Reports & Charts

Simple Budget is supplied with a variety of reports that give the status of the current state of your finances. Most reports also have Charts to give a visual representation of the state of your finances.

To display a report, select “View / Reports” in the main Simple Budget menu, then select the report you want to view.

Different reports have different options.  Most reports have a “Print” option.  Click the “Print” button to see a print preview.   The preview of the report will be displayed with several options. See the picture below for information on the report print preview options (Picture 1).

Some reports have charting & graphing options.  Click the buttons to check them out.

Many reports have sorting options also.  Sort the report to your liking.  When you print a report, the sort order will be the same as you selected.

Most Simple Budget windows have a calculator you can open to use.  It pops out of Simple Budget and can be placed anywhere you like.

The close button will close the window and return you to the previous window.

(1)Print Preview Report Options

Printing From a Snap Install

If you have installed the Linux version of Simple Budget through the Ubuntu Snap Store, you may have difficulties printing reports and charts.

If the “Printer” icon is grayed out in the print preview as shown in Picture 1 above, and you can not print from Simple Budget, open a terminal window, copy the following command, and paste it in the terminal window and run it. Enter your password when requested and press “Enter”.

sudo snap connect simplebudget:cups-control :cups-control

The following Reports are available in Simple Budget. Select a link or scroll down.

View Fund Balances

The “View Fund Balances” report lists the start balance, budget, change, and current balances of all funds. This report does NOT explicitly show how much was spent in each fund, but rather the sum of all changes in the fund. The changes in the funds may come from Purchases, Deposits, or Transfers to the funds. It gives a quick overview of the current fund balances. For more information on Funds, look HERE.

(2) View Fund Balances

Click “Print” to see a print preview of the report as shown below.

(3) View Fund Balances Report

Several chart options are available for the “View Fund Balances” report. There are “Bar Chart” with options and “Pie Chart” with options. In both charts, first select the upper check boxes of options you want, then below the check boxes select how you want the chart to be sorted. If you select an option button that needs a certain check box to be checked, Simple Budget will check the box and display the chart according to the button clicked. There are other options, like “Show Amounts”, and the z axis on the bar chart. Try them all and see your funds in graphical form to help you see where you spent your money or what is the largest income.

(4) View Funds Balances Bar Chart
(5) View Funds Pie Chart

View Fund Details

The “View Fund Details” report shows a bit more information than the “View Fund Balances” report. While the “View Fund Balances” shows the changes made during the month, it does not explain what those changes are. In this report, details about each fund are shown which include Budget, Debits, Credits, Transfers into the fund, and Transfers out of the fund. See the example below. Look at the fund “Entertainment – Eating Out”. The balance is $103.17, but what was actually spent in the fund? If you look closely, the budget for this fund is $50 per month and $52.74 was actually spent in the month even though the balance is $103.17. Looking closer, we see that there was a $100 transfer into the fund. If we are concerned with what we actually spend in each fund, the $52.74 becomes more important than the balance of $103.17 because we are trying to control our spending. For more information on Funds, go HERE.

(6) View Fund Details Report

If we select the row that contains the fund “Entertainment – Eating Out” and clicking the button “Transactions: One Fund”, we will see a listing of all the transactions in the month that are affect “Entertainment – Eating Out”. Note that there is no option to print a report for the transactions for one fund here. To print a report for the transactions of one fund, go to the “Transactions for one Fund” report HERE.

(7) All Transactions for One Fund

If we click the “Funds” button, Simple Budget will go back to the Funds Details listing. This report also has a sub-report that will list each fund, and all of the transactions that affect that fund. It is like the “Transactions: One Fund” option but with all funds. Click “Transactions: All Funds” to see the report.

(8) Transactions for all Funds report

If we want to see a graph of what was actually spent in each fund, click on the “Expenses” button. This will open a chart that will show Budget amounts, total Expenses (Debits – Credits), and the current Balance. The chart can be sorted by “Fund name, Expense (Debits – Credits), the Budget amounts, or the current Balance. This chart does not include any amounts “Transferred” in or out of the funds but only spending and deposits.

