Create a budget

There are two ways to create a budget: you can create a budget automatically based on only your top spending categories, or you can create an advanced budget that includes all of your spending categories.

1. Click the Planning tab.
2. Click the Budgets button.
3. Choose Budget Actions > Create a new budget.
4. Type a budget name.
5. Select Automatic Budget.
6. Click OK to create your automatic budget.
   • The type of budget created

     Quicken creates the budget based on your top five spending categories. It does not include transfers or income categories in the budget. If you want, you can add transfers and income categories in the Advanced Budgeting window.

   • The date range used

     Quicken creates the budget based on transactions from the previous 12 full months. If you don't have 12 months of transactions yet, Quicken creates the budget based on as few as 3 months of transactions.

   • The budgeting method used

     Quicken creates the budget based your average monthly expenses.

   • The rounding used

     Quicken rounds each budget amount to the nearest dollar.

   • The accounts and categories used

     Quicken creates the budget based on expense transactions in all of your accounts except Invoice and Sales Tax accounts (Quicken Home & Business only).

     Quicken scans your Personal Expense categories and creates a budget that includes the categories on which you spend the most money.

     Quicken excludes the following categories from an automatically created budget:

     • Income categories
     • Special investment and paycheck categories (usually preceded by an underscore character), such as "_401Contrib"
     • The Interest Exp, Misc, and Not Sure categories
     • Categories with the following tax line item assignments: Schedule A: Home mortgage interest, W-2: Federal tax withheld, W-2:Medicare tax withheld, W-2:Medicare tax withheld, W-2:Local tax withheld, W-2:Soc. Sec. tax withheld, and W-2:State tax withheld.
7. Work with your budget in the Budget window.

Is your budget too simple?

If you need more flexibility or prefer to work using a spreadsheet format, take look at Quicken's advanced budgeting capabilities.

1. Click the Planning tab.
2. Click the Budgets button.
3. Choose Budget Actions > Create a new budget.
4. Type a budget name.
5. Select Advanced Budget.
6. Click OK to create your advanced budget.
   • The type of budget created

     Quicken creates the budget based on all of your expense categories. It does not include transfers or income categories in the budget. If you want, you can add transfers and income categories in the Advanced Budgeting window.

   • The date range used

     Quicken creates the budget based on transactions from the previous 12 full months. If you don't have 12 months of transactions yet, Quicken creates the budget based on as few as 3 months of transactions.

   • The budgeting method used

     Quicken creates the budget based your average monthly expenses.

   • The rounding used

     Quicken rounds each budget amount to the nearest dollar.

   • The accounts and categories used

     Quicken creates the budget based on expense transactions in all of your accounts except Invoice and Sales Tax accounts (Quicken Home & Business only).

     Quicken scans your Personal Expense categories and creates a budget that includes all of your expense categories.

     Quicken excludes the following categories from an advanced budget:

     • Income categories
     • Special investment and paycheck categories (usually preceded by an underscore character), such as "_401Contrib"
     • The Interest Exp, Misc, and Not Sure categories
     • Categories with the following tax line item assignments: Schedule A: Home mortgage interest, W-2: Federal tax withheld, W-2:Medicare tax withheld, W-2:Medicare tax withheld, W-2:Local tax withheld, W-2:Soc. Sec. tax withheld, and W-2:State tax withheld.
7. Work with your budget in the Advanced Budget Setup window.

Tip

It's often helpful to look at your budget as a tool to focus on specific discretionary categories, such as Clothing and Dining. If you have Quicken data, run a Category report and determine the discretionary categories you should focus on (if necessary, add categories that fit your actual income and expense patterns). Then, make sure those categories are included in your budget.