Watch My Budget Changelog

What's new in Watch My Budget 2.61.0.0

May 23, 2017

The size of popup edit forms has been restricted when necessary to fit on tablet screens.
Single Date mode in the Find function makes it easy to look for payments on specific dates.
More functionality in Clear Old Payments function.
More warnings when importing transfers.
Improved layout and calculation of Budget vs History function.
Budget and cash flow reports to Excel are now produced from report previews so that, like other reports, the date range can be selected.
Improved importing of CSV bank files.
The Find function has an improved layout, more bulk change functions and shows scheduled payments for comparison.
A rate of inflation can be entered in general settings and used in budget item formulae like: =[amount]*[inflationM]

New in Watch My Budget 2.60.0.0 (Feb 21, 2017)

New in Watch My Budget 2.2.0.0 (Jan 30, 2014)

The Situation, a dashboard summarising your current finances, now includes mini-graphs to visualise the results and allows printing.
The Seasons function shows a graph of monthly amounts.
When importing, a Split payment can be entered before assigning a bank payment to a category.
The Help system has been updated made more accessible with Help buttons on more forms.
Calculation reports (for debts and assets) now show a list of payments, when Summary Only reporting is off.
Graph improvements and incompatibility message no longer shows when installing onto Windows Vista and 7.
New Payments and Interest graphs, for Debts/Assets, visualise change in balance over a date range in relation to how much is being paid off/invested and how much interest is being charged/earned.
New graph shows all accounts, debts or assets individually, together with their total.
Watch My Budget is now on Facebook (see Links menu). Coummunicate with other users about the program or budgeting and personal finances.
The price of the full version is reduced to $US20 or $NZD30. This provides functions for debts & assets, importing of internet bank files, scenarios, and exporting of budget and cash flow reports to Excel.
New graphs of Payments by Month/Pay Period (History and Future) visualise changes in spending patterns over time. It is also easier to switch between alternate graphs.
A Cash Flow can now be produced as an Excel file, including formulae for totals and running balances. This is useful for a budget advisor to give their client, who can adjust with actual payments over time.
Comments for categories and budget items can be prefixed with a punctuation mark, such as ? for queries, > for documents. The Budget Comments report shows such comments organised like a budget and you can now select which marks to include.
Cash Flow bug fixed.
Categories as well as budget items can have comments and both sets of comments are shown on the Comments Report (when prefixed with a punctuation mark).
Reports and lists can be printed with or without grid lines.
Payments can now be imported from csv files (previously only qif files), either internet bank files or exported payment data from another system, preferably with column headers date, amount, payee or category, and tran type.
More debt details can be shown in Debt report: Secured debts can be flagged and any comments starting with % are listed with debt repayments.
The reports menu includes Asset reports and the Find function can produce Balance Sheets.
In the Find function each budget has a Remembered date range, making it quicker to reproduce reports for a specific period of time.
A new setting called Budgeting Only hides the functionality to switch budgets into tracking With History. So by default WMB is a dynamic budgeting tool only, but can be switched into 'accounting mode' if desired.
Historical balances of debts and assets can now be tracked and reported, by entering actual interest amounts or balances when a statement is received.
Easier to work with debts: Interest rate calculator can be used to estimate itnerest rate from debt details.
Easier to work with debts: Calculation report shows date when all loans repaid and calculators for Stop Date and repayment amount use existing repayments.
The website rsvconsulting.co.nz has quick-start budgets for New Zealand superannuatants.
The Find function is even more flexible: Multiple accounts can be selected and reported together.
The Find function is even more flexible: Multiple headings can be selected and reported together. Budget Report can now be produced for selected dates and headings.
When importing, the calculated balance can be used to set the Recent balance, if it agrees with the bank balance.
Budget vs History function can now suggest the best period for a category, based on actual payments.
New report: Payment List by Category can be used to produce a complete payment list for your accountant.
Future Spending report now shows estimated interest.
The custom report dates function, which allows a specific report date range to be stored for a budget, has been extended to all future reports, including Calculation report.
New How-To videos on the Watch My Budget website.
Cash Flow report can be produced for any date range, using the Find function.
Accumulated long carry-overs are now excluded from cash flow and account balances. You indicate when they will be spent by transferring amounts onto normal carry-overs.
Help has been updated for the simpler screen layout and Customise function.
Cash flow spreadsheet shows dollars only, by default.
Situation now shows a summary of overall finances (current budget, spending, balance sheet) together with account status and payments of interest.
