Budgeting is here! The feature helps you set a budget for the categories you care about and makes it easy to do so by providing your monthly averages as a baseline.
Tell us how you're using the new budget feature, so we are able to customize it to your needs.
Where does it fall on a scale of "crazy simple" to "too tricky for me"?How many categories are you tracking? Did you pay attention to your monthly average to set your numbers? How frequently will you log back in to check how you're doing? Let us know.
Quicken Kathryn
Signature - Please remember that this is a User-to-User community forum. If you come in to get an answer, see if there are any that you can provide. The more people who do that, the more likely you will get your answer.
To help others trying to answer your question, go to "Preferences/Profile" to the left of the page and and fill in those fields.
Intuit Employees using the forum can be identified by the name "Quicken" followed by an Intuit logo. Unless a poster has the above requirements they are not an Intuit employee.
I agree completely with MariaMaria. Without rolling over to the next month either the plus or minus in any category, how can you really know how you are doing?
1. You need to be able to drag and drop the order of the categories or something.
2. I would also like to track more than one category with a single budget item. For example, if I could create a budget of $300 that was for credit cards and misc. expenses, instead of two $150 budgets or some variation. Or a budget for all otherwise non budgeted categories together.
3. Why is the same feature called goals and budgets in different places? I was confused.
if you delete all the categories in the budget section you can organize them any way you would like. The first one you add will be on top and so on. Also IE lets you view all categories
The budget "averages" seem to be stuck as they do not update to reflect changes, e.g.: I changed credit card payments to transfer out but the average/goal won't change to reflect the changes.
I like how simple it is to set up. However, I don't like how you have to add the catagory to the budget. I wish it would automatically show all categories that you have spent in, with a programmed budget of $0 unless you edit the budget per category.
Right now the way you have it set up to work, doesn't really accurately show you where you are at in your budget, because if you have spent money in "my pets" and don't have that category set w/ a budget, then it doesn't REALLY show you where you are at in your total amount budget.
I definitely don't feel like I have an OVERALL view of my budget with this feature.
I like the simplicity of the budgeting features. However it is still missing some things that "Mint.com" does better than Quicken. Don't get me wrong, Quicken is much faster and more reliable than Mint.com. I won't list all the things I love about Quicken.com but if you added these Mint.com features it'd be fantastic:
1. Improved "learning" so same payee names don't always have to be repeatedly categorized manually..
2. Ability to so see combined total of all accounts.
3. Ability to add assets, such as home value, etc. in order to calculate net worth.
The budgeting feature would be great if there was an "every 4 weeks" option. I get paid once every 4 weeks beginning on the 15th, and I can't find a way to set the budget for this time period.
I would like to have the ability to have budget money carry over from month to month. For example, I allot a certain amount to auto maintenance every month say $30. I'm not going to spend that $30/month every month it's going to build up and I'll spend $65 on an oil change or $200 on repairs. Some categories just lend themselves to this kind of functionality versus a set amount of money every month. Entertainment is another example, if I don't spend my alloted money one month, I want to have that money available the following.
Killer_Tofu is absolutely right. Hope this is implemented quickly in Quicken Online.
Either unattach the "Overall" category from the selected budget categories or include all categories for which you have previous spending by default. Seriously, it's a completely worthless feature otherwise.
And get the plug-in to work for those of us that hate IE please.
I am in agreement with a few of the above comments in the thread. Overall I find the program and site are very user freindly. However it does not make sense why the budget tool does not include all categories that you have spent money in during that month. For example if you make a payment not categorized in your budget its like you never spent it thus it does not count against your budget. Maybe the site could have an "unbudgeted spending" category that makes your total spending actually match what you have actually spent?
I would like to have the ability to have budget money carry over from month to month. For example, I allot a certain amount to auto maintenance every month say $30. I'm not going to spend that $30/month every month it's going to build up and I'll spend $65 on an oil change or $200 on repairs. Some categories just lend themselves to this kind of functionality versus a set amount of money every month. Entertainment is another example, if I don't spend my alloted money one month, I want to have that money available the following.
Ooh, ooh, I want that too! Is anyone from Quicken reading these?
It would be very helpful to me if I could “split” transactions into several different accounts. This option would allow me to better budget my spending as well as to easily modify my spending habits.
I have been using Quicken Online for about two months and am very happy with the product so far. If this product continues to improve I will be thrilled! I have been searching for a powerful yet easy to use personal financial tool for years. Please, please keep up the good work; you are definitely on the right track! Thank you so much!
Roll over budgeting or zero based budgeting options or also called envelope system budgeting - basically so i can SAVE UP for something large by putting something away every week.
Also, I put in all my budget categories the amount I budgeted for the month - and then later it all changes. Not sure if it is because I changed the overall budget? Or just because I left the page and returned. I've now re-entered all my monthly budget limits twice. And it wants to keep raising them! That isn't going to help me keep from spending money!
Split transactions - miss that from mint.com
Easier way to see all budget categories, and maybe a way to edit a lot of the budget categories at once. Also interested in those people who mentioned making month by month changes - but roll over is even more important to me.
Also, not really designed for more than an individual to use, not really for a husband and wife to share. Would love BOTH of us to get warnings - we decided to do our budget online so we can BOTH watch where the money is going instead of when it was on one laptop, and only one person really had access - but having warnings go to two phones would be better so one of us doesn't feel like being the bad cop and telling the other (plus what if we forget). Then our "budget" can be the bad guy for both of us. Don't have kids yet, but I don't see any budget that doesn't allow the kids access to parts of the budget. With the new way people are viewing their budgets these days - a Feature that allows parents to work with their kids on a family budget might get a lot of media attention.
Also, back to husband / wife features - only one wallet for cash - would be better for two. And some budget sites i visited had a way to TEXT in an expense (especially useful for cash expenses). This is a good way to overcome Mint since it has a poor cash system.
Also, after using desktop quicken - really miss the note/memo line feature! That really helps me remember what that check or credit card payment really went to.
And now having used one of your more deluxe desktop features - I would love to see the scan option, multiple currencies, and business features - but that is probably way down the line - but that is technology you already are well known for and would be a way for you to surpass mint.com quite readily as they are focused on individuals.
Well, that's just off the top of my head for now. I'm sure I'll have more later.
"I put in all my budget categories the amount I budgeted for the month - and then later it all changes. Not sure if it is because I changed the overall budget?"
If you modify the Overall Goal, you will modify every other goal proportionally. The Overall Goal is always the total of all other goals. The only reason to change the Overall Goal is you if you decide you want all your goals to increase/decrease by the percentage change you make in the Overall Goal. The result will still be that the Overall Goal equals the sum of all other goals.
" ... really miss the note/memo line feature".
Each Quicken Online cleared transaction has a modifiable "Note" field; works just like the Quicken desktop product's "Memo" field.
How to ask a question.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
Where is it? Can you set your budget in one column and Quicken fills in the spent column? Can you set and see a year at a time? Monthly? Rollover? If not, you need to buy one of those budget books - that's what I use - to map out your tool. With that book, you get suggestions for categories, day lines, month pages, year book. You don't often BUDGET carry over, but that's what miscellaneous is for. Several Miscellaneous lines would help.
Again, where is it? This is a problem I find with the Quicken Online - I can't find half of what's referenced.
I completely agree with mariamaria15 about the "Rollover" option. It would provide more of a "Big Picture" budget for the year and help with planning for upcoming planned and emergency expenses.
Is there any Bugeting feature for Quicken Online. The only thing I see is the Goals section, and that resets all goals everytime I change a single goal. It's not really the same as a budget.
Forums