# Build and review a household budget

Let's build a household budget that another counselor can understand. Open the correct client record, then choose Budget. Start at the top: confirm household details, assets and liabilities. Original Budget records the household's current spending. Suggested Budget holds the proposed changes. We'll use Jordan's fictitious household to compare the two, then verify the saved totals.

Enter income and expenses using the same monthly basis. Jordan's gross income is four thousand dollars. Eight hundred dollars of deductions leaves thirty-two hundred dollars of net income. In Original Budget, rent is twelve hundred dollars and cable and internet is sixty. Review amounts that a credit-report import may have placed in dedicated debt-payment rows. Avoid counting the same obligation again under Other Debt Payments. Confirm imported classifications with the client.

Save Budget preserves your entries. Save and Compute Suggested Budget does more: for an eligible lead, it replaces the Suggested Budget using the configured calculation rules. Treat that result as a starting point for discussion. In this saved example, suggested cable and internet is forty dollars while the original remains sixty. The program payment also differs from the original monthly payment. Review the whole proposal with the household, explain changes in Notes, and use amounts the household can realistically maintain.

After saving, reopen the budget and compare the totals. Here, original expenses including the original payment total twenty-nine hundred thirty dollars, leaving two hundred seventy. Suggested expenses including the program payment total twenty-eight hundred ninety-eight dollars, leaving three hundred two. The visible disposable-income warnings still need review under the agency's process. A saved budget alone does not establish enrollment readiness. Remember: record the current situation, discuss realistic changes, then save and verify what the next person will see.