Your check register has been your basic way of seeing what's in your checkbook. It's simple and intuitive. In fact it's the way most other money management and checkbook tracking software work. But ask yourself this question, when I look at the bottom number how can I tell if there is enough money to pay my electric bill and still buy that CD I want? The truth is, it's very difficult when looking at your checkbook balance to make that determination.

Imagine if you had a separate checkbook for each bill you had to pay. That would make it very easy to know if you had enough to pay each bill, but it would be a nightmare trying to keep the right amounts in each, not to mention the problem of carrying them all in your pocket.

Budget solves this problem in a simple manner. If effectively turns your checkbook into lots of little checkbooks. In fact, thinking about your envelopes in Budget as mini checkbooks is a good way to understand how things work.

Budget handles the maintenance of all these mini checkbooks (envelopes) for you. You still have your single real world bank account but now you can see where all your money is. And, by the way, you'll easily be able to see if you have enough to buy that new CD you wanted.

You can still view your checkbook register in budget

Budget is unique in that it's main focus is on your budget rather than your checkbook register. However, you can still easily view your checkbook register in Budget at any time. Select a bank account you want to work with then click the HISTORY button on the toolbar. Check the SHOW ALL TRANSACTIONS box in the resulting history window to display transactions exactly like a check register. Budget goes even further by letting you also view the checkbook register for each of your mini checkbooks — just select the envelope and click the HISTORY button in the toolbar.