Suppliers and budget

Setting the money up, then keeping it true.

1. Set what you are working to. Change budget, at the top under Your money, takes the figure for the whole wedding — everything below is measured against it.
2. Make the groups you think in. Add a group — Venue, Food, Flowers, whatever you use. They are yours to rename and reorder.
3. Add a supplier into a group, by name. A supplier is only a name until you open it, which keeps the list readable when there are thirty.
4. Open one and press Add quote for what they have quoted. That is the number Still to pay is worked out from.
5. Press Add payment each time money goes out — a deposit, an instalment, the balance. Give it a name like “Deposit” so the row says what it was.
6. Schedule what is coming rather than remembering it. Payments dated ahead appear under Upcoming payments and tick off as they are paid.
7. Keep the contract on the supplier it belongs to, and write dated notes as you go — what was agreed, and when.

Paying a venue in euros? Record the payment in the currency you actually paid and it is converted at the rate on the day you paid it, not today's. A deposit sent last March cost what it cost that March, and your total should say so.

Why it is shaped like this

A supplier is not a contact. It is “£1,200 quoted, £300 paid, £900 due six weeks before” — so the money is at the top of the screen and the phone number lives inside each row.

• Set a budget for the whole wedding, and see it against what you have actually committed and paid.
• Add suppliers under categories you control — rename them, reorder them, add your own.
• Record what was quoted, what the deposit was, and what is still to pay.
• Schedule instalments ahead of time and tick them off as they are paid.
• Keep contracts and quotes on the supplier they belong to.
• Write dated notes, so you can see what was agreed and when.

Paying in another currency

Record the payment in the currency you actually paid, and it is converted at the rate on the day you paid it — not today's. A deposit sent to a French venue last March cost what it cost that March, and your total should say so.