Each time you deposit your income into Budget, you will distribute it to your envelopes to refill them. There are two ways to do this:

1. You can record a split deposit to your checking account. In the split deposit window you can manually distribute the deposit to your envelopes.
2. You can use the Record Pay Command and Budget will automatically enter the deposit and distribute your pay to your envelopes.

Here is an example of the main difference between the two methods. Suppose you have created 3 envelopes and you get paid $300 every week. This week you deposit your pay at the bank, and in Budget you would record the deposit of $300 to your checking account, then distribute $100 to each of your 3 envelopes. Next week you would again deposit your pay at the bank and again in Budget you would record the deposit, and distribute $100 to each of your 3 envelopes. You would repeat this step each time you get paid. Now wouldn't it be a lot easier to somehow say "each time I get paid put $100 in each of these 3 envelopes"? This is exactly what an "Record Pay" command does in Budget.

You can use the split deposit to enter your income at any time, however, to use the Record Pay command, you will first have to decide if you want to create your allocation plan manually or let Budget do it for you.

Do it your self

You may want to develop your own pay allocation plan and not use Budget's calculations at all. To be able to do this, DO NOT define "Expense/Budget" amounts. (Just skip that step in the setup process). Without "expense" information, Budget will not calculate your pay allocation amounts. You will then be able to decide how you want each pay allocated and Budget will simply use your numbers.

Using the "Pay Allocations" window (from the Accounts menu), click on the Pay Details Tab. You'll see a list of your Envelopes with no pay allocations. Enter amounts directly to set the individual amounts that you want allocated from each pay to go into these envelopes.

Using the "Envelope Info" window for an individual envelope, click on the "Pay Details" button. (Do not enter anything in the "Expense Amount budgeted" field). You can enter amounts directly into the Pay Details table to set amounts allocated to that envelope from each pay.

After you've set up your pay allocation plan, you'll be able to use the "Record Pay" command each time you get paid. You can review your pay allocations and make adjustments before recording the pay if you wish, or just record the pay without adjustments.

Let Budget do it automatically

Define your Expense (Budget) Amounts to set the total amount needed for the expense and which pay source it comes from. Budget does the calculation to evenly take money from each pay to meet the expense requirements. This means that if you get paid twice a month and have a monthly expense of $1,000, Budget will allocate $500 out of each pay for that expense.

1. During the Setup Process (Step 5 in "Set up Manually"; and the "Enter Expense" step in the Set up Assistant).
2. Using the "Pay Allocations" window (from the Accounts menu), Expense Amounts tab.
3. Using the "Envelope Info" window for an individual envelope. Use the "Expense Amount (Budgeted)" field to specify the amount and frequency required, and also to select which pay source(s) to use.

Modify Budget's Calculations

You may not agree with Budget's default calculation for some expenses; e.g., you may want to pay some bills totally from your first pay of the month, and other bills total from your 2nd pay of the month rather than allocating an even amount from each pay. If you want Budget to do the math and just want to make a few modifications to Budget's calculations, you may do that in two ways:

1. Using the "Pay Allocations" window (from the Accounts menu), click on the Pay Details Tab. You'll see a list of your Envelopes and Budgets calculated pay allocations. Change any of the amounts.
2. Using the "Envelope Info" window for an individual envelope, click on the "Pay Details" button to see how Budget has calculated the pay allocations. Change any of the amounts.

Once you have your allocation plan define your pay sources ("Amount and Frequency"), and define your expenses ("Amount and Frequency") so Budget can calculate how much to distribute to your envelopes each time you get paid. You do this only once. Then each time you get paid you tell Budget to enter the pay and it automatically distributes the pay for you.

When you set up your pay sources, either by using the Setup Assistant or in the pay source window, there are two parts, the amount and how often you get paid. Budget has a predefined list of pay frequencies that you may select.

If you are paid on a regular "fixed" basis, just enter the amount and one of the first 4 frequencies shown below. However, if you receive variable pay of different amounts and/or different frequencies, you would enter an average pay amount, and select the "variable" frequency that best matches how often you get paid each month. It is best to select the maximum number or pays you might receive in a month. For a more advanced method of handling Variable Pays, see "Rules Based Allocations" below.

• Monthly - 1 pay each month (12 per year)
• Semi Monthly - 2 pays per month (24 per year)
• Bi-Weekly - 2.17 pays per month (26 per year)
• Weekly - 4.34 pays per month (52 per year)
• Variable1 - about 1 pay per month (about 12 per year)
• Variable2 - about 2 pays per month (about 24 per year)
• Variable3 - about 3 pays per month (about 36 per year)
• Variable4 - about 4 pays per month (about 48 per year)
• Variable5 - about 5 pays per month (about 60 per year)

Once you have defined your pay sources, the next step is to define your expenses. You can define your expenses during the Setup Assistant, by using the Pay Allocation Table to work with all you envelopes, or in each individuual envelope. With that information, Budget automatically calculates your "pay allocations" (the amount of money to distribute to each envelope each time you get paid). Budget has a predefined list of expense frequencies that you may select.

• Annually - 1 payment each year
• Semi-Annually - 2 payments each year
• Quarterly - 4 payments each year
• Monthly - 1 payment each month (12 per year)
• Semi Monthly - 2 payments per month (24 per year)
• Bi-Weekly - 2.17 payments per month (26 per year)
• Weekly - 4.34 payments per month (52 per year)

For each expense, Budget determines the amount needed each month and divides it by the number of pays in the month, except for the following rule:

When a pay is defined as either Weekly or Bi-Weekly, Budget does not take allocations from the "extra" pays that occur every 3 months for Weekly or 6 months for Bi-Weekly, EXCEPT when the expense is also defined as either Weekly or Bi-Weekly.

Why? In the case of monthly expenses like rent or the phone bill, the extra pay is really "extra" and not usually needed to pay the monthly expense. The extra pay can be used to pay bills that occur semi-annual or annually or placed in savings. However, for ongoing expenses that occur weekly or biweekly like groceries, automobile gas, lunch money, etc. a portion of each pay is needed each time for these expenses.

If you want to change the calculations that Budget has made, you can easily do so either in the Pay Allocation Table or in the individual Envelope Info window.

You do not have to define pay sources or expenses and set up pay allocations to use Budget. If you don't do this, you can still create envelopes and set aside money for expenses. Budget will work just like any other checkbook manager allowing you to write checks, make deposits, balance your checkbook etc. However, defining pay sources and preallocating pay to your envelopes are what gives Budget it's full power to help you manage a budget.

Budget has a more advanced method of handling pays that are variable. You can set up rules that specify how your pay is to be distributed. Rules are best used when your pay varies greatly from one pay to another or when you want to allocate your money to your envelopes on a "priority" basis. See the section Pay Rules for more information. For pays that vary a small amount you can define your pay as a "variable" pay and use the standard pay entry command. Which method you use will depend on your unique situation and the flexibility you need.