay,  you're referring to the "current budget" report?   If so,  correct that this report shows only difference between budget v. actual and not rollover balance, like in the Annual Details window I showed in the prior post.   

    <edit>  added current budget report example


    Not sure why Quicken has done this but, there is an current change request (Idea Post), if you would like to vote on it and make comment, here:  https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7862121/budget-report-to-include-rollovers-3-legacy-votes

    Is there a reason you prefer the current budget report vs. the budget window, detail view that does show how rollovers are working?
  • Not keeping real time information - exactly the phrase I was looking for. I can see what Scooterlam is referring to but my impression (hope actually) was that in utilizing the rollover option I would see these rollovers reflected in the Current budget report.
  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Not keeping real time information - exactly the phrase I was looking for. I can see what Scooterlam is referring to but my impression (hope actually) was that in utilizing the rollover option I would see these rollovers reflected in the Current budget report.
    That's not correct. The budget's Actual column is updated with every properly categorized transaction as soon as it is recorded. There's no monthly rollover background action because it's not necessary.
    At the start of a new year you may have to review the amount of rollover from last year and decide if you want to start the new year from zero or continue with the rollover amount from last year.
    The math starts in January with: December Balance + Jan Budget - Jan Actual = Jan Balance
    And in February it continues:      Jan Balance + Feb Budget - Feb Actual = Feb Balance
    and so on for the remainder of the year
    The individual Budget amounts are not updated by Quicken every month. It's the Balance column which shows if you're over or under budget for the year so far.
    If you allow future reminders to be shown as Actual amounts in future months as if they had already happened you will be able to see if you budgeted enough for the year.

  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    There are several inconsistencies between the Graph View, the Annual View, and the reports.

    Reports don't include reminders or rollovers.  The result is that you can't directly compare them.
    Here is an example with historical report (note my current report is messed up) showing that the report doesn't take the rollover into account.




    Note that the February balances come out different.  This is because the Annual view took into account the -8 and the report didn't.


    Here is an example of the reminders being taken into account in the annual view, but not in the report:




    And just for grins here is the Current Budget report:


    Where is got a budget number of 10.14 for February I have no idea...
    Actually, I do!  The report "prorates" the budget numbers.
    141.97 / 28 (days) = 5.07 times 2 days in February = 10.14.
    Signature:
    This is my website: http://www.quicknperlwiz.com/
  • saajjata
    saajjata Member
    I will go back to the method I've always used, edit my budget based on spending and just make sure my yearly totals remain the same after editing; I was hoping rollover would alleviate this task. With that said maybe Quicken should add that functionality into the software.
  • Looks like I'll need to go back to the old fashioned way myself until and unless Quicken figures out how to allow the current budget report to reflect rollovers.
This discussion has been closed.