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• Here will be some answers to common questions I have received. They may be similar questions to what you may have.
  Craig Jun 30th 2009  
• Q: I have been using the same password for months. Today it isn't being accepted. I reset it - no luck. I changed it - no luck. Suggestions?
  
  A: We have changed how a user logs in. Instead of a user name, it is with the email address and the password you created.
  Craig Jun 30th 2009  
• Q: How do I Update an account balance?
  
  A: Go to the Accounts page and scroll down to the Manage Accounts section. You have the ability to perform in line edits to the accounts of your choice. Place the mouse over the information and a pencil icon will pop up. Click this and you can perform in line edits.
  Craig Jun 30th 2009  
• Q: One suggestion/concern I have regarding the new layout is the 'Summary' page feedback that was in the old website. This was probably the most widely used page by me in my use of your solution. It enabled me to get a month by month comparison of income/expense items at a glance. Is there any plans to reintroduce this 'Summary' page into the new version?? I do hope so as this was an area that provided huge value to many other users as well that I know in the past.
  
  A: A lot of users have requested that the Summary page be brought back because it provided so much value. Due to all the requests, we are going to bring back the summary page, and are working on formatting if for the new site now. It is going to be slightly changed though. The "Charts" page is going to be changed to "Trends" and we will include the summary page there. Users will have the option to view either charts or their summary by simply clicking a button. They can analyze all their data on one page.
  Craig Jun 30th 2009  
• Q:What is the difference between credit card and checking/savings account? How do you calculate the balance of them?
  Martin Jul 1st 2009  
• In dashboard page under budget tab, I can see “upcoming expense” label. But it shows less than my real upcoming expenses. Why?
  Martin Jul 1st 2009  
• Do you guys have any functionality to search my notes?
  Martin Jul 1st 2009  
• What is “included in net worth” and “excluded in net worth”? How do they work?
  Martin Jul 1st 2009  
• In accounts page, how do you calculate the values of Net Worth of Accounts and Net change in Accounts?
  Martin Jul 1st 2009  
• How to transfer money from checking/savings accounts to asset or liability?
  Steve Jul 1st 2009  
• @Martin Credit Card/Savings?Credit Card are different types of accounts you can create to help separate your real accounts and make things easy to organize. Every time you add a transaction to these accounts, the balance will be determined.
  
  In the "budgets" tab, the reason it shows less than your real upcoming expenses is because it is only showing your upcoming budgeted expenses that you have set.
  
  Yes, we can search the notes. Click on the Search button and you will see options for an advanced search. Click the check box next to notes to filter for it.
  
  Included/excluded in net worth is an option users have. For example, you loan a friend $100. Now technically that money could be considered in your overall net worth. But since your friend has not paid you the amount back yet, you don't technically have that money so you may want to exclude it until you have received it. Just an option for users.
  
  The net worth of accounts = All checkings + all savings - credit card
  Net change = opening balance - current balance
  Craig Jul 1st 2009  
• @Steve Right now we don't have the option set up to transfer from a checking/savings account to an Asset/Liability but something we are looking into adding for users because this has been a request by several users.
  Craig Jul 1st 2009  
• How can I set a negative opening balance?
  Neotk Jul 9th 2009  
• @Neotk When creating an account, simply input the opening balance as the negative number you would like to start. I would not recommend changing your opening balance once you set an account. It would hurt the flow of how your progress is going.
  Craig Jul 10th 2009  
• Is it possible to recur a future transaction? I am able to recur a transaction present in the recent transaction but I want to recur a transaction present in the upcoming and recurring section.
  Emma Jul 16th 2009  
• @Emma When you add a transaction, click on the recur link. This will bring you to another page with more options on how to recur your transaction. You have the ability to choose when you would like the recur to start. Start it in as far as the future as you would like. Then you will be able to see that upcoming transaction in the upcoming and recurring section if your date range is set in the right time frame.
  Craig Jul 17th 2009  
• I just received an email response from Craig regarding how to tag transactions. Unless you watch the video, it's not listed anywhere and is not intuitive. To tag a transaction Simply add a comma after the category, then add your tag(s). For example (Entertainment, Movie) would be category = entertainment, and movie = tag.
  hazother1 Aug 19th 2009  
• @hazother1 I hope the way I explained it in the email was helpful. I apologize if it is not intuitive elsewhere on the site. We are going to rework the FAQ and User Guide for users when we have our next release of improvements and our brand new function we are adding. Is there other way we could explain the tag process that would be easier to find? Please let me know.
  Craig Aug 20th 2009  
• How do I reset the log in on the BudgetPulse program to NOT remember my log in and password? I accidentally clicked the incorrect button when I signed in. I want to have to sign with my log in and password every time I log in.
  
