PHILOSOPHY:

The basic philosophy of BUDGET
MANAGER is to assign all general funds
money (excluding savings, investments,
etc.) to a particular Fund (such as food,
auto, income, telephone) to help record
and control spending, and also to a
particular Account (such as checking,
cash, Visa) where the money actually
resides (or is owed to, in the case of
charge or credit cards).

Each month there is a budget which takes
money from funds which are sources of
income (such as salary or interest income)
and moves it into funds representing
expenses (rent, food, taxes, etc.). Since
money cannot be created or destroyed,
your budget must balance (that is, your
income = expenses) before BUDGET
MANAGER will let you enter transactions.
If you have more income than expenses,
you can always budget less income
(which will give you a buffer in the income
funds) or increase savings (a fund which
represents money in your general funds
which is intended to be moved to a
savings account). Unfortunately, more
people are likely to have the opposite
problem--the expenses you would like to
support exceed your income. Then you
must prioritize and cut expenses until
they match your income. That will give
you a balanced budget.
