Budget4All

Main Window

This is the main window for Budget4All. A scenario is a file that contains definitions for incomes and expenses. You open a scenario though the "Scenario" menu at the top. Once the scenario is opened,  the evolution of your net balance (cashflow) through time (red curve) is displayed. You can select a point on the curve and the associated incomes & expenses are displayed on the right. The time period can be changed from 1 week to 50 years (bottom right). Also, the arrows at the bottom right allows the displayed period to shift. You specify the starting amount of money you have at this moment in the edit box at the bottom of the screen named "today's balance". Changes made to a scenario can be saved with the "Scenario->save" menu.

Editing a scenario

You can easily change the incomes and expenses defined in a scenario : use the "Scenario->Edit"  menu. Incomes and expenses are displayed separately (select either the "incomes" or "expenses" button). The annual rate of inflation can also be specified (either the same value every year or specific value for each year)

Editing an income or an expense (known as "cashflow")

Budget4All provides you with the capability to define easily all kind of incomes / expenses that correspond to real-life situation. For example, you can create an income that occur just once or every day or week or month or year. Furthermore, you can specify a multiplying factor for the period, for example every 3 months or every 24 weeks. You specify the period of time into which the income/expense can occur, identified as the start and end date in the form. You may add a growth factor (Annual growth rate). Finally, you can decide if the inflation defined in the scenario is applicable to that income/expense.

Analyzing incomes /expenses

A pie chart (menu "Tools->Analysis") shows you the relative proportion of incomes in a certain period of time. You may decide to use expenses instead. This is very useful to know what are your msot important incomes / expenses in your budget. In the same window, you can decide to have a look at the "Financial Events" panel to get another view of your data.

Exporting Data

Although scenario files are just plain XML data (can be encrypted though if you want to keep data private) and thus can be freely inspected,  Budget4All gives you the possibility to export scenario data to a browser (html file actually) or a spreadsheet (CSV file). Use the "Scenario->Export" menu.This may help if you want to keep "human readable" copies of your data or if you want to do further analysis of the data contains in scenarios.

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