Migrating from Envelope to Saving Budget

Ask Anything
1

So I have attempted a search for my problem with no luck. Closest thread is…

but it doesn’t get into the ROLLOVER balances from the Envelope Budget to the SAVINGS balances in the Saving Budget.

I am what appears to be a late convert from the Envelope Budget to the Savings Budget(seeing a lot of threads from 2020), and mostly do to the October 1 retirement of Envelope. We (wife and I) are zero-based budgeters and also funders (we “pay ourselves” monthly for yearly expenses so the money is there when the bill is due, think insurance(s)), so the balances under those categories are critical to our budget. I have all the migration completed from the different threads for the Savings Budget and Migration Helper, or at least I am 99% I have, and everything seems to be working correctly minus the balances. Is there something I missed in the migration to get those balances to equal? Or do those all just need to manual adjusted to be equal? I am hoping to run side by side spreadsheets starting in August to have a few months to make sure I understand the Savings Budget before 100% reliance on it.

Thank you for the help.

2

Hi @matthew.fuller526!

My wife and I follow the same method of zero-based budgeting and saving for recurring expenses outside the usual monthly timeframe.

Off the top of my head, there are two points you need to check to make sure your accruals are trued up to where you should be.

  1. First, ensure all applicable categories are marked as “Savings” in the Track column of the Category sheet. Since we are zero-based, all categories (aside from Debt payment categories) are set this way. It sounds like you’ve already done, this, but it never hurts to make sure.
  2. Second, because Savings is calculated as budgeted expenses with no actual expenses (X Budget - 0 Actual = X Savings), you may need to seed savings for your categories to account for any prior savings allocations to your budget start date. You can do this in one of two ways.
    a. In the first budget period on the Savings Sheet, add the allocated income prior to your first budget as savings in the Adjust column (preferred)
    b. Set your first month’s budget for the category to include any allocated income prior to your budget start date

Hopefully, these steps can get your Savings/Available columns squared away. :slight_smile:

1 Like
3

Thanks @cculber2, That is what I was expecting to be the case, just wanted to confirm with someone that had been using it.

1 Like