path: root/doc/en/details-budgets.docbook

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<chapter id="details.budgets">
<chapterinfo>
  <authorgroup>
    <author>
      <surname>Colin Wright &lt;cdwright@gwi.net&gt;</surname>
    </author>
  </authorgroup>
  <date>2009-08-03</date>
  <releaseinfo>1.0</releaseinfo>
</chapterinfo>

<title id="details.budgets.title">Budgets</title>
<sect1 id="details.budgets.define">
<title>What is a budget?</title>

<para>
  A budget is a categorized list of expected income and expenses for a period.
</para>

<para>
  The Budget facility of &kappname; allows you to create annual budgets.  More
  than one Budget can be created for any year. You set monthly Budget values
  against any Income or Expense categories that you have defined. The values can
  be set in three ways, depending on the Period:
</para>

<variablelist>
  <varlistentry>
    <term>Monthly</term>
    <listitem><para>(Default) specify a single value applied to every month in
      the Budget</para></listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Yearly</term>
    <listitem><para>specify a single value to divide evenly across each month in
      the Budget</para></listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Individual</term>
    <listitem><para>specify separate values for each month.</para>
      <para>This is used for income and expenses spread irregularly through the
          year.</para></listitem>
  </varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>
  &kappname; provides a number of reports which compare actual income and
  expenses against the entered Budgets.
</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="details.budgets.create" >
<title>Your budgets</title>

<para>
  You can access your budgets by clicking the appropriate icon in the navigation
  pane at the left hand side of your &kappname; window.
</para>

<sect2>
<title>Creating, changing, and deleting budgets</title>

<para>
  This section of the Budgets window displays the list of Budgets contained in
  the current file. If no Budget has yet been created the list will display a
  single empty Budget called "Budget &lt;year&gt;" where &lt;year&gt; is the
  current fiscal year. The list of Budgets has two columns:
</para>

<variablelist>
  <varlistentry>
    <term>Name</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Name of the Budget</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Year</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Fiscal year of the Budget</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>
  Values from the selected Budget are displayed to the right. To select a
  different Budget you can click on the Budget in the list.  Alternatively, when
  the list has focus, you can select a different Budget using the up and down
  keys. If you have made changes to a Budget and then select a different budget
  &kappname; will ask you whether you want to discard the changes.
</para>

<para>
  There are five buttons above the list of Budgets.
</para>

<variablelist>
  <varlistentry>
    <term>New</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Create a new budget</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Rename</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Edit the name of the selected Budget.</para>

      <para>You can also edit the name of a Budget by clicking on the name of
        the selected Budget or double-clicking on the name of a different
        Budget.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Delete</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Delete the selected Budget</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Revert</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Reverts the selected Budget to its last stored state.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Save</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Accepts any unsaved changes to the selected Budget and
        stores them.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>
  Additional options are available on a menu accessed by right-clicking on a
  Budget.
</para>

<variablelist>
  <varlistentry>
    <term>New Budget</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Create a new, blank Budget.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Rename Budget</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Rename the selected Budget.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Change budget year</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Displays a window with a list of years to select a different budget
        year.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Delete budget</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Delete the selected Budget.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Copy budget</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Creates a copy of the selected Budget. The new Budget has the name
        "Copy of &lt;budget&gt;", where &lt;budget&gt; is the name of the copied
        Budget.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Account List</title>

<para>
  The Account List displays the list of Income and Expense Categories. As in
  other places in &kappname; the list is organized in a tree structure. The list
  can be expanded or collapsed to show or hide Subcategories within a
  Category. The Account List has a number of columns:</para>

<variablelist>
  <varlistentry>
    <term>Account</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Account name</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Type</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Account Type (Income or Expense)</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Tax</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Checked if a Category included in Tax Reports</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>VAT</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Checked if a Category marked as a VAT Category</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Balance</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Current balance of Account. Blank for Categories</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Value</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Total yearly value in the Budget. If an Account has Subaccounts and
        the Account's list of Subaccounts is collapsed the value displayed is
        the sum of the values for the Account and all of its Subaccounts.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>
  The Account List can be filtered using "Hide unused Categories".  In Budgets
  this hides any Categories for which no value has been assigned to the Category
  or any of its Subcategories.
</para>
</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Assignments</title>

