[Feature] Accruals

[mgajdo]

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• [X] I have searched and found no existing issue

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• [ ] Would you like to implement this feature?

Pitch: what problem are you trying to solve?

I would like to be able to see accruals deduct from my monthly budget. Accruals are like saving for an invoice, that is not paid monthly (e.g. electricity). In my budget spreadsheet I am able to calculate the amount set aside monthly and transfer it as a one time payment to bank account B (accruals for bills to be paid) from account A (main account). I tried to recreate this feature with schedules, however, I tried the following implementation and encountered the following problem:

• implementation: My monthly one-time-payment for electricity, public transport and heating from A to B amount to 232 USD. Hence, I transfer each month said amount from A to B. The individual amounts are budgeted (e.g. 100 USD for heating, 200 USD for electricity and 32 USD for public transportation).
• problem: The one-time-payment is categorized as "Transfer". I tried to split the monthly amount with the Rules function, however, categories of child transactions cannot be changed if the parent transaction is Transfer

Full example

Transaction from account A with description:

• I am transferring money to ZAK (account B)
• The amount is split into different categories of accruals (= Rückstellungen in German)
• The category is set automatically as Transfer and cannot be changed to match my budget (see below).

In my budget:

• Since the category is Transfer and cannot be changed, the corresponding amount in my budget looks like it has not been used up although I've set it aside to account B or ZAK in my case.
• This does not align with the envelope budgeting system.

Describe your ideal solution to this problem

I would like to be able to choose a different category from the parent category in order to accomodate for my specific use case, unless there is a solution I have not thought of yet.

Teaching and learning

Create a specific section in the envelope budgeting documentation and introduce the concept of accruals

[github-actions[bot]]

:sparkles: Thanks for sharing your idea! :sparkles:

This repository uses lodash style issue management for enhancements. That means enhancement issues are automatically closed. This doesn’t mean we don’t accept feature requests, though! We will consider implementing ones that receive many upvotes, and we welcome contributions for any feature requests marked as needing votes (just post a comment first so we can help you make a successful contribution).

The enhancement backlog can be found here: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues?q=label%3A%22needs+votes%22+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc+

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