About tracking contributions to accounts in the Savings and Spending Budget

The Savings and Spending Budget is different because it allows you to set goals for and track your savings and debt reduction. For example, you might have a balance on a high-interest credit card that you want to pay down. Money automatically adds the credit card account to the Savings and Debt budget group and you can plan how much money you want to allocate to the card each month.

To help you see how you're doing, Money tracks how much the balance on your account changes between the beginning of the month and the end of the month. Money shows that number in the Actual column of the Working Budget page so that you can compare the amount you planned for the account and the amount the account actually changed. For example, you might plan to pay down your credit card by $500 every month. If you make a $500 payment during the month, but also use the credit card to spend $200, Money will show that your balance decreased by a total of $300.

Notes

To learn more, see the Create a budget video. To watch the Money videos, on the Help menu, point to Instructional Videos, and then click a title.
If you want to track your contributions to retirement accounts, Money does not calculate the net change in the balance of the account because that number can be affected by the performance of your retirement investments. Instead, Money tracks your transfers to the retirement account and shows that total in the Actuals column of the Working Budget page.