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[GH-ISSUE #5720] [Bug]: "Copy Last Month's Budget" includes hidden categories #44128

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opened 2026-04-26 05:04:48 -05:00 by GiteaMirror · 3 comments
GiteaMirror commented 2026-04-26 05:04:48 -05:00
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Originally created by @nintendoeats on GitHub (Sep 13, 2025).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues/5720

Verified issue does not already exist?

  • I have searched and found no existing issue

What happened?

Selecting "Copy Last Month's Budget" also copies items from hidden categories. There is nothing in the UI to indicate that this has happened. In my opinion, this is a significant bug.

To explain why, please consider my situation.

I recently purchased a rural home, where previously we have rented in the city. This led to a significant change in my budget, with very different categories. Many categories needed to be zeroed out (so they had negative budgets in their last month) or needed one last lump payment (so they had an unusually high positive budget in their last month). Naturally, after these months the categories were no longer relevant so I hid them.

What I did not know is that whenever I clicked "Copy last month's budget", I was still including those very unusual months. This included a multi-thousand dollar "imaginary" addition to my income from zeroing out a positive rent balance. Fortunately this was mostly balanced out by other categories with positive budgeted amounts, but that was merely a fortunate coincidence. It will still take me several months to fully bring things back to normal.

I noticed this today, 5 months after moving, because I wanted to check something in an old category. However, this could have gone on for years. I'm sure you can imagine the potential financial consequences if that had happened.

How can we reproduce the issue?

Budget some money in a category. Hide that category. For the next month, select "Copy Last Month's Budget".

If you check the hidden category, you will see that the budgeted value was silently copied.

Where are you hosting Actual?

Docker

What browsers are you seeing the problem on?

Chrome

Operating System

Linux

Originally created by @nintendoeats on GitHub (Sep 13, 2025). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues/5720 ### Verified issue does not already exist? - [x] I have searched and found no existing issue ### What happened? Selecting "Copy Last Month's Budget" also copies items from hidden categories. There is nothing in the UI to indicate that this has happened. In my opinion, this is a significant bug. To explain why, please consider my situation. I recently purchased a rural home, where previously we have rented in the city. This led to a significant change in my budget, with very different categories. Many categories needed to be zeroed out (so they had negative budgets in their last month) or needed one last lump payment (so they had an unusually high positive budget in their last month). Naturally, after these months the categories were no longer relevant so I hid them. What I did not know is that whenever I clicked "Copy last month's budget", I was still including those very unusual months. This included a multi-thousand dollar "imaginary" addition to my income from zeroing out a positive rent balance. Fortunately this was mostly balanced out by other categories with positive budgeted amounts, but that was merely a fortunate coincidence. It will still take me several months to fully bring things back to normal. I noticed this today, 5 months after moving, because I wanted to check something in an old category. However, this could have gone on for years. I'm sure you can imagine the potential financial consequences if that had happened. ### How can we reproduce the issue? Budget some money in a category. Hide that category. For the next month, select "Copy Last Month's Budget". If you check the hidden category, you will see that the budgeted value was silently copied. ### Where are you hosting Actual? Docker ### What browsers are you seeing the problem on? Chrome ### Operating System Linux
GiteaMirror added the budgetingbuggood first issue labels 2026-04-26 05:04:49 -05:00
GiteaMirror commented 2026-04-26 05:04:51 -05:00
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@nintendoeats commented on GitHub (Sep 13, 2025):

One suggestion I'd like to make for resolving this, would be if at the top of the budget there was a "budgeted in hidden categories" total.

<!-- gh-comment-id:3288409798 --> @nintendoeats commented on GitHub (Sep 13, 2025): One suggestion I'd like to make for resolving this, would be if at the top of the budget there was a "budgeted in hidden categories" total.
GiteaMirror commented 2026-04-26 05:04:51 -05:00
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@youngcw commented on GitHub (Sep 15, 2025):

I think what should be done for this is to make the copy ignore hidden categories unless the copy was for a specific category that is hidden.

<!-- gh-comment-id:3292653279 --> @youngcw commented on GitHub (Sep 15, 2025): I think what should be done for this is to make the copy ignore hidden categories unless the copy was for a specific category that is hidden.
GiteaMirror commented 2026-04-26 05:04:52 -05:00
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@nintendoeats commented on GitHub (Sep 15, 2025):

I think what should be done for this is to make the copy ignore hidden categories unless the copy was for a specific category that is hidden.

Yes, I agree with that, and possibly both solutions.

I'd be willing to look at it, but I don't have the dev environment set up and I'm in the middle of a busy personal time, so I would not be able to touch it for several weeks.

<!-- gh-comment-id:3294028940 --> @nintendoeats commented on GitHub (Sep 15, 2025): > I think what should be done for this is to make the copy ignore hidden categories unless the copy was for a specific category that is hidden. Yes, I agree with that, and possibly both solutions. I'd be willing to look at it, but I don't have the dev environment set up and I'm in the middle of a busy personal time, so I would not be able to touch it for several weeks.
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Reference: github-starred/actual#44128
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