(9) Expense vs Budget Chart

Zoom into the chart by holding the left mouse button and dragging it. Zoom into the “Entertainment – Eating Out” area and click the “Show Amounts” check box.

(10) Expense vs Budget Chart Zoomed In

From this chart, we can see the actual amount spent eating out. The bar is red because it exceeds the monthly budget, but it also shows that the fund is not empty, but actually has $103.17 in it. If we want to control our spending, we would have to make other plans so we don’t go over our monthly budget eating out.

Spending more than the monthly budget is not necessarily bad, if it is planned for. Look at Picture 9 above. Look at the fund “Gifts – Christmas”. The bar is red because the monthly expenses in this fund exceed the Budget for the month. That is okay though because we have been putting aside $90 (the Budget amount) each month for Christmas gifts and now it is the time to spend it. From the graph in Picture 8, and from the fund list (Picture 6), we can see that the fund “Gifts – Christmas” started out at the beginning of the month with $419.13, then the budget of $90 was added to it. We spent $233.65, which is way more than the monthly budget, but still have a balance of $275.48. Simple Budget makes it easy to save up for larger expenditures like this… if it is planned!

View Budget Amounts

To see a list of the budget amounts, select “View Budget Amounts” under the “View / Reports” menu. The list is separated between Income Funds and Expense Funds with the total of each displayed. If the two are equal, then the “Budget is Balanced”. That means that the expected income for the month equals the expected budgeted expense for the month. No transactions can be entered into Simple Budget unless the budget is balanced.

Having a balanced budget does not mean that there is enough money in the bank account to cover all the funds. Notice that the Budget Amounts for Income Funds is negative. That means that you need to make deposits into the funds and as you do, they will move upward toward zero. During the month, if you deposit as much in the funds as you have set up in your budget, then you will have enough to cover ALL of the expense budgets that you have set up since those two values are the same, hence, the Budget is Balanced.

Also, notice that the Budget Amounts for the Expense funds are positive. That means, as you make purchases and pay bills, those will be subtracted from the budget amount and will go down toward zero. If you have the budgeted income for the month, and you do not spend more than the budgeted expenses in the month, you will have enough for all your funds.

Cash / Budget Relationship: 

Both are needed to release cash from an account.  The account holds the cash and the budget gives you permission to spend it.  BOTH are required.  You can not spend cash permitted by a budget if your account does not have the cash.  You can not spend the cash in your account if your budget does not give you permission to spend it.

The idea is to spend less than you take in, so hopefully some of your fund balances will increase through the months as you add the “Budget Amounts” to them each month. And, when you first start using Simple Budget, you need to make sure there is enough money in the bank accounts for cover the current bills if not all of your monthly income has been deposited yet.

View Account Balances

The “View Account Balances” report is a simple report that displays the month’s start balance and current balance of all accounts. The total of all accounts is shown at the bottom. Go HERE for more information on Accounts.

Cash / Budget Relationship: 

Both are needed to release cash from an account.  The account holds the cash and the budget gives you permission to spend it.  BOTH are required.  You can not spend cash permitted by a budget if your account does not have the cash.  You can not spend the cash in your account if your budget does not give you permission to spend it.

If you are using Simple Budget to help gain control over your spending and saving, you must discipline yourself to limit your spending to what you gave yourself permission to spend by setting up the budget amounts in the funds. Accounts, Funds, and Budget amounts have an important interplay with each other and if your ignore parts of it, you will not be successful in mastering your spending.

(11) View All Accounts Report

View Payees and Funds

The “View Payees and Funds” report is a simple report that lists each saved payee and if it has a default fund associated with it, the fund is also displayed. Look HERE for more information on Payees.

(12) View Payees and Funds Report

View All Transactions

To view all the current month’s transactions, under the “View / Reports” menu, click “View All Transactions”. By default, this form will show all of the months transactions that were entered since the last “New Period” command was used. Go HERE for more information about Transactions. The report also includes information about whether the transactions was reconciled or not. See HERE for more information on Reconciling Transactions.

