Envelop System Configuration

[Guy_Cohen]

Hello there,
I’m trying to develop a system to manage our home budgeting system.
Here’s a shared link:

It’s working very well but I’m stuck since it can manage only one month when the next month comes I won’t be able to add the remaining budget to the new month budget, can someone help me achieving that?

Best,
Guy

[Klaus_Becker]

I’d create a Google sheet for that, you can share only a few specific tab and formulas work more “widely”

[Hashim_Warren]

Can you tell us more about what you’re trying to do?

I’m assuming:

You’re tracking your budget projections
Then your actual money spent this month

And you want the surplus (or deficit) to carry over month to month.

Correct?

[Guy_Cohen]

Hi @Hashim_Warren,
I’m tracking me and my wife’s monthly budget, I’m doing so by recording each expense that we have and its correlation to the right budget category, for example, $10 for launch comes out from the Lunch envelope (the category), this envelope has a $200 monthly budget. At the end of the month, if there is a money left it the envelope, we’re adding it to the next month budget, so if in the lunch envelope, $50 were left in FEB and the lunch monthly budget is $200, the envelope has now $250 to spend in March (regular monthly $200 + $50 from previous month), if at some point during the month, the envelope reached $0, you can’t afford to spend on this category anymore till the next monthly budget arrives.
That’s the envelope budgeting system in a nutshell:slight_smile:
Hope You understand now.

Best,
Guy

[Hashim_Warren]

This article may help: https://support.airtable.com/hc/en-us/articles/218734758-A-beginner-s-guide-to-many-to-many-relation...

Make a table for:
The month
The envelope (categories)
The actual expenses
Income

Link the envelop table to expenses. Connect expenses records to the right envelope records. Then “ROLLUP” the expenses and subtract that number from the envelop budget.

Connect the month to envelops. ROLLUP the combined budget for the month and subtract the Rollup of the combined expenses of the month. That’s your monthly surplus or deficit.

Now link the month record to month records. Call that field “previous month”. Use LOOKUP to bring over the deficit or surplus from the previous month

On the income table connect to the month and use LOOKUP again to get the deficit of the corresponding month. Or, make income a field on the month table.

(I typed this on my mobile phone at a weird hour of the day. Pardon typos. Hope this puts you in the right direction)

[D_Rouse]

Guy / good advice here on how to build what you need. Without going into more detail than you want to hear – I have ‘chased’ the home budget holy grail for 10-15 years. There is still no web based or software application that meets my needs – (Not Quicken or the many, many others). There is an application called Envelopes (not sure if that is the correct name – might be Nvelopes or something) that I used for awhile. It really didn’t work for me – and I thought it was a bit expensive.
All that said, I do use MINT.COM . It’s (I think) an Intuit product. While I think Envelopes will give you a roll-forward amount if you under-spend, I don’t think MINT will – but it is becoming increasingly good at what it does.
In short (too late), Excel or Sheets might be a better choice. I am a big believer in RDMS such as Access and have spent countless hours and hours building a home budget system in Access – only to abandon it for a combination of MINT and Excel.
I have only used Airtable a bit over the past several months. I find it perfect for a Home Inventory system. Airtable is (in my opinion) an amazingly incredible application with its exchangability between a ‘desktop’ and a mobile device, its scalability, its very, very easy to use design interface, etc., etc. (OK, it’s apparent I am not a tech.) I think, however, that you are attempting to push string uphill by using it for what you are thinking about – particularly if you don’t have a good DB foundation. (Hashim offers some great info but it might be difficult to swallow if you’re not a DB user.) – (no pride of authorship on this, so others comment or critique at will)

[Guy_Cohen]

Thanks @D_Rouse for your advice!

@Hashim_Warren thanks a lot or the detailed description, I will read the article and try to follow your instructions, by the way, can you build it for me and I’ll pay you?

Best,
Guy

[Hashim_Warren]

Sure. Hashimwarren@gmail.com