First things first - welcome, Mvelopes customers!
We're so excited that you've chosen to use EveryDollar as YOUR budgeting tool. Below are some of the most frequently asked questions from other Mvelopes customers.
Does EveryDollar have any tutorial videos or articles to help me get started?
You betcha! You can get a helpful guide to budgeting with EveryDollar here:EveryDollar Guide to Budgeting
Keep in mind, EveryDollar is designed to be a zero-based budgeting tool budget based on your “Planned” amounts. In short, it will track how much you plan to spend for the month and how much you've actually spent. So, you’ll enter all of your planned income and planned expenses, and then track your transactions throughout the month. In order to make a zero-based budget, the total planned income minus the total planned expenses must equal zero, which means you enter your income and expenses. Income minus expenses equals zero!
Also, here is an article that will walk you through creating a monthly budget: How to create your monthly budget?
If you are using the iPhone app, then we would recommend tapping on the "Profile" tab at the bottom of the screen and then tap on "Learn to Budget" and check out the short tutorial video there.
Mvelopes lets me carry money over to the next month. Can EveryDollar do that?
The main difference between EveryDollar and Mvelopes is that money doesn't roll over into the next month. When you first set up your EveryDollar budget, the lines are not set up to carry over money to the next month. If you'd like for unused money to be carried over, you can turn that line into a Fund.
Learn more about funds and carryover balances at the links below:
What is a fund?
Does leftover money carry over to the next month?
With EveryDollar, the desire is that every month is restricted to transactions/purchases made that month, with the exception of savings (within a Fund). That way, you have a full snapshot of where all your money went within that month (either spending or savings).
If you wanted EveryDollar to function more closely to Mvelopes, you would want to make every line item a Fund but that is not how EveryDollar is designed to be used.
Any other items are regular budget items that track how much you plan to spend for the month, how much you've spent, and how much you have remaining to spend for the month. These are not designed to have an ongoing balance, so any left over money at the end of the month would ideally go towards whichever Baby Step(that's our nickname for the best way to get control of your money and build wealth) you are working to complete.
Can I import my budget data from Mvelopes into EveryDollar?
At this time, it's not possible to upload budget data from Mvelopes into EveryDollar since they are two different systems. However, after you've used EveryDollar consistently over time, you will have created a history of your past budgets, and they will give you good historical data about your spending and saving.
Does EveryDollar help me reconcile my bank accounts?
EveryDollar isn't designed to be a bank reconciliation tool, but when you have EveryDollar Premium, it gives you access to a fantastic budgeting tool - thePaycheck Planner!With the Paycheck Planner, you can attach specific Budget Lines to specific paychecks so you know which money is being spent where, when, and on what. Here are a couple of Help Center articles that give you the lowdown on how the Paycheck Planner works:
Paycheck Planning
Paycheck Planning FAQ
We would also recommend checking out the Paycheck Planner tool to help you plan out when your money is actually available and when you plan to pay certain items in your budget as well.
If I use a credit card to make a purchase, how do I log that in EveryDollar?
If you choose to use a credit card to purchase something (which we don't recommend, since it's using debt - we recommend a debit card), then when the transaction imports from your bank, just drag the transaction into the correct Budget Line Item (groceries, restaurants, etc.).
Then, when the credit card payment imports from your bank, just delete it (since you've already accounted for the purchases).