  Thanks
  MB
  pencils2 Aug 21st 2009  
• @pencils2 I believe that has more to do with the cookie settings on your computer than the BudgetPulse software. When you click on the log in it will give you an option for you to choose based off what you previously entered, from memory from the cookie. The password it will not. Try going into your settings and deleting the past cookie history.
  Craig Aug 21st 2009  
• Thanks. I should have remembered that. The cookies have been eaten and are all gone!
  pencils2 Aug 22nd 2009  
• I set up a bunch of categories and now want to set up budget line items for each category, but I do not see a way to do it. When I go to add budget item, type in a name of existing category, it won't let me proceed because it says the category already exists, I am caught in a loop.
  Iowan Sep 5th 2009  
• @Iowan Are you trying to set a budget for each specific account? If that's the case head to the Budgets page and scroll to the bottom. Click on the "+" sign which will bring the category up. Then enter the amount and click save so the budget category can be set. I am also curious what browser and version you are using? If it's an older browser, that may be the reason for the issue. Please feel free to contact support and we will get on this right away.
  Craig Sep 8th 2009  
• I wiped them all out and started over. I made about five parent categories and then with a comma, made tags under each. Then I assigned budget amounts to each tag. I am using Internet Explorer 8.
  I have a bigger issue now. None of my entered transactions are showing up in budget or any of the charts. They just show up in the entered transactions list. This is not working at all for me.
  Iowan Sep 9th 2009  
• @Iowan the tags help you keep organized specifically when searching for transactions. You can only set a budget for each category, not the tags. Email me at [email protected] and then will be able to talk to the engineers about your specific account.
  Craig Sep 9th 2009  
• What hours are the engineers there? I am at work central time 8 to 5, should not be doing home budget then.
  Iowan Sep 10th 2009  
• @Iowan I have sent your issue to the developers to examine further. I will let you know if they require more information which will help them identify the problem so they can fix it. If so, I will ask for you to email me at [email protected] so I can privately talk to you.
  Craig Sep 10th 2009  
• @Iowan Would it be possible if you could email the screenshots? That way we can visually see what it is and I can continue to help you from a private conversation.
  Craig Sep 10th 2009  
• I decided to get rid of the tags and just go with about 7 categories. But now I cannot edit past transactions. I pull up transactions, check the box next to the line item, go over to the categories section, hover over it unti the little pencil shows up, then I change the text in the box to match one of my new categories, hit save, and it looks like it is changing, but in about a minute, it has reverted to the old category with the tag.
  Iowan Sep 13th 2009  
• @Iowan I recommend changing the transaction performing an in-line edit from the Transactions page, not the Categories section. The reason for this is changing the category will not directly affect the transaction because it is setting up a different category for a potential future transaction. If you want to make changes directly to a specific transaction, change the transactions. Or search for the transaction and perform an advanced search for the specific category you would like to change. It may take a few more minutes but will ensure everything is correct.
  Craig Sep 14th 2009  
• I am doing it from the transactions page. I check the box, go over to category, hover over the pencil, and then try to edit the category section, and it will not let me do it.
  Iowan Sep 14th 2009  
• @Iowan That should not be happening. When an in-line edit is performed and you save it, it should save and take affect in the whole account. I will talk to the developers. If you could email me a screenshot of the issue it will help when fixing.
  Craig Sep 15th 2009  
• Hello
  
  I was wondering if you can set up an account with a negative starting amount?
  Apparently this is not possible?
  
  Please help
  render30000 Sep 24th 2009  
• @Render30000 I was wondering what browser and version you are currently using?
  
  I just added a test account with the amount of $-1000 and the account was created.
  
  Please email me at support and I can help you more in private.
  Craig Sep 24th 2009  
• The problem revolves around removing a tag, that is something created after the comma. Once it is written that way, it cannot be edited out, even from the transaction line.
  Iowan Oct 10th 2009  
• Hello Craig, first of all congratulations for this site, it's helping me out to track my finances.
  My doubt is about the use of the Credit Card Account feature.
  
  1. What do I put on the oppening balance? There's no money in the credit card. I just use it to split payments.
  2. How do I add the parcels of the payments?
  3. Every month some parcels will be payed. How does it work on the tracking? It removes money from the Credit Card amount or removes from the Checking Account?
  
  Sorry, I'm really confused about this feature and I didn't find anything detailed in the Help section.
  
