What I do to fix the timing problem ($100 budget in Jan, $100 budget in Feb,
but $200 actually paid in Feb) is adjust the transaction date to the month I
want the expense to hit. For example, I would make the Jan bill payment be
Jan 31, even it it was really paid Feb 1. This solves your problem. I do this
with merchandise returns as well. If I spend $200 at Costco on clothes in
March and return $150 of those clothes in April, I will make the transaction
date of the return March 31 and make note that it actually cleared in April.
While this make the date in Money slightly different from the true posting
date, it won't be by more than a few days at most and would allow you to
track your true expenses by month.

About your question on a YTD report, there is actually a report you can run
which would give you the true year-to-date rather than "current year" (all of
2007). If you go to Reports, you can choose to run the "Monthly Budget".
Click "customize" and choose the date values you want. You can then save that
report as a favorite.

Hope these suggestions help.

--
Regards,

Ryan


"Kevin M" wrote:

- quote -

If some expenses are foreseeable, such as a vacation in July, don't add it
to the budget category as 'other'. Instead, schedule a bill for that amount.
It will appear in the appropriate month. Check it out on the annual budget
report.

I think you can use the custom amounts when editing the expense category,
but that perpetuates year-to-year. A scheduled one-time expense does not.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

"April" <noreply[at]mail.com> wrote in message
news:uWRT4MhjHHA.4520[at]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Yes I have some funny scenarios in Advanced Budget Money 2004 to. Mine are
(1.) When using Autobudget function pulls up all income and expenditure but
the dialogue box shows Bank Charges: [subcategory blank]. This a category
and I dont think this should be displayed. I just delete this as it's not
part of recurring bills, it's just a Category (which has no amounts - it's
the subcategories which are the items required for the budget. (2.) Also,
only when I "Edit the Budget" function, I have noticed that Money picks up
one of my particular recurring bills and shows it as ZERO and there is not
'Money icon' showing it is a Withdrawl or bill. The strange thing is that
ALL my other recurring bills are showing the 'Money icon' indicating
Withdrawl or bil. But then... when I save the Budget, the ZERO is then
shown with the correct amount.

Please let me know your comments. Thank you.

I can edit it but then when viewing the 'Budgeted' amount, this is then
doubled.
"Vadim Rapp" <vr[at]nospam.myrealbox.com> wrote in message
news:%237MjYpLjHHA.1884[at]TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
- quote -

KM> I am trying to use Money 2007's budget summary. Here's my problem:
Let's say
KM> that I budget $100/month for my electric bill. I pay the Jan bill on
KM> Feb 1st, and the Feb bill on Feb 28th. The budget summary for last
KM> month (Jan) says that I am under-budget by $100; this month's budget
KM> summary says that I am over by $100. The current year summary says that
KM> I have spent $200 of my $1200 budget, and that I am under-budget for
KM> the year. Why is there no YTD option??? YTD I am ON budget!!!

Money treats everything monthly. There are even more stupid scenarios. For
example, I pay twice a year for car insurance. Money allows budgeting the
total amount per year, but then still shows about overspending in the 2
months when I pay, and underspending in all others. Same with property tax.
As Microsoft has explained, that per-year specification is only for
convenience, to help the user to divide the amount by 12; no other effects.
If the actual months are known, it's possible to specify them that way, but
there are so many other cases when expenditures are indeed not so regular -
like theater, for instance, or travel/vacation. Combined with the effect you
described, it makes 90% of all under/overspanding alerts totally false, and
therefore the budget practically useless. I think what would be very useful
is a field "pays for" in transactions, which would allow to specify the time
period paid by the transaction.

Vadim Rapp

While I don't recommend using it, the Advanced Budget has an option to the
effect of 'reallocate'. You can move money budgeted for January to
February. That would balance it. (I recommend using Advanced Budget; I do
not recommend reallocation. It's a pain.)

Alternatively, use the 'Monthly' Budget and select a YTD date range. That's
unintuitive, but approximates what you're looking for.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL



"Kevin M" <KevinM[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BBE3B681-E4D0-490B-91C2-023A40D591DB[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

I am trying to use Money 2007's budget summary. Here's my problem: Let's say
that I budget $100/month for my electric bill. I pay the Jan bill on Feb 1st,
and the Feb bill on Feb 28th. The budget summary for last month (Jan) says
that I am under-budget by $100; this month's budget summary says that I am
over by $100. The current year summary says that I have spent $200 of my
$1200 budget, and that I am under-budget for the year. Why is there no YTD
option??? YTD I am ON budget!!!
--
Kevin M