Budgeting - Let's decide what we want!

David Ayers fogey at mindspring.com
Fri Sep 5 08:42:57 CDT 2003


On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:45:27 -0400
marthter <marthter at yahoo.ca> wrote:

> I also agree (was that also Matthew?) that separating the budget from 
> the accounts is more flexible.  As I understand what he is saying:  it
> 
> is not that the budgets and the accounts are separate and completely 
> unrelated.  It is that they start off separate (in the data model),
> and you CAN tie each budget item ("category" as I think Darin named
> it) to one OR MORE accounts.  The "OR MORE" is the key here as I see
> it because it is what lets you handle both camps.
> 
> The person with sub-accounts in his Chequing account can tie a budget 
> category one-to-one with his Assets:Chequing:whatever subaccount.
> 
> The person who wants more high level budgeting can have a "Food"
> budget category that ties to Expenses:Restaurants, Expenses:Groceries,
> and Expenses:JunkFood.
> 
> And it appears that that is what Darin has proposed.

I agree completely that this kind of separation would be nice. My
argument (in the "Budgeting prototype" thread) is that this capability
should be limited to the formulation of a static budget, at the
beginning of an accounting period, and not be messed with during the
period to try out "what ifs." 

Except for extraordinary circumstances, a budget should be left
untouched throughout its time horizon to provide a baseline for
measurement of financial performance. It's the only protection against
the human tendency to change the rules of the game as you go along.

Dave


-- 
David Ayers
Quincy, Illinois, USA
fogey at mindspring.com
http://www.dayers.net



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