The following instructions assume that you've already set up your working bank accounts (checking and savings) and have created your expense envelopes.

First, set up the new account as a credit card account. (If you do not have a current balance on your credit card, skip ahead to "After Setup" below).

Next, you'll need to initialize this credit card account with your current credit card balance by recording a charge transaction to the credit card account.You may use either of these two methods to record the current debt:

1. Record the existing debt as a lump sum.

If you don't want to enter the existing debt in specific expense envelopes, you can just record the charge as one amount that represents all the charges you made in the past. You can put that amount in the credit card account "Available" envelope; however, we suggest that you first create an envelope specifically for your existing debt. You might want to name the envelope "Old Debt", or "Existing Debt", etc. You will then record the charge in this envelope.

2. Record the existing debt in more than one envelope.

You can also distribute your debt to your envelopes. To do so, you will record a split charge. In the split charge dialog, you would enter "Credit Card Starting Balance", and then enter the amount of the debt you want for each envelope next to it in the table. The total amount at the top will be the total amount of the debt.

You will enter the numbers as positive, but Budget shows the amount you owe to a credit card as a negative amount because it is money that you owe.

Any new charges you've made since that statement should be recorded as charges to your credit card account in the appropriate envelope.

To record a charge see the section on recording charges.

When your next credit card statement arrives, you should reconcile your credit card account. Use the balance window to enter your statement balance and check off those transactions that show up on the statement. (Remember to enter the statement balance as a negative number unless you overpaid your credit card company and they owe you money). See the section on balancing your bank account for more information.

Handling refunds can be done in one of two ways. You can deposit the amount of the refund to the credit card account using the appropriate envelope, or you can record a charge transaction and turn on the REFUND checkbox. In either case, if you try to edit the refund transaction it will show up in the deposit window for editing.

After balancing a credit card account, you usually pay the credit card company from your bank account. In Budget, we've streamlined the process a bit for you. Drag from the bank account that you're paying from and drop on the credit card account you're paying off. You'll get a split check (or debit) transaction that has a popup menu to help you fill in the amount of money you want to pay the credit card company. We suggest you try to get to the point where you pay off your charges in full each month. The best way to deal with credit card debt is not to have any. If you do pay off your credit card in full at the end of the month Budget has a payment option that is perfect for that. It looks at those transactions you just reconciled in the BALANCE window and sets up that amount.

To handle a large charge that you can't pay off at the end of the month we suggest you handle it just like described above for handling existing debt. Create a new envelope with a name that reflects what the purchase was, "New Furniture", for example. Balance the charge on the next statement and then pay it down each month. Budget has two options when paying the credit card bill that help you do that. See the paying off a credit card topic for more information.