The main window is your primary view of budget versus actual amounts. Here’s how to use it.
The main window shows your budget categories in their page and row order. If you have defined mutiple pages, the Back and Next buttons will navigate them.
The Flag column denotes whether a row has a note, adjustment or correction applied to it. A yellow flag means just a note, while a red flag means an adjustment or coreection has been applied.
Use the Columns button to hide or show columns so only the ones you care about are visible.
Use the Details button to drill into a row to see the underlying transactions, adjustments or corrections. If there are notes, they will be displayed too.
First note that you can only adjust or correct posting level categories.
An adjustment simply replaces the existing actual amount for the selected month, or the yearly amount for categories budgeted yearly. The amount you enter becomes the new amount regardless of any transactions posted to that category.
A correction fixes a transaction that was posted incorrectly, for example posted to the wrong category.
You can also delete a transaction, for example a transaction posted to the wrong month.
After you correct or delete any transaction, re-run Summarize Transactions for Budget so the corrections take affect in the Main Window.
Also note that since they are not backed by tranactions, adjustments will be reversed if you re-run Summarize Transactions for Budget for that month. Use adjustments only when you can simply correct the transactions, and as a final step when you know the summarization is final.
Both adjustments and corrections will create notes for your reference.
When the summarized total doesn’t match your records, you can change it to a new amount.
From the detail view you can correct a transaction. Then use the appropriate action (e.g., Save or Delete) for that row.
You can change the description, amount or assigned category for that transaction.
Or delete it, if it does not belong in this month’s budget.
You can add notes to a row and specific month for your own reference. For example, “July A/C high due to heat wave”.