Conversion
Here is a short video explaining the conversion process.
Conversion of your data is possible only for users of Budget Express 4.0. It’s available for those who will buy the PC version of Budget Express 5.0 only. The conversion is not possible between PC and Mac.
Warning, the conversion is recommended only for those who have smaller budget files. We also suggest you begin the conversion from January 1, 2019.
For those who have already gone thru the conversion from version 3.0 to version 4.0 will find a very big gap between the two. The reason is simple we changed database file type, it was not the case between older version. That is why there is some manual labour to be done with this conversion.
The manual labour is to match the account categories from version 4.0 to the new sub-categories of version 5.0. To facilitate the work, we created all the categories from version 4.0 in version 5.0. Here is a file with a listing of all sub-categories in version 5.0. You will be able to match only the account, not the sub-category from version 4. If you created personalized sub-category in version 4, you will need to create them in the settings menu of version 5.0.
Here is a file with a listing of all sub-categories in version 5.0.
Important, if your budget you wish to convert had a password in version 4, you must delete this password before trying to upload the file to version 5.0.
New budget
When you will create your new budget using the wizard or not, you have access to the function to convert your file.
Click Yes to Convert a version 4.0 budget.
A new panel will open, to let you deposit or search for your budget 4.0 file, the file has the extension. bdg and is often in the My document directory of your computer.
You will see the name in the file in this screen after its uploaded.
Click Next to begin the process of converting your data.
Date
The date you will choose to begin your new budget from the file of version 4.0 is very important.
Only the transactions from that date will be available to convert. I would suggest you begin your conversion at a later date so you won’t have to convert data that is not used anymore.
Click Next to begin the process.
Matching items
This is the main screen you will wee when entering the conversion process. Click on an operation type (Income, Expense, Credit, Savings, Account) to see all items you will need to match with the new sub-categories in Budget Express 5.0
In each panel you will see your item from Budget Express 4.0, click on Associate to see the available sub-categories for that operation type (Income in our example).
You need to this association for each item you wish to convert. If there are item you don not wish to keep in your new budget, don’t associate them and they won’t be part of your new budget.
Note that there is a new operation type in version 5.0, “loan”. The loan in version 4.0 was part of the credit item. You will have access to both categories when matching your credit item.
When you have associated all your items with sub-categories, click Save to go to the next screen. Click cancel if you wish to not begin the conversion process and go back to the budget screen.
Click Yes to go to the balance screen or No to go back to the item-sub-categories association screen.
Balances
The last operation you need to do is to enter all the balances for your accounts, credit, savings and loan operation.
If you chose to begin your new budget on January 1, 2018, the balances will be entered one day before, December 31st in our example. You will wee those balance adjustments in Budget Express afterwards.
Click Apply to complete the process of converting your data file from Budget Express 4.0 to version 5.0.
You will have a message, enter Yes to go on or No to go back to the conversion process.
Until you click Yes on this message, you can always go back and correct your association or balances.
It can take a little of time (seconds) before you have access to the calendar page, depending on how much data you converted.