Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Using Dates and Checkmarks

Pagemonth Budgets all have narrow columns for dates to the left of item descriptions, both on the Cashflow and the Budget sides.

Likewise, Pagemonth Budgets have even narrower columns to the right of item descriptions for checkmarks, which we indicate with a forward slash (/).

Both of these columns are found framing item descriptions in Income, Expenses, and Charges.  It is useful to understand what they are there for and how to use them effectively.

The first thing to realize is that no dates or checkmarks have any inherent value or significance in themselves.  The dates for income and expense items exist solely to assist locating their duplicate entries on another part of the page  In your sample budget, for example, cell A12 shows the January rent dated January 5, and cell L7 repeats January 5. for that month's mtg/rent.

The dates to the left of charged items, however, are entered manually either when you charge an item to your credit card or when you plan in advance to do so, enabling you to budget an "guesstimate" amount of credit for vacation charges a few months ahead if you wish to.  When those actually occur, you'll correct your guesstimate to reflect real amounts charged on that vacation.

The benefit is, of course, that you're planning ahead for expenses you anticipate so you can enter that amount in addition to the normal amount of your monrthly charges you budget for.  And if you end up not having to pay that much, or elect to spread it out over a few months, it's easily adjusted.  I try to overbudget for my vacation credit charges and have some left over to return to checking when I get back.

Since charge cards give 30 days before interest is added, I base my credit payoffs on when that interest would begin to accrue and make sure to pay it all off in full ahead of that date.  Credit card interest can destroy your budgeting.  It's normally the highest rates allowed under the law and it can bleed you dry if you let it.

As for the checkmark columns to the right of items throughout Pagemonth Budgets, I recommend not checking an item off until it is confirmed in some way.  For income items, that would normally be confirmed by your online bank checking account.  Your paycheck was added when?  Okay, check.  But don't do it based on projected dates.

Again, for charges, check items off when you have confirmation through a credit statement or online completed transaction list, not before.

Used in these ways, the dates and checkmarks in your Pagemonths Budgets will make editing, finding, and confirming all entries on each monthpage much easier to keep track of, and an unchecked entry can be located and corrected even several months back if need be for some tardy creditor.



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