So I have a Debt Account, and added a new charge to it, but it doesn’t allow me to specify an envelope for the charge. It has to come out of my budget somewhere, but I don’t see any way to do this?
There’s no easy, one-step process that I’m aware of to do this, but there is a bit of a workaround.
After you enter the new Debt charge, you’ll have a higher balance on the credit card but no envelope transaction to associate with it. In this case, I would do an Envelope Transfer from the appropriate envelope into the Debt Payment envelope. This will 1) add that amount to the amount you intend to pay on the debt, and 2) create a transaction in that envelope.
Example:
I carry a $1,000 balance on a MyBank Visa that I’m paying off at $100/mo. Each month, I put $100 in the Debt Payment envelope to go toward the balance.
This month, I find myself at the grocery store and I’ve forgotten my debit card, so I use the MyBank Visa to pay the $50 grocery bill.
In Goodbudget I would do the following:
1–create a $50 Debt transaction with the “Add Interest, Fee, or New Charge” instruction
2–Transfer $50 from my Grocery envelope to my MyBank Visa Debt Payment envelope and rename the transfer “Corner Grocery” so it looks like other transactions.
3–When I pay the Visa bill, I pay $150 (the $100 I added during my budget Fill and the additional $50 I transferred in)
This won’t be reflected accurately in your spending reports, but it will keep your monthly totals on track.
If on the other hand you can’t pay it all off at once, there’s no easy answer for that.
You might try adding a $0 transaction in that envelope as a placeholder, and putting the real value in the comments but that won’t help your budgeting or your reports.
Goodbudget is really designed to live a cash-based lifestyle, so when it’s necessary to use credit it causes some hiccups.
Hopefully there will be a fix for this someday!
This app is confusing. Cant deduct the money used for the month in the envelope. It is complicated. Can i get a refund so i can utilize something more simplistic?
I’m not an Admin, but what do you mean you “can’t deduct the money used”? I don’t understand.
@demishia24 there’s definitely a learning curve, but there a several users here to help you. Honestly, debt accounts, in my opinion, are difficult. I stay away from them unless I borrow money for a single purpose and have to repay over time. If you’re willing to continue to ask questions I believe you’ll figure it out.
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