I’m beginning to populate my budget and have put weekly entries in as weekly recurring before putting my groceries (single amount entries) in. However I don’t see how to get back to a recurring entry pane in the Actual view.
Correct. The recurring transactions are only for plan transactions. If you know that your actuals will be specific weekly recurring values in advance, you can create it as a plan transaction with “Automatically fill in actuals” checked. Then Cashculator will create an actual transactions on every repeat of the plan, automatically. Immediately for the past and as the repeat date arrives for the future. Does this help?
What exactly is this?
It shows both Plan and Actual transactions now. Actual on top and Plan on bottom. You see, you have Both selected in the control in the bottom center there. The Totals row also becomes two rows to show Actuals on top / plan on the bottom. If you want only one or the other, you can choose (Actual or Plan). Combined also shows actual and plans in one screen (but in one row for each category). Its logic is that it shows actuals for past and plans for future dates, more or less. The Combined view is what the reports and reconciliation is based on.
I’m confused by the black bold numbers because they don’t continue along the row, but are only in the first three columns. I don’t like using anything but the Actual mode, because the other three don’t make sense to me.
Initially I could make recurring entries in the Actual pane, but then I put my grocery amounts in, then I couldn’t get the recurring settings back. Then I found that some of the grocery figures vanished - I don’t remember which view I was in at that point - and I panicked for a few moments.
Is there a manual that I can read?
The bold numbers (I suppose you mean 15.00, 82.90…) are bold because they are for a group. Their category name is also in bold. Unless you mean some other numbers. And I already mentioned before that recurring transactions are only available for Plan transactions, but they can generate actuals automatically. I see from your screenshot that you in fact entered a lot of Plan expenses (all the reddish ones).
Regarding manual. Have you gone through the guides in the Help menu.
I’d start with the “Getting Started” guide. There are also shorter guides for some specific topics.
We also have articles on some specific topics in Cashculator Articles - tutorials, news, personal finance - Cashculator for Mac
I’m still battling with switching between entry panes - the bit that you put the amount, and if the entry is a single event or if it repeats.
Is there a keyboard command that ensures that I get the repeat or the single entry every time??? Most times it’s very hit and miss whether I get the one I want (it’s mainly the repeating one I want) and I frequently give up and leave it uncorrected, which isn’t what you want in a Budget App.
The repeating ones are only available in Plan transactions, make sure you’re in Plan view and not Combined because combined view will give you actual transactions in the past.
The application (since version 2.3, I think), remembers if the last time your plan was recurring or not and will keep the checkbox as in the previous transaction. It will also remember the details of the recurrence (weekly/monthly and how often). You can also toggle this checkbox with the keyboard by pressing Command-R, when the plan transaction dialog is open.
Do you the latest version of Cashculator (latest is 2.4 now)?