Explain little dash for annual envelopes

1

I really like the little dashes (or little lines or little ticks) on monthly envelopes, as they visually show where I should be during the current month. I understand that these start from the right of the progress bar, and gradually move to the left as the month progresses. They show “how many days are left during the current month”.

However, I do not understand how they work for annual envelopes.

I expect the little dashes to work similarly for annual envelopes by showing the theoretical monthly spends, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. I tried to change the “annual envelope due date” setting, to no avail.

  1. Can someone explain/confirm how the little dashes work for annual envelopes? I could not find a help article for those. It seems like the annual envelopes are more “fill” envelopes and help achieve saving goals, rather than budget tracking.
    The little dashes seem to start from the left and gradually move to the right. They rather show “how many months are left until the next due date”. Please confirm/correct.

  2. How can I answer my need: track theoretical vs actual monthly spend on an annual envelope? i.e. show “where I am now with respect to my annual budget”. → I could see a workaround using the “Spend vs Budget” report and set the number of budget periods to the n passed months of the current year, but this is not very handy and do not work on mobile apps.

Thank you.

2

Hi @jravelojaona,

The dash only appears on Annual Envelopes with Due Dates and acts as a guide to help you stay on track with your savings. The line represents where you would be if you were “on track” with your savings. For example, if your green bar is generally near the black line, that means you’re on target to reach your goal on time.

For your second question, I think you’re asking how you track you actual spending vs. your planned spending in your Annual Envelopes. Is that right?

The only true mobile solution we have would be to compare the Spending by Envelope report against the Edit Envelope screen, but I don’t think that’s very user-friendly.

I would instead recommend using the website to compare your Spending by Envelope report against your Budget Allocation report (which is essentially your current budget plan). You can then compare you spend for any month against your Budget Allocation to see how you did.

I hope that helps!
Karisa