We've added the ability to tie multiple Bills to a single category. If you would like your category to be used for both Bills and Other transactions, you can break the tie from your Bills by updating the category created and click the "Break Tie with Bill(s)" link. This will allow you to specify whatever amount you would like to allocate towards this category. Then when recording a bill payment, you'll just need to select that category from the drop down list.
06/02/2007 20:03:11
support
Administrator
Re:Budget categories vs. bills: One-To-Many?
Thank you for the feedback. We've been thinking of a way to make this easier use. Currently, the sub-categories will support multiple bills but the way to do it is not self explanatory yet. To do so, update both of your existing Bills and choose the sub-category you would like to link them to. If creating a new Bill, do not select a pre-defined category for the Bill so you can update it with the shared sub-category. When more than one Bill is assigned to a sub-category, they will both show up when hovering your mouse over the sub-category on the My Budget page. Additionally both Bills will be calculated into the total amount of the budgeted item. For transactions, the category will already be available in the category drop down. Once a transaction is entered either from Paying an existing Bill or adding it in from the right side, this will be calculated into your available amount on the My Budget page as well as show up on the My Transactions page. If you would like to manually define the budget amount instead of tying it to only Bills, you can leave the pre defined category empty when creating or updating your Bills. Then when you go to pay the bill, you will then need to select the category to apply the amount to. If you have suggestions for making this process easier, please let us know. We might be updating the pre defined categories when creating a new Bill to also include a way to select already entered categories.
05/30/2007 02:36:31
johnmblack
User
Budget categories vs. bills: One-To-Many?
I have a category (really a subcategory) called "Childcare", that I want to use for tracking both a weekly daycare payment and also occasional extra summer camp fees for my other child.
The fact that the period is different (weekly vs. on-demand) isn't really the problem. The problem is that in the Budget, Bills seem to be tied to Categories in a one-to-one relationship. Once I tag the daycare recurring bill to the Childcare category, I am unable to aggregate any other items or budget amounts into that category.
In an ideal system, I should be able to lump (assign) as many different things into a category as I want: recurring bills, one-time transactions, random predictions for certain months (ex. I know I will spend $800 a month extra in childcare in June, July, & August.)
