Q. What is the Envelope Method of Budgeting?
A. The idea behind this method is to use envelopes to divide your pay into categories, with each category targeted toward a specific expense. To use this system, you would obtain a stack of envelopes, and decide what expenses you wanted to budget for: for example, car payments, telephone bills, monthly rent, and so on. Then, one envelope would be allocated for each expense, and you would write the amount of the expense on the front of the envelope. Come pay-day, you would put the appropriate amount in each envelope. The money would then stay in the envelopes until the time came to pay the corresponding bill, at which point the funds would be taken out and used.
Home Budget makes this system electronic.
Q. Is there a tutorial or information on how to
quickly get started using Home Budget?
A. Yes. Click here for a Tutorial
Q. How many transactions will a Home Budget database handle?
A. The limit is only based on how much memory you have. Home
Budget has been tested with databases
that contain over 50,000 transactions.
Q. Do I need to purge out previous years information?
A. No. Since Home Budget is fast at handling its data, and
the range window provides you with just the view of the months
you need, you can leave all your data in one database. However,
backups are always a good idea.
Q. Does Home Budget implement a Double Entry system?
A. Yes when you enter a transaction under a expense account
and pay for it using a credit card, the transaction will be
double entered under both accounts.
Q. Can I extract data from an account to Excel spread sheet?
A. Yes you can use the "Export" function and select "comma
delimited" format. You can then import this file into
Excel.
Q. Can I change the date format to DD-MMM-YYYY?
A. Yes under the Windows control panel select regional icon
and then Date Tab. Enter dd-MMM-yyyy under the "Short
date style" box. Enter "-" under the Date separator
box. Then under Home Budget, Setup menu, choose options dialog
select the "Preferences" tab and check the box that
says "Use Windows regional setting".
Q. I don't understand Home Budget. How come when I deposit
into a Bank account and specify an expense account as the
source account - both accounts are Credited?
A. In Home Budget each Expense account is like an envelop
that holds money ready to pay a later expected expense. By
depositing money as above the specified expense account now
reserves that money. The bank account still reflect the true
amount actually in the account.
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