Chapter 6: Managing Your Accounts

Personalized feedback and cash flow forecast

Now that you're using Microsoft Money 2006 to manage your income and expenses, Money can offer a significant amount of customized guidance. While viewing an account, select Cash Flow Review from the Account Tools menu (available with Money 2006 Deluxe, Premium and Small Business). The Forecast your cash flow screen will appear as shown in Figure 6-7. This page helps you to keep an eye on your upcoming financial commitments with a chart that tracks spending and a list of upcoming bills and deposits, as well as a cash flow forecast.

Figure 6-7: Forecast your cash flow page

The Forecast your cash flow page allows you to tailor the chart by selecting which accounts are included, as well as the time period. To modify the data that Money uses to calculate your cash flow, click Customize cash flow in the left pane. Or, to add a transaction manually, click Add an item.

	Money Small Business Feature
	To create a report that includes the cash flow of your business accounts only, select All Business Accounts from the Account list on the Forecast your cash flow page.

To see how changes in your income or spending (like getting a raise or taking a vacation) might affect your immediate cash flow, click Try cash flow scenarios. Money includes different customizable situations that you can use to see how each will change your financial situation. Enter the details of your proposed change in income or expenses, and then click Calculate. Money graphs the effects of the proposed change. To make the change permanent by adding it to your recurring bills and deposits list, click Accept Changes.

Change the way Money uses your information to forecast cash flow

By default, Money forecasts cash flow based on Advanced Budget information (if you've created an Advanced Budget), past transactions (if you're using an Essential Budget), and scheduled bills and deposits.

Use the Customize cash flow page to change the way Money uses this information to forecast your cash flow:

1. On the navigation bar, click Banking, and then click Account Tools.
2. Click Cash Flow Review.
3. In the left pane, under Common tasks, click Change cash flow settings.
4. Make the changes you want, and then click Done.

	Tip
	Your cash flow forecast will be most accurate if it's based on information you keep up to date. So, if you don't update your budget regularly, base your forecast on your actual spending. To do this, under For cash flow forecasting, select Amounts calculated from past trends.

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