[GNC] How to managing budget in gnucash ?

[Stu Perlman]

This is probably not the answer that you are looking for, but I'm new to
gnucash and have also been trying to make the included budgeting features
work for me.

I'm a database guy at heart so after a few weeks of working with the
included budget tools, I set up a MySql backend. Subsequent to porting my
book to MySql, I have been developing a bolt-on toolbox in MS Access to do
what I want for budgeting.  Part of this effort involves creating some
extension classes (tables) for the core gnucash data structures that are
stored in MySql.

For example, I have an *accounts_extended* table in Access that ties back
to GnuCash's *accounts* table in MySql.  In my table, I added some boolean
properties such as *includeInBudgetAnaysis*, *invertBudgetedAmt*,
*invertActualAmt*, and most importantly a *budgetReportCategory* property
that is used to implement a concept similar to what you are looking to do
with the 50-30-20 approach to personal budgeting.  The actual reports in
Access that I will use draw from these extension properties to present the
data the way that I would like.

I was also trying to setup GnuCash's actual budget amounts from my bolt-on
but I abandoned this because it would take a lot of additional work and
offer very little added benefit. If I stick with handling all budgeting
stuff outside of GnuCash for now, I will probably just use local tables to
manage budget amounts and not worry about doing so in GnuCash propper.

You don't need to use a relational database backend as it is possible to do
what I'm doing directly against GnuCash's default XML file, but it's way
more involved.

- Stu

On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 3:48 PM Long <Phamhoanglongvn at outlook.com> wrote:

> Hello guys,
> i'm not accounting, and do not have any experience about managing budget,
> included using gnucash's budget.
> Now, i'm following 50/30/20 budgeting rule, and i wanna create a budget by
> that way.
> But the problems here, I assume that i have 10.000, and 5000 (50%) for
> "Needs" Budget, 3000 (30%) for "Wants" Budget.
> But, GnuCash Budget Report always included Accounts you don't budget, but
> it's have Transactions.
>
> 1 - if i put 8000 for EXPENSE, i will never know how am i spending on NEEDS
> and WANTS.
>
> 2 - if i create a Budget with named "NEEDS" and create the other Budget
> with
> named "WANTS" for EXPENSE. So i will always got overspending, like i said
> above, When you running Budget Report for EXPENSE, GnuCash will include all
> Accounts have transactions, That make Actual always higher than Budget.
>
> So, i can't found the best way to make GnuCash Budget Report show the
> things
> i want to see.
>
> For more Clearly, i want to know what am i spending in "EXPENSE" for
> "NEEDS"
> and compare it to Budget, i want to do that behavior for "WANTS" too.
>
> Thank you for spending your time to help me and sorry for my bad english.
> Regards.
>
>
>
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