To save your file use the File > Save... menu command or click the SAVE toolbar button. You will see the standard save window if you decide to save the file.

Changes (recording transactions, etc.) made during your working session are only made in memory. This means that until you save your work the changes you have made are not written to your hard disk. If you attempt to quit the program or close the budget file you are working with you will see the save window. Click SAVE CHANGES to write the data to the disk and save your work. Click DON'T SAVE to return to the same data you had when you started the program. Click CANCEL to return to the main menu.

Budget provides strong industry standard AES-128 encryption of it's data file. To set a password use the File > Set Password... menu command. The Set Password window will be displayed. Enter your password and click OK. To remove a password click the Clear button.

Files in the Budget XML Document format may be moved between platforms. Budget XML Documents must have a filename extension of .budgetx. If necessary, use the File > Save As... menu command and save the data file in the Budget XML Document format.

Files moved between platforms may only contain features available on both platforms; features not supported on both platforms will be dropped. See the restrictions list below for more info.

Remember, this is your financial data, ALWAYS MAKE COPIES OF YOUR DATA FILE FOR BACKUP. Develop your own strategy and stick with it. One method is to save a copy of your budget data file each month just after you balance your checkbook. That way you will always have a valid starting point if something should go wrong during the month. We have made every effort to insure that Budget works correctly. Budget includes a number of integrity routines that are constantly checking the data to insure its correctness, however, errors can occur. Disks can crash, power can fail, and even the operating system can have a bug.

The Budget program also provides an automatic backup feature. When you save a Budget file for the first time the document is saved as usual. When you save a Budget file for the second time, the previous budget file will be renamed as a backup file, and then the new data is saved in the new file.

When you save a Budget file any time after the first or second time, the previous backup file will be deleted, the previous data file will be renamed as the backup file, and then the new data is saved in the new file.

If Budget is set to only keep one backup file (the default), the naming convention for the backup file is to put a tilde (~) after the file name but before the .budgetx (or .budget). So, "Our Budget.budgetx" has a backup file of "Our Budget~.budgetx".You can use the Preferences window to set the location of this backup file.

Budget can also be set to keep dated backups which add the date to the file name instead of a tilde. In this case, "Our Budget.budgetx" has backup files such as "Our Budget08-10-02.budgetx", "Our Budget08-11-02.budgetx", etc. These backup files are only created once per day, so any later changes to the file will be backed up on the next day that Budget is run. You can use the Preferences window to switch between the dated and one file backup strategy.