How to Use Budget Tracking Software
There are several methods available to monitor your spending and maintain a budget, and one popular choice is budget tracking software. A good personal budget program gives you options to balance income and expenses, monitor your accounts, pay your bills and keep an eye on trends in you spending habits. There are many free and fee-based programs available. But, whichever budget software you choose, the basic guidelines for setup and regular usage are similar.
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Instructions
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Enter your income into your budget tracking software. If you are paid every two weeks, divide your yearly salary by 26 to calculate your bi-weekly income. If you are paid twice a month, divide your yearly salary by 24. If you are paid on commission, calculate an average of your commission income over the longest time period possible.
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Populate your expense categories and enter the average monthly amount you expect to spend in each. Keep it simple by using general categories such as housing, transportation, utilities, food, shopping and entertainment. Or drill down as much as you like by creating subcategories such as "groceries" and "eating out" within the "food" category.
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Link your bank and spending accounts with your budget software. Enter your bank account numbers and bank website log-in details to enable your software to bring back spending data and keep track of your account balances.
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Pay your bills through your software's bill-pay feature, if it has one. Your software may let you pay bills o-line, or give you a way to create and print checks from your computer.
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Track and categorize transactions as your budget software downloads them from the bank. Budget software tries to place your spending transactions into the appropriate categories, but is not always precise. Double check the accuracy and make any adjustments you need to properly categorize your spending.
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Monitor trends in your spending habits and compare your spending from month to month. Most personal budget programs automatically create graphs and diagrams to visually illustrate and compare your spending. Use this information to stay informed about where you need to spend less or how you have improved your spending habits over time.
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Tips & Warnings
Watch out for cash spending, which your budget software can't categorize from your bank accounts. When you spend cash, manually enter and categorize those transactions. If you withdraw the cash from your bank account, it downloads to your software as a withdrawal. Change the category to record what the money is used for.
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