Budgeting in GnuCash

[Ben Stanley]

Joshua Sled wrote:

> Maybe.  A report-based approach is useful, insomuch as it's relevant
> to the moment.  It's also generally lightweight in terms of the user
> point-of-view, and sometimes just that passive information is good.
>
> It's become clear that while the natural time period to work with for
> budgeting is the month [bill cycles, payment cycles, &c], and it's important
> to recognize and support that, the budgeting UI should be available at
> any point in time with nearly-equal functionality... you should always
> have an up-to-date picture of your finances, even if it just says that
> you have expenses A, B and C upcoming, and if those are paid as expected,
> then you will have $X, $Y and $Z after each...
>
> But the thing that excites me is when it stops becoming a report and instead
> becomes a chance to interact: what happens if A, B and C becomes A, C, B?
> Or A, C, <salary deposit>, allowing a delayed B to be done...

I really like the idea of being able to interact with the budget interactively.
The proposal to build a budget as a report was a bit concerning... it makes it
much more passive. The idea of a `Workbench' intrigues me - it looks really good.
So it would allow you to judge whether you can really afford to buy that new car
or whatever...

I think that this budgeting system has the potential to change GNUCash from an
accounting package which tracks where the money goes into a management package,
helping to control where it goes, and providing the information to make financial
planning decisions.

Ben.