[GNC] How to enter value when budgeting? And meaning ?

[Adrien Monteleone]

Here’s how to accomplish the following with the Budget Module:


1. You plan to receive positive income/revenue

then enter that amount as a positive.


2. You plan to pay down some liabilities

then enter the amount you plan to pay down as a negative. (you are decreasing the liability, remember, pay no mind to it being debit or credit, just think increase or decrease)


3. You plan to take on more liability (increase a credit card balance, take out a loan, etc)

then you enter the amount as a positive. (you are increasing your liabilities)

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So both screenshots are correct for income and liabilities.

#1

You planned to receive 100, but you really received 120, so you received 20 *more* than planned - a positive. (This is an improvement over your planned financial position)

You planned to increase your debt by 100, but increased it by 120, so you ‘over-borrowed’ by 20. Note that overspending on expenses also results in a negative difference. (either would be a decrease from your planned financial position)

#2

You planned to receive 100, but only received 80, so you received 20 *less* than planned - a negative. (It detracts from your planned financial position)

You planned to pay down 100 of liabilities, but only paid down 80, so you didn’t pay down as much as planned. (a decrease from your planned financial position)

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In both cases the Checking Account signs appears to be backwards for the Difference column. Thus I’d consider that a bug that still needs to be resolved.

In case #1, you planned to have 100 left over in the account, but really had 220. That’s an improvement over your planned financial position so it should be a positive.

In case #2, you planned to have 100 left over in the account, but only had 80, which is a worse financial position than you planned for, so it should be a negative.

I don’t have 3.7 handy so I can’t say if that Budget Report worked correctly. But I wouldn’t advise stepping down in versions just for a report, especially for a column that can easily be calculated from the other correct columns. In this case, if you really need that Difference column, for now, copy/paste or export to a spreadsheet and add-in the difference column yourself with proper formulas. While not ideal, it will get you a working report that is useful until this one can be fixed. Hopefully, that fix will be out in 3.9 which is due at the end of March. (you’d have to check Bugzilla for a current report and its status)

Regards,
Adrien


> On Feb 18, 2020 w8d49, at 8:46 PM, Long <Phamhoanglongvn at outlook.com> wrote:
> 
> I'm using Gnucash 3.8 (newest version) on Windows 10, and my GnuCash setting
> are default, Because in Budget Report use positive and negative number on
> Diff with the way i can't understand, can you give me more information ?
> For more example about the sign of liability and income: image i have
> attached
> 1.png <http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/file/t378901/1.png>   2.png
> <http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/file/t378901/2.png>