The report has several Sort Order options. The option “Original” sorts the list as the transactions were entered, regardless of the date.

There is a checkbox option to include all of the transactions that were NOT reconciled yet when the “New Month” began. For information about “New Budget Periods” look HERE.

(14) All Transactions Report

Transactions for one Fund

To view or print a report of all the transactions in the current month associated with one fund, click “Transactions for one Fund” under the “View / Reports” menu. The following window will open showing all of the funds in Simple Budget.

(15) Show Monthly Transactions for One Fund – List of Funds.

Click on the row that shows the fund that you want to see all of the transactions for and click the “View Fund” button. All, if any, transactions for that fund will be shown as in the picture below.

(16) All Monthly Transactions for one Fund.

A summary of the total is shown at the bottom of the window. A report of the transactions can be printed. If you want to view the transactions of a different fund click the “View Diff Fund” button to go back to the Funds list.

Transactions for one Account

To view or print a report of all the transactions in the current month associated with one account, click “Transactions for one Account” under the “View / Reports” menu. The following window will open showing all of the accounts in Simple Budget.

(17) Show Monthly Transactions for One Account – List of Accounts.

Click on the row that shows the fund that you want to see all of the transactions for and click the “View Account” button. All, if any, transactions for that account will be shown as in the picture below.

(18) All Monthly Transactions for one Account.

A summary of the total is shown at the bottom of the window. A report of the transactions can be printed. If you want to view the transactions of a different account, click the “Select a different Account” button to go back to the Accounts list.

View All Unreconciled Transactions

To view all of the currently UNreconciled transactions in Simple Budget, select the “View / Reports” main menu entry and click on “View All Unreconciled Transactions”. This report will show all transactions from a previous budget period that have not yet been reconciled, along with any transactions of the current budget period that have not yet been reconciled. Any transactions from a previous budget period will be highlighted in red.

Following the list of unreconciled transactions, is an “Account Summary” and how those unreconciled transactions affect the accounts and what the bank total should be. This should be accurate only if the “reconciled” transactions is up to date. For more information on reconciling transactions look HERE. Reconciling the transactions against the bank’s statement is an important part of keeping accurate financial records and keeping your spending under control with the help of Simple Budget!

(19) All Unreconciled Transactions – The Account information will only be correct if the reconciliation process is “Up To Date”!

A printed report of “All Unreconciled Transactions” will look like the following picture.

(20) The Printout of “All Unreconciled Transactions”.

Transactions Unreconciled in Previous Periods

To view all of the transactions that were not reconciled when the current period began, select the “View / Reports” main menu entry and click on “Transactions Unreconciled in Previous Periods”. This report will show all transactions from previous budget periods that have not yet been reconciled as of the date the new budget period started (that is, the current budget month). As in other reports, transactions from previous periods are shown in red and since all of these transactions are from previous periods, they are all red.

Note that the report might show some of the transactions as “reconciled”. That means that they have been reconciled since the current period started. The transactions were not reconciled at the start of the new period. None of the transactions were entered into Simple Budget during the current budget period.

(21) Transactions Not Reconciled in Previous Periods.

This report helps keep track of those transactions that are old, and for some reason, has not cleared the bank yet. A real life example when this might happen is if you are a participant in “Operation Christmas Child”. In “Operation Christmas Child” people all over the place prepare shoebox size boxes filled with good gifts for children in far off countries where they might never have received a gift in their life, or the Good New of Jesus. When donors pack the boxes, they are to put a check inside each of them to cover the costs of the whole operation. Those checks might sit in those boxes all the time they make their way from your hands to some processing center somewhere, where the check is taken out of the box and some information about the Good News of Jesus is put into the box. So, those checks might take a month or so to finally get into the bank and Simple Budget might be a period or two in the future by then. This report helps keep track of those transactions. If a transactions if very old, you might have to do some “leg work” to try to find why that transaction has not yet cleared with the bank.

