Advanced Budget Report Question

[Brett]

> "Issue One: I don't include ASSET or LIABILITY  
> accounts in the budget report even if there is a > budget value for them.  It would be easy
> enough to add them in to the report but I 
> couldn't figure out how to
> deal with them in the TOTALs section.  Do I >subtract them from the
> income?  Do I add the ASSETS and subtract the
> LIABILITIES? 


The fundamental equation in accounting is:
Assets = Liabilities + Owners Equity
This equation only involves the balance sheet, and all changes on the P&L should flow from what happens on the balance sheet. There is no one simple answer that can be plugged in (as you suggest above) if you want to add assets and liabilities to your report. 
e.g., based on the changes to P&L account values (from beginning of report period to end), you would change the assets/liabilities values in different ways depending on the underlying transaction:
Paying a budgeted expense would decrease (credit) the bank account, while increase (debit) the expense account;
Entering an extra bill would increase (credit) the accrued expenses balance sheet account, while increase (debit) the expense account.
It is helpful to catgorize in your mind accounts as a debit account if debiting it makes it bigger (eg bank account), or a credit account if crediting it makes it bigger (eg liability account).
Hope this helps rather than make things more confusing!
Brett.