<para>
  The Assignments area shows the value for the selected Account.
</para>

<variablelist>
  <varlistentry>
    <term>Account</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Displays the name of the selected Account. If the Account is a
        Subaccount, the full name of the selected Account is displayed in the
        Account:Subaccount format.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Total</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>Displays the total yearly value assigned to the Account</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Include subaccounts</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>In Reports show actual income or expenses in Subcategories belonging
        to the Category against the Category instead of the Subcategory.</para>

      <para>If a Subcategory has a value defined in the Budget the income and
        expenses are shown against the Subcategory.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Clear</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>The Clear button resets the budgeted account value or values to
        zero.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Period</term>
    <listitem>
      <para>The Period radio buttons allow you to select the period for which
        the value applies</para>

      <variablelist>
	<varlistentry>
	  <term>Monthly</term>
	  <listitem>
	    <para>A single value is entered, specifying the amount per
              month. This is the default setting.</para>
	  </listitem>
	</varlistentry>

	<varlistentry>
	  <term>Yearly</term>
	  <listitem>
	    <para>A single value is entered, specifying the amount per
              year.</para>
	  </listitem>
	</varlistentry>

	<varlistentry>
	  <term>Individual</term>
	  <listitem>
	    <para>Values are specified for each Calendar month. This is used
              where expense or income is spread irregularly through the
              year.</para>
	  </listitem>
	</varlistentry>
      </variablelist>

      <para>
        If a value is or values are already specified and the Period is changed
        &kappname; will ask whether to use the current total yearly value to
        assign the new values.
      </para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
</variablelist>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Update and Revert</title>

<para>
  For performance reasons, changes made to a Budget are not saved
  immediately. Instead, they first have to be stored using the Update button and
  then permanently saved using the &kappname; Save.
</para>

<para>
  When a Budget's values are first modified, the Update and Revert buttons are
  enabled.  Multiple changes can be made to the Budget.  Pressing Update will
  store the changes, disable the Update and Revert buttons and enable the
  &kappname; Save.
</para>

<para>
  The &kappname; Save only saves changes that have been stored using the Update
  button. Thus, if you have modified a Budget but not yet stored the changes
  &kappname; Save will not affect the modified Budget and the Update and Revert
  buttons remain enabled.
</para>

<para>
  Revert undoes any changes made to a Budget since the last Update and disables
  the Update and Revert buttons.
</para>

<para>
  Changes stored using Update but not yet saved using &kappname; Save can only
  be reverted by reloading the &kappname; file.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="budget.details.reports">
<title>Budget Reports</title>

<para>
  &kappname; provides a number of reports to compare actual income and expenses
  against Budgets. These are listed in Reports under "Budgeting". There are two
  types of Reports:
</para>

<variablelist>
  <varlistentry>
    <term>Budget only</term>
    <listitem><para>Reports displaying values from a Budget: Monthly Budget
      Displays the monthly values from a Budget. Yearly Budget Displays the
      monthly values from a Budget, with yearly total.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  <varlistentry>
    <term>Compare Budget and Actual</term>
    <listitem><para>Reports comparing values from a Budget to actual income and
      expenses: Budget vs. Actual This Year Month-by-month comparison for the
      current year so far, with total. Monthly Budget vs. Actual Month-by-month
      comparison, defaulting to the current month. Yearly Budgeted vs. Actual
      Month-by-month comparison for the whole of the current year, with
      total. These reports provide a base from which custom reports can be
      created by changing the date range and Budget. Of the Budget reports, only
      the "Budget vs. Actual This Year" does not allow the Budget to be
      changed.</para>
    </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect1>
</chapter>