Total Balance in Envelopes Doesn't Align with Account Balance

1

Hi!

I’m having an issue where the total amount in my envelopes isn’t aligning with the total amount in my account, but the account balance is correct. So for example, my envelopes total $100 but my account balance is actually $50. Is there a way I can correct this without messing up my account balance?

2

There’s not really a way you can change this because the envelopes and accounts measure the same pool of money. Any change to one will automatically change the other.
Did you add your Unallocated amount to the total (it should be negative in this example), as well as the balance on any credit cards that you pay in full? If so, you may need the Admins to take a look just to be sure they’re isn’t a quirk somewhere. The two totals (envelopes and accounts) should always be equivalent.

3

careful :wink:

4

Thanks! I didn’t have anything in my unallocated and I double-checked my credit card balances. I tried making a “fake” account attached to a “fake envelope” to account for this and that seemed to work for now

5

Ooh…that could be dangerous. Accounts aren’t tied directly to envelopes so a “fake account” is still affecting your apparent available funds. (Lol KS don’t @ me! :grin:)
You should definitely have the same amount on the envelopes side as you do on the accounts side without having to create dummy accounts; what you’ve described could mean you inadvertently overspend but still appear to stay “within your budget”.
Hopefully the admins can look directly at your account and see exactly where the discrepancy is!

6

@kschedler Haha—it’s still true even though YOU have an account full of play money :grin:

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7

That’s not what I meant :slight_smile:

“envelopes and accounts measure the same pool of money.”

true

" Any change to one will automatically change the other."

not quite…

The only way to change the pool of money is through Accounts. You can change envelopes around all day long and never affect the Accounts, and vice versa. You might incidentally change Unallocated while you monkey around with things, however.

2 Likes
8

Thanks and yes you’re right that’s why I tried to make it clear for me to know those funds were nonexistent. I could erase the “fake envelopes and accounts” but I’m still left with mismatched information in my envelopes and accounts.

I recently within the last two months deleted all my accounts and envelopes and started over from scratch because I had some major financial shifts and that felt easier than ALL the obstacles I encountered. So it didn’t take long for me to go through my current envelopes and accounts and I can’t figure out why there is a misalignment within accepting that the unallocated will be negative

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@kschedler Ah fair point—ya got me :blush:

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Hi @Ana_Brown

Sorry for the trouble! It sounds like you might have allocated more to your Envelopes than what’s in your Accounts. I know you said your Unallocated isn’t negative, so I could be wrong, but I won’t be able to say for sure without taking a look at your Household. Please shoot us an email to support@goodbudget.com and we’ll take a look!

Thanks so much!
Karisa