The graph in Cash Flow View can either show account balances or the accumulated Income - Expenses.
The screen has been simplified by moving all settings into a Customise form, and major functions (like whether to budget with accounts) can be switched on or off.
The Account Usage graph lets you visualise how you use your various accounts and whether the budget has sufficient transfers.
New Budget Comments report can be used to document issues for a budget: Each budget item can have comments entered via the edit form and any such comments that start with a special character like * are automatically included in this report.
Without History, you are now asked whether to delay old payments which may be still relevant: Recent bills may not have been paid, recent grocery allowance may not have been used.
Planned payments are always regenerated when changes are made to the budget, not just when using an edit form with a Regenerate option.
Figures can now be entered directly into the spreadsheet in Cash Flow View, unless there are confirmed payments or payments of varying amounts within a cell.
With History, a payment list automatically scrolls to show the most recent confirmed payment.
Cash Flow View now shows all total rows at the top, including the running close balance.
Accumulated unspent or overspent long carry-over amounts can be excluded from tracking and from cash flows, because you may not know when or if you will use them.
When using the Budget vs History function within Tracking View, you can view graphs to visualise as you revise the budget.
One-off payments and Carry-overs can be searched in the Find function.
Unspent and over-spent amounts for a long carry-over category are accumulated into a separate one-off payment, which can be edited or delayed.
One-off payments can be excluded from reports, so that large one-off items do not affect reporting of normal income and expenses.
SampleBudgetKR has import rules for common retailers in Food and other categories, ready for using Quick History to setup budget from actual payments.
Find function has a list of common date ranges, such as Current Pay Period.
Savings are reported separately to expenses, while budgeting and also while tracking, so you can see if there is sufficient surplus to cover intended savings amounts.
Quick History mode lets you import and enter payments to revise the budget without the effort of full tracking.
The Smooth Payments setting has two levels - whether calculation of tracking amounts takes into account the due date and the period of time that each payment relates to.
For users who work with many budgets, there are settings to Not open the previous budget on start-up and to only allow budgeting and planning (hide the With History function).
You can enter a calculation for any $ amount or balance in a list or form. For example in the list of budget items you could enter '200/3' in the $In column and the value 66.67 would be calculated.
You are immediately warned after editing a payment that puts account reconciliations out of balance
Scenarios (replacing budget options) make it easy to setup a number of scenarios to investigate alternative budgets, assign budget items to scenarios then switch scenarios to activate/deactivate their items
The user is guided to the Next Step at important points.
New category timing 'Savings' can be used to allow for amounts to be put aside but not to affect the planned cash flow.
A desktop shortcut is created as the program is installed.
A budget item with a stop date shows the number of years/months until the stop date. You can set the stop date by changing either number, useful when doing debt calculations.
The Draft Budget report can be produced with or without timing and other details, by using the Summary Only setting.
Find form can be minimised to retain settings.
Arrears Report summarises overdue payments, and Debt report shows arrears on debt repayments.
Revised Steps outline the main steps for Budgeting, Cash Flow and Tracking.
Revised budgeting tutorials, and new tutorials for Cash Flow and Tracking.
Report contents are copied to the clipboard and reports can be previewed even if your computer has no installed printers.
The Date Format option lets you choose which format dates are displayed in.
In the Find function the 'Exclude selected categories' option can be used to produce a report which excludes some payments.
Tracking report, like Spending report, can be produced from the Find function for any date range and selected accounts or categories.
New graph in Accounting View shows all balances in order, then the overall balance relative to one month's income.
When editing a budget item or payment in a form, a calculation can be entered for the $ amount In or Out and the program will calculate the value.
New shortcut to the Budget vs History function, while viewing actual payments. Within this function, suggested new budget values are automatically entered ready for update.
Short carry-over budget items can be automatically synchronized with your pay periods.
Pay Period Postion report shows how much you have received and spent so far in the current pay period, and how much remains.
Button to quickly add a new category while importing.
Freeware version now allows manual tracking and multiple accounts (but not importing).
Start balance can be entered for Budget View and Cash Flow View.
Ability to change dates for graphing and reporting, in Tracking View and Budget View.
Program Level allows new users to start from a simple budget sheet then go up levels of functionality.
