Data is organized around the simple concept of "scenario", which is essentially a file containing a set of income/expense definitions that you specify according to your own needs. You may build as many scenarios as you want. In a scenario, you specify for each income/expense several properties, as the actual amount, the frequency, the starting and ending date, the annual growth if any, etc. These incomes and expenses will obviously impact your net CASHFLOW through time. It is the evolution of this cashflow through time that Budget4All displays as a red curve in the main window. A “starting” cash amount (as of “today”) can be specified in a text box at the bottom of the screen. You can change easily the duration of the period displayed on the screen using the “time interval” combo box (e.g. 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, etc).

It is possible to specify an annual inflation rate for a scenario. It can be simple (e.g. 4% constant for each year) or complex (you specify the rate for each year, e.g. 3.5% for 2009, 5.3% for 2010, etc). The inflation is applied to every income/expense of the scenario on the first of January of every year, unless, for a specific item, you have specifically indicated that inflation does not affect the income/expense when you created the definition (see the “add effect of inflation on top of annual growth” checkbox).

Budget4All offers a very useful analysis tool (menu Tools->Analysis) that displays graphically the relative distribution in % of incomes/expenses for a specific time interval. It is very handy to know what are your main incomes/expenses and what percentage they represent. You may discover for example that food represents 24% of all your expenses, which can help you to take appropriate financial decisions.