To really help you be the master OVER your finances instead of them being MASTER OVER YOU, it is important to keep your transactions reconciled often and know where you are at in your spending plan. Go HERE for more information on “Reconciling Transactions”.

View Funds Year To Date

The “View Funds Year To Date” report enables you to look at your funds and see the balances at the end of last year, their current balance, and the change from last year to today. To view this report, select “View / Reports” and click on “View Funds Year To Date”. If you have just started using Simple Budget in the current year, all of last year’s ending balances will be zero. You can still see the “Year To Date” changes in the funds. In some funds, those that are used up every month, there might not be anything interesting to look at, but if you want to see the progress in a fund that you are saving in (like a Christmas Gift fund), you can see the progress. For more information about Funds, look HERE.

(22) Year To Date Funds Totals.

View Funds YTD Detail

To view a more detailed fund report for Year To Date information, select the “View Funds YTD Detail” report. This report will try to find the archived, past periods, data files that should be in your Simple Budget data folder shown on the Simple Budget main window. If files are found, the following window will be shown with the years of any data files it finds. Select the year (if more than one year is found), and the window shown in Picture 24 will be displayed.

(23) Year To Date Fund Detail – Select Year

If more than one month’s data files are found, the following window will be displayed. This report lists each fund in detail. The top line of each fund section (highlighted) shows the actual expense or income totals for the month. The last column to the right shows the actual amount spent or deposited in that fund. Expense (spending) funds are highlighted in red, while income (deposit) funds are highlighted in green.

The four lines following the expense / income line show other fund details. They are Monthly Budget, That month’s start balance, that month’s ending balance, and the sum of transfers. In the example below, we can see that from May through November, $2941.47 was spent in Fuel.

(24) Year To date Fund Detail Report

The Year To Date Fund Detail Report also allows you to see a graph of each individual fund by placing the mouse cursor over the left most column in the report (the column with the fund name). The pop-up graph shows the budget amount for each month, the expense/income amount for each month, and the ending balance for each month. The chart dollar values can be turned on or off by checking or unchecking the “Show Chart Values” checkbox at the bottom left of the window. By holding the mouse still for a moment, the total expense/income for the fund will be shown next to the mouse cursor.

(25) Year To Date Fund Detail Report – Fund Graph

In the above example, the graph shows the data for “Auto – Fuel”. The blue budget line shows that the monthly budget was reduced a couple of times between May and November. The green bars show the actual fuel expense for each month. The ending balances for each month are shown by the violet ovals. We can see that in October, more fuel was purchased than was budgeted (The green bar goes above the blue line), but since the previous months fuel costs were less than the budgeted amounts, the ending balance for October still had some money left ($28.05).

(26)Year To Date Fund Detail Report – Fund Graph for “Gifts – Christmas”

In the graph shown above, we see the fund history for “Gifts – Christmas”. We can see that $100 was budgeted for each month from May to October, then the budget amount was changed to $90. Also, note that there are no green bars from May through September. This means that there were no purchases in this fund during that time. Then starting in October, there are purchases in October and November. Now, look at the violet ovals showing the ending balance for the fund during the shown months. The ending balance accumulates throughout the months until there are some purchases in October. We can also see that the total amount spent in this fund from May through November was $414.52. This graph shows a perfect example how Simple Budget can help you save up for future purchases, in this case, Christmas gifts. But, the same principle can be used to save for insurance, vacations, or any number of other needs that don’t occur monthly.

Simple Budget reports and charts help you…

Simple Budget reports and charts help you analyze your spending and saving patterns to help you keep on track and be encouraged. It is a very good feeling to know that at Christmas time, you already have the funds saved so you can be a generous giver. Be the Master over your spending, and don’t let it be Master over you. It will be nice to hear those words “Good and faithful servant” when you give everything, including your finances to the True Master of it all.

To see all of the Simple Budget Help Topics, go HERE.

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