About Budget
Budget
Budget helps you track your spending and keep to a budget.
Budget is an iPhone application that helps you track your spending and keep to a budget. You can easily see your total income and your total expenses for a period, plus which expenses you are spending the most on and which expenses you are going over budget on.
Features:
Transaction sharing between iPhones
Data Backup and Restore
Weekly/Bi-Weekly/Monthly/Twice a Month budgeting
Recurring Expenses/Incomes
Budget Rollover & Budget Transfer
Password Protection
CSV Data Export
Savings Report
Option to show the remaining budget for each category
Category sorting and customization
Currency Symbol based on iPhone’s Regional Format
Getting Started
To enter a transaction against a category tap on the total for the category.
To set your budget for a category tap on the name of the category and then tap on the budget button at the bottom of the screen.
The totals at the bottom of the main screen represent the budget and actual values for your Total Income, Total Expenses and Savings for the current period. The gray figures represent the budget totals and the black figures represent the actual totals.
Budget Help
Adding a transaction
To quickly enter a transaction for a category from the main screen tap on the total for the category. To enter a more detailed transaction (with description, date and notes) tap on the name of the category and then tap on the + button.
Setting a budget
To set the budget for a category from the main screen tap on the name of the category, then tap on the budget button at the bottom of the screen. Once you have set a budget it will automatically carry through into the next period.
Advanced Budgeting
To use advanced budgeting for a category tap on the name of the category, then tap on the Adv. Budget button at the bottom right of the screen. Advanced budgeting gives you more control of your budgets, allowing such features as weekly/bi-weekly/monthly/twice a month budgeting, and budgeting for future changes.
Advanced budgeting shows you a list of your budgets for a category. Each budget item has a start date and an end date. You can use the start and end date of budget items to sequence them. You may have a monthly budget of $20 that goes from the 1st of October 2008 to the 31st of January 2009, then a monthly budget of $30 that goes from the 1st of February 2009 onwards.
The start date of a budget item is important in determining how the budget recurs. For a weekly or monthly budget the budget will recur weekly or monthly from the start date. You can also make a budget recur every two weeks from the start date by setting the frequency to two. The start date of a budget with a period of twice a month determines the two days of the month that the budget will recur on. If the start date is the 1st then the budget will recur on the 1st and the 15th, if it is the 3rd then it will recur on the 3rd and the 17th.
Recurring Expenses
If you have a recurring expense or income that is the same each day/week/month/year, instead of entering the transaction each time, you can setup a recurring transaction (this can be done from the Recurring Transactions screen in the information section). When the Budget app starts any due recurring transactions will automatically be added.
There are two important dates recorded against each recurring transaction: start date and last occurrence. Start date determines when the very first recurrence should be added. Once this first occurrence has been added the next occurrence will be added for your chosen period after the last occurrence date. So if the item is scheduled to recur weekly it will be one week after the last occurrence date. Clearing the last occurrence date will cause the next occurrence to be on the start date. The start date is also used to determine the start of a twice a month period. If your start date is on the 1st then the twice a month recurrence will occur on the 1st and 15th, if it is on the 3rd it will be on the 3rd and 17th etc.
Backup / Restore
To backup your data tap on the (i) button at the bottom right of the main screen and then tap on Backup. Budget will backup your data into an email that you can then restore from at any time by tapping on the restore links in the email (which will open Budget). To complete a restore you must navigate to the restore screen and tap on the restore button.
Transaction Sharing between iPhones
If your wife/husband/partner has an iPhone and you want to transfer transactions between your iPhones you can use Share Transactions. This works in the same manner as a Backup and Restore. An email is sent containing your transaction data for a month. This email can then be loaded by the person you are sharing with and the data shared by tapping on the link in the email (which will open Budget). To complete the transaction sharing, the person you are sharing with must navigate to the Receive Transactions screen and tap on the Receive Transactions button.
Transactions will only be shared if their category exists on the receiver. Transaction sharing can be performed as many times as needed during a month as any existing transactions will not be not re-added.
Adding income transactions
To add an income transaction you need to add a transaction to an income category. By default the Salary & Wages category is an income category. You can create your own income categories by setting a category’s type to income.
Budget Rollover
If you turn budget rollover on for a category the difference between the category’s budget and actual total at the end of the period will be added to the category’s budget for the next period. This gives you the opportunity to spend any budget you didn’t spend in the previous period.
If your overall budget period is monthly, then your budgets will rollover at the end of each monthly period. If your overall budget period is weekly then your budgets will rollover each weekly period etc.
Choosing a budget period
By default the main screen in Budget reports your income and expenses for a month. This can be changed in the options screen so that your expenses and income are reported weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or twice a month.
The period start date in the options screen is used forwards and backwards to determine when a week/month/twice a month period starts. So if your budget period is monthly and the period start date is the 1st then Budget’s main screen will show transactions and budgets for an entire a month e.g. December 2008. If your budget period is monthly and the period start date is the 15th then Budget’s main screen will show transactions and budgets for each month starting on the 15th and ending on the 14th e.g. 15th December 2008 - 14th January 2009. The same rules apply for a weekly period, and twice a month. You can also set the frequency option to 2 if you need to budget bi-weekly, or bi-monthly.
This overall budget period affects the way your budgets for each category are displayed. You can setup your category budgets to also work weekly/bi-weekly/monthly etc. But if your category budget period does not match your overall budget period, your category’s budget will be converted into the overall budget period. So if your overall budget is monthly, but your Entertainment category’s budget is $100 weekly, then the $100 weekly will be converted into a monthly figure, approximately $442.
