Generate a year's plan

Generate fills the year you are viewing on the Annual Budget Plan. Open that year first.

From your template, formulas and goals

1. Select Generate in the toolbar, then From my template, rules & goals….
2. Choose a Start month. Amounts are written from that month through December. The default is the current month when you view the current year, otherwise January.

3. Choose a Mode:

   • Fill empty months / raise to plan writes the plan where a cell is empty or lower than the plan. It leaves cells at or above the plan, and negative cells, alone.
   • Rebuild — replaces amounts (Rebuild below) overwrites the amounts of every category that has a template line or a funding formula, even amounts you set. A month where neither has an amount keeps its current amount.
4. Select Generate.

This uses the active template (the starred scenario; see Budget templates and scenarios), your funding formulas and the formulas that goals add. In the menu name, "rules" means funding formulas, not your categorization Rules. Generate in the dialog is dimmed until the budget has a template, a funding formula or a goal that adds one.

From last year

"Last year" is the year before the one you are viewing. This choice covers all 12 months and has no start month.

1. Select Generate, then From last year….

2. Choose a Source:

   • Last year's actuals: spending or income in each month of last year.
   • Average of last year's actuals: last year's total divided by 12, in every month.
   • Last year's budget: last year's planned amounts, month for month.
   • Average of last year's budget: last year's planned total divided by 12, in every month.
3. Choose a Mode. With Fill empty months / raise to plan, only months at $0 or with no amount are written. A month with any other amount stays as it is, even when the source figure is higher. With Rebuild, every month the source covers is written, even when the source figure is $0. Last year's budget covers only months with a saved amount.
4. Select Generate.

Actuals count transactions in on-budget accounts and categories. They ignore transfers between on-budget accounts. A category whose refunds exceed its spending gets a negative amount. Last year's budget also copies Rollover settings into months that have no saved amount. A month that already has a saved amount, $0 included, keeps its own Rollover setting.

From a recent average

1. Select Generate, then From an average of recent months….
2. Choose a Period: last 3 months, last 6 months (the default) or last 12 months. These are the whole months before the current month.
3. Choose a Start month.
4. Select Generate.

Each category with an average above $0 gets that average in every month from the start month through December, replacing amounts already there. There is no mode choice. Uncategorized transactions and transactions in off-budget accounts or categories are not counted.

Hidden categories

Every choice above skips hidden categories and categories in a hidden group. They are not written, and the dialog's "may be replaced" number and the banner's count leave them out. The Annual Budget Plan still lists a hidden category that has a plan, and you can change its cells by hand. Reset year is the exception: it clears every category, hidden ones included. See Manage categories and groups.

Replacing amounts and undo

When a choice could replace amounts you set, the dialog says, for example, "Up to 24 amounts you have already set in February to December may be replaced." The number is the most that could change. There is no second confirmation.

A banner shows how many amounts were written. When a choice would change no amount and, for Last year's budget, copy no Rollover setting, the app writes nothing, the banner shows 0 and no undo step is added. To reverse a change, use undo on the same page. See Plan your year.