Budgeting
Deleting something the budget still uses has three possible outcomes, and the buttons on the dialog tell you which one you are getting.
Most of what you define gets used somewhere else: a variable inside a formula, a currency on an account, a tax on a subaccount. Deleting one can change numbers elsewhere, or leave a formula pointing at something that no longer exists.
There are three possible outcomes, and **the buttons tell you which one you are getting** before you read the message.
| What you see | What it means | What happens | | ---------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | **Cancel** and **Ok** | Nothing else uses it. | Ok deletes it. | | **Ok** alone | It is in use, and this one cannot be deleted at all. | Ok just closes the message. Nothing is deleted. | | A list of what uses it, and **Ok** | It is in use, but you are allowed to overrule. | Ok deletes it anyway — and the listed places are affected. |
Nothing uses `crewTotal`, so the dialog is a plain question.
`hotelNight` is used once. The dialog names what would break — *Extra cost "Hotel" amount formula* — and offers **Delete anyway**.
The refusal. One **Ok**, no Cancel — the deletion has already been declined, and Ok only closes the message. To remove the item, first remove whatever uses it.
**How many times?** Every settings dialog has an **In Use** column. A zero means the delete will be a plain confirm; anything higher means one of the other two outcomes.
**Where exactly?** For most items the dialog itself lists the references, which is faster than searching. For a refused variable it does not, so search the budget for the variable's name — the grid shows the accounts whose formulas mention it.
| Item | If something uses it | | ---------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Variable** | Lists the formulas that reference it. Delete anyway and those formulas break. | | **Variable group** | **Refused.** Free the variables first. | | **Company**, **Tag**, **Effect** | Lists the formulas (`SUM_COMPANY`, `SUM_TAG`, …) that reference it. Delete anyway and those formulas break. | | **Tax** | Lists what it is applied to. Delete anyway and those amounts change. | | **Currency** | Lists the entries priced in it, which are then **reassigned to the default currency**. | | **Default currency** | **Refused.** Make another currency the default first. | | **Unit** | Lists what uses it. Delete anyway. | | **Work phase** | **Refused.** A phase used by variables, accounts or cash-flow rules cannot be deleted — the timeline marks a used phase with a red dot. | | **Wage fringe**, **wage supplement**, **extra cost** | Nothing checks. It deletes on a plain confirm, and the assignments go with it. |
Read that last row twice. Fringes, supplements and extra costs are the items most likely to move real money, and they are the ones that delete without asking whether anything uses them. Check the **In Use** column yourself first.
When you overrule a warning, the formulas that referenced the deleted item keep the name you deleted and the cell shows an **Unknown Reference** error.
That is the intended trade: delete first, fix the formulas after, rather than unpicking every reference before you can remove anything. But the budget is wrong until you do fix them, so treat an Unknown Reference as work outstanding, not a cosmetic warning.
1. Look at the **In Use** column. Zero means the delete is uneventful. 2. A single **Ok** means no — remove the usages first. 3. If you get a list, read it, and check it against the count in the heading, which is authoritative. A long list can run past the bottom of the dialog. 4. If you delete anyway, fix the Unknown Reference errors before you trust the totals.
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