[Bug]: Applying a budget template to month beyond a date driven saving target fails silently #1785

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opened 2026-02-28 19:54:32 -06:00 by GiteaMirror · 5 comments
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Originally created by @mullermn on GitHub (Jan 21, 2025).

Verified issue does not already exist?

  • I have searched and found no existing issue

What happened?

Sorry for the word-soup title!

Budget templates are experimental so I don't fully trust them and I like to do a bit of sense checking to see if they are producing plausible looking numbers. Currently I have a category with this template:
#template 350 by 2025-02
#template 1000 by 2025-08

If I run the template for January or February, it runs and schedules an amount, but if I run it in March it fails silently - in fact the UI actively states that the template has been applied when it has not. I believe this is because the first template line will be out of date by March.

At a minimum the UX should be improved so that it's clear to the user that the template had no effect, though my proposal would be that Actual just ignore template lines for months in the past as sometimes it might be useful to preserve that history in the note rather than having to remove it.

This also removes the slight conceptual conflict of the templates existing in the 'timeless' category notes but their function taking effect in the time bound monthly columns. Currently when the real-world month advances the template system will stop working (refuse to run) until the user cleans up the templates and removes the now-out-of-date entries.

How can we reproduce the issue?

As above - just create a template with some scheduled budget template entries and attempt applying them before and after some of the deadlines.

Where are you hosting Actual?

Pikapods

What browsers are you seeing the problem on?

Desktop App (Electron)

Operating System

Mac OSX

Originally created by @mullermn on GitHub (Jan 21, 2025). ### Verified issue does not already exist? - [x] I have searched and found no existing issue ### What happened? Sorry for the word-soup title! Budget templates are experimental so I don't fully trust them and I like to do a bit of sense checking to see if they are producing plausible looking numbers. Currently I have a category with this template: #template 350 by 2025-02 #template 1000 by 2025-08 If I run the template for January or February, it runs and schedules an amount, but if I run it in March it fails silently - in fact the UI actively states that the template has been applied when it has not. I believe this is because the first template line will be out of date by March. At a minimum the UX should be improved so that it's clear to the user that the template had no effect, though my proposal would be that Actual just ignore template lines for months in the past as sometimes it might be useful to preserve that history in the note rather than having to remove it. This also removes the slight conceptual conflict of the templates existing in the 'timeless' category notes but their function taking effect in the time bound monthly columns. Currently when the real-world month advances the template system will stop working (refuse to run) until the user cleans up the templates and removes the now-out-of-date entries. ### How can we reproduce the issue? As above - just create a template with some scheduled budget template entries and attempt applying them before and after some of the deadlines. ### Where are you hosting Actual? Pikapods ### What browsers are you seeing the problem on? Desktop App (Electron) ### Operating System Mac OSX
GiteaMirror added the bug label 2026-02-28 19:54:32 -06:00
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@youngcw commented on GitHub (Jan 21, 2025):

This is what I get when running those templates in March. What client version are you using?

Image

@youngcw commented on GitHub (Jan 21, 2025): This is what I get when running those templates in March. What client version are you using? ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7949741e-a136-4062-9fd5-9d277e5c992f)
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@mullermn commented on GitHub (Jan 22, 2025):

Client version: v25.1.0
Server version: v24.12.0

I believe that message comes up when the date in the template is in the past relative to the actual real world date - I saw it this month.

What I'm talking about is when the template date is in the future relative to real world but the past relative to the month in which you try and 'apply budget templates':
Image

With the content as above:
#template 350 by 2025-02
#template 1000 by 2025-08

This gives me the
Image
message, but no figure is put in to the budget. If I run 'check templates' from March's drop down it also reports that they all pass. I get the same behaviour for any month in advance of Feb 2025.

(To cover off the obvious - the amount available in the category in March is not sufficient to meet the August target, and there are funds available to budget)

@mullermn commented on GitHub (Jan 22, 2025): Client version: v25.1.0 Server version: v24.12.0 I believe that message comes up when the date in the template is in the past relative to the actual real world date - I saw it this month. What I'm talking about is when the template date is in the future relative to real world but the past relative to the month in which you try and 'apply budget templates': ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/66aff9b2-e7c2-44d1-886f-11c9c1297764) With the content as above: #template 350 by 2025-02 #template 1000 by 2025-08 This gives me the ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3e56a565-b78d-488a-903a-04f569a1f50d) message, but no figure is put in to the budget. If I run 'check templates' from March's drop down it also reports that they all pass. I get the same behaviour for any month in advance of Feb 2025. (To cover off the obvious - the amount available in the category in March is not sufficient to meet the August target, and there are funds available to budget)
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@youngcw commented on GitHub (Jan 22, 2025):

What I'm talking about is when the template date is in the future relative to real world but the past relative to the month in which you try and 'apply budget templates':

Thats what I did. I applied those templates in March and got the error.

You should update your server. Its not ever recommended to run different server/client versions. There can be issues between the two if they are different. If you are using a desktop app and a server, I recommend using the PWA instead of the desktop app as the PWA will stay the same version as the server automatically.

@youngcw commented on GitHub (Jan 22, 2025): > What I'm talking about is when the template date is in the future relative to real world but the past relative to the month in which you try and 'apply budget templates': Thats what I did. I applied those templates in March and got the error. You should update your server. Its not ever recommended to run different server/client versions. There can be issues between the two if they are different. If you are using a desktop app and a server, I recommend using the PWA instead of the desktop app as the PWA will stay the same version as the server automatically.
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@youngcw commented on GitHub (Jan 22, 2025):

Ok, so looks like the issue is that the error doesn't show if you apply to a single category, but it does show if you apply all the templates.

@youngcw commented on GitHub (Jan 22, 2025): Ok, so looks like the issue is that the error doesn't show if you apply to a single category, but it does show if you apply all the templates.
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@youngcw commented on GitHub (Jan 23, 2025):

PR #4222 should fix you issue. Can you test that out?

@youngcw commented on GitHub (Jan 23, 2025): PR #4222 should fix you issue. Can you test that out?
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Reference: github-starred/actual#1785