Account balances can be quickly edited in Cash Flow View.
While editing a budget item its category can also be edited.
When using WMB Without History, special processing of old payments makes it easier to setup the starting situation for budgeting and planning.
Arrears can be managed by creating an arrears debt, transferring bills to that debt then making repayments on it.
When assigning payments to categories during importing, the 'Sort by Heading' option can be used to show the category list grouped by heading.
Transfers are now shown in the Cash Flow spreadsheet, even if the net amount is zero
Major revision of Help contents and screen shots
Reconciliation function is easier and more flexible - if you enter the bank balance while importing then the reconciliation defaults to this balance and date
If you choose Favorite accounts then these are selected (instead of All Accounts) in Budget, Accounting and Cash Flow Views. This lets you ignore savings accounts during day-to-day management of your finances.
Without History, repayments on Debts can be recorded so the current balance can be calculated from repayments since the last known balance.
More status information in Accounting View, Summary Only toolbar button.
When you create a new Import Rule during importing then change the category of a bank payment assigned by that, the rule and other bank payments assigned by it can also be changed to the new category.
Editing the category of an Import Rule automatically finds recorded payments and prompts you to make the corresponding category change.
Calculation Report for debts or Assets shows total payments and interest, then a list of inidividual payment.
When setting a planning date to manage cash flow, payments from up to a month before are icluded in the cuurent pay period for editing.
Delete All button within Find function allows bulk deleting of payments.
Clear History function can be used to clear either All data or Old data.
Import a budget from an existing Excel budget (WMB format).
Mark budget items which you want to be reminded to pay: Reference=Remind. Payments will be listed in Situation, and marked with an alarm clock, for two weeks before they are due.
You are warned if a Carry-over category is overspent in the current period.
Internet banking website and access number can be entered for accounts, to speed up the download of files for importing.
A currency symbol- can be entered, instead of $.
Part(s) of a split payment can be marked 'varies' so the amount is automatically adjusted during importing so the total matches the bank payment.
A recorded payment created while importing, with the Add Now or Split functions, can be cancelled.
The vs History function in Budget View now shows actual payments in a category and has more options for updating budget items from history.
You are warned if a Debt is not fully paid off by the Stop Date, usually because the stop date needs to be reset.
Pay Period View is visible when Without History and with a Planning date, for adjustment of payments in upcoming pay periods.
Tools menu gives instructions on how to associate the Watch My Budget program with its files.
Debt and Asset balance dates can be edited when editing their associated Category.
Import Rules can be dependent on the Account being imported, which is useful for Transfers and other bank-related payments.
Split payments are shown in each of their categories during importing.
You are warned if you start to import a bank file and there is a time gap since the last import.
Pay Period View shows which pay period is displayed, and there is a button to view a pay period from Cash Flow View.
The date of a payment can be more easily changed, by using new -1 and +1 day functions.
Pay Period View has a pie chart of the pay period's income and expenses.
Pay Period View includes a Net column showing the running total for the pay period.
Tracking View graphs compare history and scheduled payment by Pay Period rather than by month.
More short-cuts and colour-coding in Cash Flow View make it easier to adjust the cash flow.
Situation screen summarises data including regular payments overdue/due soon and Carry-overs available.
Automatic Carry-over of budgeted amounts after subtracting imported payments, by setting the 'Timing' of selected categories
Budget vs History function can now revise budget item accounts and due dates from historic payments
Up-to-Date function helps you set the Track-To date and process payments which are not confirmed
New Income vs Expense mini-graphs in status bar show net results in a visual way
Import Rules can include *, to match to any text
Budget vs History function lets you revise budget amounts from historic payments, apply percentage increases, optionally set a start date, and move quickly through categories
Find regular Expenses due, as budget opens
Find function can produce a Spending Report & hide selections
Account balances can be post-dated during budgeting
Budget can be edited while graph is floating
Help has been updated regarding Debts & Assets
Forecast payment lists show estimated interest for debts & Assets
Transfers are shown in Draft Budget Report and Budget To Excel
Budgeting Tutorial gives step by step instructions with pictures
Produce 'Partial' reports by right-clicking on the Account Outline or Category Outline
New report: Budget by Account Report - calculates budget per accounts
New report: Forecast Balance Sheet - calculates balances of accounts, debts and Assets
Account interest is calculated from the running balance
Float the graph in its own window,by double clicking it
Assets can be recorded, such as KiwiSaver