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Before your family arrives. Get an estimate of your family’s financial situation when they arrive. The estimator tool can help you understand what to expect by projecting a one-month budget for your family, including government aid.  \n2. Once your family arrives. Use the budget template to keep a monthly budget foryour family. Customize it to your family’s spending and needs.  \n3. As your family makes money decisions. Your family will make some crucial money decisions in the months ahead, whether family members are considering taking on a new job, paying off loans, or moving to a different apartment. Many of these changes can reduce government aid or increase expenses above income. Use the estimator tool and the budget template to help family members understand how big life decisions will impact their financial health.  \nWe’ll dive first into how to use the estimator tool and then look at how to use the budget tool.  \nHow do I use the Budget Estimator?  \nThe Budget Estimator is a powerful tool that helps you see what your family’s financial situation might be like before your family even arrives. In only ten minutes, you can get amuch clearer sense of your family’s financial picture.  \nFollow these five simple steps to use the budget estimator tool:  \n1. Open the IRIS Budgeting Tool in Microsoft Excel.  \n2. Click on the‘Basic Inputs’ tab at the bottom left corner of the document that opens.  \n3. Fill in the yellow‘Input’boxes with the listed information about your family, where they’ll be living, and any specific information you know about their assets and expenses.  \nWhen you open the document, these yellow boxes will already have numbers in them. These are baseline numbers that estimate expenses based on area standards and past experiences. If you don’t know an exact number, the baseline will help you by providing an estimate. If you do know or have an idea of the number, replace the baseline in the box with your actual number.  \nSample input boxes in the family size section —there are six sections of inputs (all of the yellow boxes are inputs)  \n4. As you make changes, the Budget Estimator will instantly update your projected budget. You don’t need to click any buttons to make this update happen.  \n5. Click on the‘Budget (Base)’ tab at the bottom of the document once you’ve finished filling out what you know in the yellow boxes. The table will be automatically pre-filled with a sample three-year budget for your family!  \nAs you gain more information, you can repeat this process as often as it’s helpful.  \nNote: Government aid estimates were created from IRIS expertise and publicly available data. These and all other numbers generated by the Budget Estimator are estimates for your personal use. Actual numbers may vary.  \nHow do I use the Budget Template?  \nOnce your family arrives, the Budget Template lets you track their month-to-month budget with categories that fit your family’s needs based on past IRIS families’experiences. You can base your family’s budget on the budget estimate you generated in the Budget Estimate tool or you can start fresh with a blank budget template.  \nOption 1: Starting from a budget estimate  \nIf you used the Budget Estimator tool to create your family’s budget, it takes only one minute to create a budget template that you can edit with monthly changes.  \n1. Open the IRIS Budgeting Tool in Microsoft Excel.  \n2. Click on the‘Budget (Base)’ tab at the bottom of the document that opens. You have already created a budget estimate using the Budget Estimator so the table in this tab will be filled in with ","cbCaiaSorpDR0SM5","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiaSorpDR0SM5","pdf",1846211,"English","# How to Use the Budget Estimator Tool\n## When to Use These Tools\n## Five Steps to Use the Budget Estimator\n# How to Use the Budget Template\n## Option 1: Starting from a Budget Estimate\n## Option 2: Starting from a Blank Budget\n# How to Use the Budget Test Tool\n## Five Steps to Use the Budget Test Tool","[{\"question\":\"When should you use the IRIS Budget Estimator tool?\",\"answer\":\"Use it before your family arrives to project a one-month budget and understand what to expect, including government aid estimates.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the yellow input boxes work in the Budget Estimator?\",\"answer\":\"The yellow input boxes include baseline numbers that estimate expenses using area standards and past experiences; replace them with your actual numbers when you know them.\"},{\"question\":\"How can you create and edit a budget template after using the estimator?\",\"answer\":\"Go to the 'Budget (Base)' tab, copy the sheet, and rename the new tab; then make monthly edits directly in that new tab.\"}]","IRIS Budget Estimator and Budget Template Tools - User Manual | PDF",1789176682]