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krk969's Avatar
Posts: 754 | Thanked: 630 times | Joined on Sep 2009 @ London
#145
Originally Posted by volt View Post
Hai, krk969...

As we've been talking about elsewhere, I've been setting up a mockup graph showing something akin to a liquidity flow. Or rather, it shows expected income and expected expenses on a per month basis.

I don't really need a graph for this, I'd have most of it covered with the expenses list view. But I think this graph is very... Readable.

What is shown in it is:
- Per month, expected income. Budget, if you like.
- Per month, expected expenses. Aka recurring bills.
- Example graph is of an imagined setting where you have a fixed paycheck once or twice a month, plus some recurring bills. Some bi-annual, so expenses are higher in January and July. Some every 2nd month, some every month.

What is the intent of this graph?
Well, if you look at it, it's bleeding obvious that someone who doesn't plan ahead may have an terribly hard month in July. So, just by looking at it for a second, I'd realize that I have to save some extra money in June. What the graph underlines is basically which month you have to prepare for.

How would I fill in the data behind this graph?
Green bars is budget, 1M recurring.
Red bars would consist of several expenses.
Example:
$2500, 6 month(s) recurring, starting January 31st, ending when there's world peace. Instead of picking "prorate" or "do not prorate", I'd pick a third option, like "show at deadline" or something like that. So, it would add $2500 to the January and July bars.

Does this make sense? You could use the totals graph if it showed the "third" type of expenses as described. That way people could use it or not use it, without having to have another graph to understand.
hi volt,

sorry it took this long to reply, but I was waiting to make a major release to fix this.
Ive fixed in new version ( 0.3-0 ) the "do not prorate" option to include the recurring amount only if the period includes the date of the recur.
That way in your example you will see spikes in Jan and July only.
I agree with you that this is the right way to analyze when planning budgets and expenses ahead.
Thanks.
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