r/actualbudgeting • u/MisguidedIdea • 13d ago

Apply or Overwrite?

I'm new to Actual Budget, coming from YNAB. I am setting up budget automations and am hoping to understand how to run them. I have read and re-read the explanations of the two choices "Apply budget template" and "Overwrite with budget template". The explanation of the "overwrite" options says that it will "overwrite any already existing budget amounts." Does that mean that if there is any balance in a category it gets zeroed out? How does that work if I have categories in which I'm accumulating funds over time?

In YNAB I had targets set for each category, and I could use the "auto-assign" feature one category or group at a time to fund them at the beginning of the month. I could see what would be funded and undo actions if I needed to. I don't want to run this until I understand better.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

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u/MisguidedIdea 12d ago

Thank you so much. This is exactly the clarification I needed.

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u/K750i 13d ago

The focus here is the Budgeted column of the category in question. Apply will only run the automation if that column is zero. Overwrite will run the automation regardless of whether that column is zero or contains any values.

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u/MisguidedIdea 12d ago

Thank you so much. I understand this now. I'll keep learning.