"it records it as a transfer, and a $500 budget expense, but it does not
think there is $500 budgeted for it."

Do you have a recurring paycheck with this transfer or a separate transfer
setup in Bills & Deposits so that Money can know about this at the time you
setup the budget? If so, Money should a) see the item as part of the budget
and b) see the item as part of the actuals--you report it is already doing
this.

how to 1) set up a transfer as a budget expense?

401k contributions are NOT an expense. They don't make you richer or poorer.
Think of it as transferring money from one pocket to the other. Budgeting is
trying to answer the two questions: are my planned income and expenses in
balance? are my experienced income and expenses meeting the plan?

how to 2) tell "Transfers out of budget accounts" what transfers go into
that budget group

Why wouldn't all transfers out of budget accounts belong there? The setting
for what account is a budget account is in each Account Settings page. Some
accounts (retirement, IIRC) do not have such a setting since the definition
contradicts with using it as a budget account.

how to 3) get my 401k account to show up as an eligible account for my
budget?

Don't think you can. Not sure why you'd want to unless you just can't come
to grips with the way Money is depicting things now.

"T-Shirt" <T-Shirt[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E0BBE5E0-9906-4D19-8583-90B6E4EDE70D[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

If anyone can help here, I'd greatly appreciate it. I use the Money 2006
advanced budget, and in each of my paychecks, I contribute to a 401k. My
paycheck is categorized as "Paycheck", and then I deduct taxes, pre-tax
items, etc. One of the pre-tax items is 401k, and it is categorized as
"Transfer: 401k" It then moves that amount into the associated cash account
for the 401k.

So far, so good.

In my advanced budget, under expenses, as far as I can tell, there is no way
to setup a transfer. There is a budget group entitled "Transfers out of
budget accounts", and my transfers show up there in the budget report, but
there is no way to tell this budget expense category that the 401k transfer
belongs in it. In other words, if I put $500 into my 401k by transferring it
out of my paycheck, it records it as a transfer, and a $500 budget expense,
but it does not think there is $500 budgeted for it.

Money 2006 knows to use my 401k account as a budget account (it is checked
in account settings, but grayed out) and that does not help either. In
fact, when I try to selct my 401k account as a budget account from the "Edit
budget\Select accounts" option, my 401k account is not there.

Can anyone tell me how to 1) set up a transfer as a budget expense, 2) tell
"Transfers out of budget accounts" what transfers go into that budget group,
and 3) get my 401k account to show up as an eligible account for my budget?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Best Regards,

Michael Tschirret