budget?

[stanbusk]

I am months late, sorry for that!

[GuySpy]

I have recently switched from PC to MAC and am currently trying to use MAC variations of some PC programmes. I was an avid user of Microsoft Money and find iCash to be a good alterantive. I am looking forward to the budget planner but would also like to see some balance readout on the transaction page for each bank account I enter new transactions in. For example if I know how much to pay on car isurance in 6 months time, in Money I could post date that entry and the balance would take that into account so I knew how much money I had available. Under iCash I could do the same but the only clear way of seeing the balance is on the overview screen. Therefore, it would be helpful to have a balnce figure just above the transaction box, so you could see instantly the effect of that and future transactions. Does this make sense to anyone?

[User11]

[quote="stanbusk"]This feature will be available on next major release. I guess it will be available on 2007 first quarter. Note that we use iCash ourselves as well and we also need that feature.[/quote]
I was wondering if you have an update as to when the next version of iCash will be released? Also, is the stated purchase price of $30 apply to new users, current users that want to upgrade to the new version, or both?

[stanbusk]

Abut 'GuySpy' request, a screenshot would help.

About prices, $30 is for new licenses. Upgrades use to be half that price.

[ihc]

First let me say I have been using iCash now for quite some time. This after trying almost everything else available (Quicken, Moneydance, WDAMYG, MoneyWorks, as well as most other "finance" products on the market) . To that end this is by far the best product with the most flexibility that I have used. It's not perfect but the response to issues/questions has by far superior to any others and the development is reasonable. I'm not one to get stuck on the interface being like a checkbook - in fact I think entry is faster since it isn't. Additionally, the "split" (group) function that has some people complaining is actually just as good once you use it for awhile. Not having the current balance in the transaction entry log isn't an issue either since if you are that tight on your finances there are probably bigger issues that need to be addressed. Seriously, entering the transactions then having to go back to the overview screen to see the "big picture" of all accounts is about the best way to do it since one should be looking at all accounts not just focusing on the balance of one in particular. All this being said I would like to suggest a few things on the budget feature and see if others:

1) The ability to enter the budget in several various ways. As an amount for a period and have it distributed accordingly might be the most common way people are used to. For instance: Insurance is 100/mo. every month but only for 10 months. This could be handled by making a pref. that allowed this to be distributed for 12 months and then simply allowing deletion of the 2 months that don't apply or one could enter it for 10 months individually (this would also allow for differing amounts in the case of balloon payments, etc.). This is assuming that you use some form of column/row arrangement for the budget entry. Most of the time a budget shouldn't require editing that much if it is realistic to begin with, so flexibility becomes the key feature for accounting for the various needs of users.

2) Show the budgeted amount under the amount entry field with the remaining available amount just to the right of this amount - just like the category field information. For instance using the example above (100/mo.) and this is the first month to make an entry then it would show 100 | 1000 just below the entry field since all entries are made based on the month of entry. The next month the "budget" info would be 100 | 900 - showing the reduction from the previous month. This way one could see a possible over budget situation before it occurs by simply looking at the amounts during entry. You could even take this one step further and add the budget duration and number of periods left to this information. Thus it would become 100 (10) | 1000 (10) and 100 (10) | 900 (9) respectively.

3) Use a feature already available, such as your statistics report to show budget performance information. Maybe another choice in the statistics tab since it would be similar and it is statistical in nature? What I envision here is the same format but with budget data added in and adjusted to the period selected. For instance if something was entered as a weekly budget but the report was run on a monthly basis then simply adjust the weekly budget amount to a monthly amount and show it that way. In addition it would be helpful to see the total amount budgeted for the category as well as figures for amount over/under budget. Percentages may be helpful but percentages can hide details that help in correcting something before it gets out of hand. Of course this would require the ability to print this report in addition to the "export" feature that exists on statistics now - simply so it can be reviewed and marked up as needed.

Sorry to be so long on this post but wanted to get the thoughts put out for all while here and let others comment. How do others deal with budgeting for taxes where those are recorded separately from the item amount (tax field)? I suspect the US will eventually go to this system also and would like to know how it affects you when using software such as iCash.

[stanbusk]

Received. About #1, indeed it is how we are developing the budget feature. About #2 I guess you want budget amount to be placed below the amount field in the transaction panel. Only problem here is that we will allow you to create as many budgets as you need so we have to find a way to select which budget to show data from. #3 Yes and perhaps the budget info will be available in some other places as well.

[chrislaker]

A plea for those users who will not be using budgets. Can you design it so that the existing screen don’t become cluttered with budget zero figures. May be separate menus for budget comparison or a turn on/off budgets facility.