[Feature] Change first day of month

[Jeremy-Pichon]

Verified feature request does not already exist?

• 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?

Month budgets are not always tight to actual month (1st to 31th), but more to payday.
In my country salary is on 25th (or last working day before this day)m therefore my actual month budget is from 25th of previous month to 24th of current month.

Describe your ideal solution to this problem

I would add a section in settings to pick first day of month.
Maybe in the same section as Numbers and Dates.
Implementation could be a global setting or a budget related setting.

Teaching and learning

Probably same as Dates and Numbers it would have a default value (eg: 1st day of month).

Here is an example of the same feature on Money Wizz.

[github-actions]

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[fillwe]

Yes this is so needed! Have tried the recommended way in the docs and hold the money for the 1st of the month but you become so out of sync with the rest of society. In Sweden it’s set in stone that you count your budget from the 25’th - 24’th, and all the bills for the next month is due before 1st usually.

[frbrigagao]

Same! In Brazil there isn't a standard. Some receive their salaries in the 1st, 5th, 10th, 20th or some other day. Having a monthly budget with a fixed 1st day of the month doesn't make sense in this scenario.

[napoleonjumprope]

I could not agree more. Actual holds so much promise that I tried moving to a calendar month way of budgeting but it just does not work* when the payday cycle starts on the 25th.

• it works of course if you stick to it, but as you said you become completely detached from how the rest of society works.

[TheBlueCircle]

Excellent idea, but we probably want to disaggregate two concepts here: budget month and payroll period. In particular:

• A payroll period may not be a month. In the US, weekly and fortnightly pay is still most common. Some places pay 13 times a year.
• Some banks allow you to receive your paycheck early
• Actual might need reference to bank or public holidays in different countries (because if you're usually paid on a fixed date then usually - but not always - you'll not be paid that date. Usually the working day before but not always.
• In some countries you get paid early for religious holidays (like Christmas)
• The logic can be complex (for example "paid the day before the last working day of the month".

Perhaps a simple fix would be to create a new budget period based on rules? So if I receive > $€¥£x from y then it's recognised as my salary and a new budget period starts automatically?

The question about pay periods could then be a separate question which might be needed for future period projection, but which would be more complex.

[fillwe]

Thanks for the reply, you might be right about this. But it isn't possible to set a rule to start a new budget period in the current release, right? If it is i can't seem to be able to find it.

[rare-magma]

Is this a matter of making the startDate of the createSpendingSpreadsheet() function customizable (link)? Is there any change required in the backend / database? I couldn't find any other references to this in the codebase. If the maintainers are willing to accept this change and provide some pointers I could work on a PR to implement this feature.

[napoleonjumprope]

Is this a matter of making the startDate of the createSpendingSpreadsheet() function customizable (link)? Is there any change required in the backend / database? I couldn't find any other references to this in the codebase. If the maintainers are willing to accept this change and provide some pointers I could work on a PR to implement this feature.

This would be AMAZING. :)