Update

EEBA is now Goodbudget! Goodbudget has all the great features of EEBA (and more!) in a new and updated interface. Check out our updated article on this topic, and check out the Goodbudget Help Center for the most recent help content.

Q: I have a Checking and a Savings Account in EEBA, but I only want to spend from my Checking. How can I keep funds from my Savings Account off my budget?

Accounts with EEBA (Available on the Plus and Premium Plans) lets you base your budget off your actual bank account balances. As you create your Accounts, EEBA will add funds to your Unallocated Money to match. This lets you budget with all the funds you have available.

Keep an Account “off” your budget

Say you have a Checking Account with $1500, and a Savings Account with $800. You see $2300 in your Unallocated Money, but you only want to budget with the $1500 from your Checking.

To do this in EEBA:

• Go to the Edit Budgets page and create an Annual / Irregular Envelope called “Savings” with a budget of “0.”
• Then, go to the Distribute from Unallocated page to distribute $800 to the Envelope.

That’s it! Now you’ll have just $1500 left to work with in your Budget.

If you notice, the Savings Account isn’t really “off” your budget. Instead, we’ve budgeted the money for it’s proper purpose, in this case “Savings.”

Recording transfers, deposits, and expenses

When you add or remove funds from the Account, be sure to record the change in your Envelopes as well.

• Record Envelope Transfers to match Account Transfers to the Account.
• Receive income to the Account? Fund the representative Envelope.
• If you make a purchase from the Account, record it as an expense.

If you want to keep track of long-term debt, follow this guide.

Thanks to Scott and Libby for the question!