[Leo_The_Lip]

Do you have a background in Accounting or Finance? If so, you will never get OOTP finances straight because they don't follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principals. So don't relate them to the real world.

Essentially make your contract extensions while viewing the team salary page. That is the best view of what the future holds. Look at the bottom where the salary commitments are totaled. This where you see your renewal limits for each year. By checking this out, you can see where you might not want to extend players because key guys come up for renewal and you know you will have to pay up. So check here often.

As to the budget, yes it does not change during the year. However that is how the real world works, so yes it is correct. There is idiocy involving cash and the owner taking out money at the end of the year that I find infuriatingly unrealistic, however that is STILL a discussion for another day. I won't confuse you with that yet.

So if you keep an eye on the team contract screen and understand that your next year's FA abilities will be determined by your contract commitments, you will have a good understanding of how this works.