Ah, now I see: No, I haven't been budgeting the reimbursement income--I
guess because it's not scheduled regularly, and because I didn't think of it!
Duh. Thanks for explaining!

"Dick Watson" wrote:

- quote -

I guess I don't understand. If you budget spending, say, $200 per month for
"Healthcare : Chiropractor" and you spend it, and you budget $150 per month
from "Other Income : Insurance Reimbursement" and you receive it, how does
that result in being over spent? Are you trying to budget only the $50
expense? Sure, you had higher expenses than that. By $150. You also had
income. If you budgeted that as well, then you will hit both targets. In
this scenario, your budget should reflect the holistic picture of what comes
in and goes out, not just how much you "felt like" you spent.

"dragonwing" <dragonwing[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5680BA99-F9B9-4A7E-BBD6-D4EA385C3C00[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

At the moment, this is how I've been doing it:

- quote -

But if I'm using the Budget to get a handle on spending and learn to watch
spending more and save more, this isn't really helpful--not if the Budget
Planner tells me I've overspent in this category (and/or others) when, in
fact, when it all balances out and I've allowed for reimbursements, I haven't
"spent" that amount at all.

I admit to being thoroughly confused.

"Dick Watson" wrote:

- quote -

As usual with an AB question, the answer need more nuance than that.

My testcase was a $1,000 expense scheduled monthly and a $250 deposit
against the same category scheduled monthly.

Auto AB shows a $1,000 monthly expense and no monthly income when editing
the budget. When you get to the Budget Summary page, however, it shows the
correct $750 budgeted amount--even though when editing the budget it never
showed the $250 anywhere. Go figure.

There's a reason my general rule is to not even attempt to answer Budgeting
questions...

"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:OMk362gAHHA.2276[at]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
- quote -

You are on one of the correct tracks. As to budget, the only real issue is
dependent on how it's getting in your budget. If you have the initial, full,
payment scheduled, Money will think it should budget for that amount. If you
also have the reimbursement scheduled, *as a credit to the original expense
category*, you'd like to think that Advanced Budget, nee Budget Planner,
would be smart enough to figure it should budget the net expense for that
category. You'd be wrong. At least in M07, and I think other versions, it
just auto-budgets in expense but ignores the scheduled negative expense.
There doesn't seem to be any way around this as M07 refuses to let you put
in a negative amount as a hand-entered budgeted expense. Basically AB is
lame in lots of ways. So I try to avoid messing with it. Can't say as I've
tested this in Essential Budget or S&S Budget.

The alternate track is to schedule/budget/record these as separate expense
(e.g., "Healthcare : Chiropractor") and income (e.g., "Other Income :
Insurance Reimbursement") amounts. This is also Not Wrong, though you may
find it reports a disconcerting amount of medical expense and other income
that you'd rather just wash away.

"dragonwing" <dragonwing[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:72FCEA39-981C-4A64-AF30-66DB360FB078[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

That's not hard, in concept. Doing it best assumes you know in advance how
much you'll be reimbursed.

Create an asset account titled 'Insurance reimbursements due'. When you
write a check to the provider, use split details. Categorize the part
attributed to out-of-pocket as a medical expense. The part to be reimbursed
is 'transfer: insurance reimbursements due'. The former increases expense;
the latter increases the balance of the asset account.

When you get your reimbursement, deposit it to checking, categorized as
'transfer: insurance reimbursements due'. That increases your checking
balance and decreases the asset balance.

The trick is to keep all the expenses and reimbursements straight. At some
point you may have to enter a balancing transaction, categorized as medical
expense. Alternatively, edit all the expense checks retroactively, as you
get better information about what was your share and what the insurance
portion was. If you do, be extra careful not to change the net amount of
each check, or you'll cause your checking account to go out of balance.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL



"dragonwing" <dragonwing[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:72FCEA39-981C-4A64-AF30-66DB360FB078[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

Let's say I see a chiropractor once a week. He's not in my system, so I pay
him in full. Presumably, that's an expense. Then, every month or so, I get
a superbill from him and send it in to my insurance company, and finally get
reimbursed for a good chunk of the expense. So... It seems to me that I have
a handle on that cash-flow-wise--after all, I have to pay in full, so I have
to make sure I've got the cash to handle that, and it's helpful to see where
my cash rises and falls. But what about the budget? In a way, isn't only
the non-reimbursed part of the bill an actual expense? If so, how do I
account for that in Money's budget program? And if not, why not?

As always, thanks in advance for help/advice/explanations!