Trigger monthly budget cycle from incoming salary
R
Ryan
I’d like an option or rule for monthly budgets to start automatically when my salary transaction comes in. My salary doesn’t always arrive on the exact same day, so a fixed “start on day X” has caused me problems in the past.
Ideally, I could create a rule like:
“When a transaction from my employer is detected, start the new monthly budget cycle.”
Or, for people with multiple income sources:
“When a certain amount of income has been received, start the new monthly budget cycle.”
That would make the budget match how I actually manage money: from paycheck to paycheck, not from the 1st to the 31st ... or 28th-29th.
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Din from Lunch Money
Hi Ryan, thanks for writing in!
Budget periods are pre-calculated as soon as you set your budgeting schedule, including past and future periods. Making future periods only appear when a transaction comes through can be quite complex (i.e. what happens if the transaction is skipped one month, or if the transaction gets deleted, if you change jobs, etc.)?
Instead, for situations like the one you described, we generally recommend one of the following approaches:
- Adjust the income transaction date to align with the budget period: For example, if your budgeting cycle starts on the 28th but your income is received on the 27th, you can edit the transaction date to the 28th so it falls within the correct budget period.
- Start the budgeting period a few days earlier than the expected income date: Rather than matching the budgeting period exactly to when income should arrive, setting it to begin slightly beforehand helps ensure the income transaction consistently falls within the intended budget cycle, even if it occurs a few days before or after.
I hope this helps, and if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to let me know. 🙂