  Thank you,
  Rafael
  rafaelfe Oct 15th 2009  
• @Iowan, Thanks for informing us about your problem. We will try to fix it ASAP
  
  
  BudgetPulse Team
  Madhurima Oct 15th 2009 edited  
• @Rafael fe, Thanks for your kind words about our site. For Credit cards, in the opening balance field you need to enter your Credit card balance (The amount you spent from your card not your credit line). If you want to pay your credit cared bill, you can do that in three ways:
  1. Go to "Transfer Funds" section of Transaction page/tab and make a transfer from your checking/ Saving Accounts to Credit Card Account.
  2. Go to "Add New Transaction" section of Transaction page/tab and create a new income transaction for Credit card account.
  3. You can also schedule a credit card bill payment using our "Recur feature". To recur your payment, go to "Add New Transaction" section of Transaction page /tab and Choose type as an income, account as your credit card account and enter all the fields and click on "Recur" link. Select/ enter all the fields in Recur section and click "Submit and Done" button.
  For more help please watch our video on Help section
  
  BudgetPulse Team
  Madhurima Oct 19th 2009  
• Thank you very much, @Madhurima.
  rafaelfe Oct 26th 2009  
• First of all, thanks a lot for this service. I like a lot BudgetPulse. It has many important features that I didn't found in other services (Transfers, assets, liabilities, import/export, ...). If you release a premium service, I would gladly pay for it.
  
  About my problem: I have entered about 800 transactions, all categorized and tagged. The problem is that I cannot understand what "tags" are for. I cannot compare tags, cannot use tags in charts, cannot assign budgets to tags, etc. It seems I am just able to search for tagged transactions, which is useless for me, as I cannot analyze the results.
  
  I am sure there must be something about tags that I am not aware of, so ... How can I use tags to help me analyze the data? Are tags at this moment useful?
  fmonera Nov 2nd 2009  
• I accidently created a category but can't figure out how to delete it. I see how I can change it from budgeted to nonbudgeted, but I need to remove it entirely.
  confused Nov 2nd 2009  
• @confused, Go to Transactions , click the plus button on Categories, a list will drop down , click the box and click the delete button , there's a page2 or next button beneath, so u might want to check them out too.
  blue2x Nov 2nd 2009  
• @fmonera Thanks you for the kinds words and I am so happy to hear that you find true value in the software. Tags are for organizational purposes. It is a way you could try to categorize transactions further. For example you may have multiple bills to pay and want the main category to be Bills so you know how much you spent each month. Individually you would like to track each specific bill further. If you have Utility and Heating bills you may categorize them as such. ex) Bill, Heating, Utility. This is how you would type it in, the bill is the category and heating and utility would be the tag. Now if you search or click on the tag you can see specifically how much you spent. In the future we are going to work on extending our charts so one would give you the ability to analyze tags.
  Craig Nov 2nd 2009  
• When I click on a tag, I just see the list of transactions that belongs to this tag. I cannot see how much I spent (unless I sum all of them by hand). And of course I cannot analyze / compare ... them.
  
  I was thinking on giving up on tags and create thousand of categories, but your last sentence made me change my mind. I will keep tagging my transactions and will wait until you give us the ability to analyze tags.
  
  Great work. Thanks.
  fmonera Nov 2nd 2009  
• A new question about tags:
  
  You say that tags are like sub-categories. That's fine. Here are two questions:
  
  1) It seems the system can end mixing totally unrelated tags. The following is just an example Category,Tag:
  
  Utilities,Water
  Bar,Water
  
  Are both "Water" two different tags or the same? I need to know because if they are the same (as it seems), we (the users :) ) can generate a mess where we cannot compare tags.
  
  
  2) If tags are really as sub-categories, is ordering important? (It should). Example:
  Car,gas,Toyota
  Car,Toyota,gas
  
  
  3) Shouldn't we search for tags just related to a category? (this probably complements the first question)
  
  
  Regards
  fmonera Nov 2nd 2009  
• @fmonera In your water example, "Water" is the same tag. In that example I could see how there could be some confusion, but mainly there probably will not be related tag situations. Order of the tag in the category does not matter, it just allows you to add another tag. Searching for tags related to the category is a great option and will be easy to find. In search you can filter between category or tags or both.
  Craig Nov 2nd 2009  
• Thanks for the answer :)
  fmonera Nov 2nd 2009  
• I have a question about fields in CSV import ... What is Check & Payee?
  How are they used in BudgetPulse?
  fmonera Nov 4th 2009  
• @fmonera Check and Payee are just more ways for you to keep track of exactly what check and who you paid it out to if you would like. It is additional data you may want to include if you write out a check to someone.
  Craig Nov 4th 2009  
• I am budgeting my main expenses and I think it is a great feature. Thanks :)
  
  1. Do you have a roadmap or a list of possible future features are you going to implement? (charts improvements, reports, ...).
  
  2. A quick and easy feature that would help me a lot is to have the sum of all transactions result of a search.
  
  I am not completely sure about which transactions are included in "Total income" and "Total expense" below the search results, but definitely it is not the sum of the transactions result of a search (just try to limit the search with dates for example).
  fmonera Nov 13th 2009