Another "I'm over budget" question

[Apoc_War]

Okay, I give up. I've looked through years of past OOTP threads here and on reddit to figure out how I could possibly be over budget. Everything is green, everything looks good, but for the life of me I cannot figure out why I'm "over budget" thus limiting all my admin peripherals.

I've attached a screenshot of the situation.

Any advice or direction on what I should be specifically looking at would be greatly appreciated as it's a perennial issue for me.


-Apoc

[bwiese3908]

The owner is taking your cash... well... his cash.

[HonusWagner]

The owner is Michael Corleone?

[jksander]

Originally Posted by HonusWagner

The owner is Michael Corleone?

Someone needs to send HIM a horse's head ...

[LansdowneSt]

The math adds up. But you should have $4.8m to spend to add any budget or otherwise spend. What are you trying to set your budget to? Also, do you have any free agent offers or other things pending that, if accepted, would reduce the amount from that $4.8M?

[Apoc_War]

Thanks for the replies, and yes, I did notice that my owner is using the team as his personal cash cow .

And on the 4.8mil, that's what I thought too, there's no pending anything at that moment. The issue persisted through half-way through the season even when I saved some money through trades. But each time I go to Player Dev or Scouting I'm told him over budget and their budgets are limited.

I've also noticed with the owners taking cash line, that as money changes through the season, I've seen my owners take less or more cash, so it seems like they're working off a percentage of some kind. Which again, shouldn't force me over budget.

The only time I've been able to successfully run multiple years without getting the over budget notification (even with everything green) was when I played as the Rockies and didn't sign anyone over 1-2mil on purpose. I had something near 100mil in extra money but I don't trust that accounting line anymore.

Money available for extensions also baffles me, as in the Orioles playthrough in the screenshot, I believe the front page with the basic information told me I had ~80mil available for extensions which when taken with the over budget marker and only 1 FA of consequence coming up the following year had me confused as well. Wish I had saved a screenshot of that (though I'm sure it'll happen again and I can take one then).

So, TLDR, I'm still stumped and confused.

[snepp]

Did you try changing your budgets? That over-budget message often appears when it doesn't apply and won't stop you from doing so.

[Apoc_War]

@snepp I think you're on to something there. I had noticed I could still change the budgets (unlike previous games) but figured it was just a glitch and I wasn't actually getting those budgets.

But I think you're right, I think there's a bug/error somewhere that is miscalculating when you're "over budget" and blasting the message to you incorrectly.

I went ahead and tested and it does seem the budgets aren't impacted and I can still change them (though I can now change Scouting budget mid-season when I don't think that was possible in previous games). So there may be more than one bug in the budgeting system.

[snepp]

I had the "mid-season let me modify budgets" thing pop up one year out of the 22 seasons I've made it through so far. I suspected it had something to do with me toggling commissioner mode on and off doing some fiddling around and it left them accessible after I shut it off.

[HuntSchmitt]

Still no answer here or anywhere else. Makes no sense why I am showing as +$50 mil in available money, budget is still +$10 mil after owner takes cash, and yet development and scouting are reduced to half? There are no answers in this thread or anywhere on the internet, it seems. Incredibly frustrating. I am tired of having to guesstimate how much money I actually have available.

[LansdowneSt]

Originally Posted by HuntSchmitt

Still no answer here or anywhere else. Makes no sense why I am showing as +$50 mil in available money, budget is still +$10 mil after owner takes cash, and yet development and scouting are reduced to half? There are no answers in this thread or anywhere on the internet, it seems. Incredibly frustrating. I am tired of having to guesstimate how much money I actually have available.

Hmmmm. What’s the date in the sim? Are the budgets open for setting yet/still?

[HuntSchmitt]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Hmmmm. What’s the date in the sim? Are the budgets open for setting yet/still?

A little over 20 years into a fictional sim, but it happens both in the beginning of the sim and throughout. I have a screenshot of the accounting page below. I can add a screenshot from my fictional league that I am only 2 years into, as well.

I do not fully understand what you mean by whether the budgets are open for setting. If you could explain a bit more that would be great. I am desperate to figure this out because it has led to endless frustration for years now.

Edit: also I should add that when going to the free agents page it says I have $33M available to sign free agents. Despite this, and everything in the green here, it says that my scouting and player development budgets are cut in half because I am over budget. This screenshot is from the offseason, but the same thing happens during the season, as well.

[RonCo]

At the end of each year, the owner takes all money that's over your cash max.

It's as simple as that.

I assume you're playing with "use full revenue stream." Therefore, your budget is your revenue stream--not what the owner says. That means that as your revenue projections go up and down over the year, your "operational budget" (cash+projected revenue) will also go up and down. I understand this is totally confusing, but it is what it is.

Ultimately, in this mode, the budget is cosmetic and the owner is simply drawing an unsophisticated line at your cash max.

[HuntSchmitt]

Originally Posted by RonCo

At the end of each year, the owner takes all money that's over your cash max.

It's as simple as that.

I assume you're playing with "use full revenue stream." Therefore, your budget is your revenue stream--not what the owner says. That means that as your revenue projections go up and down over the year, your "operational budget" (cash+projected revenue) will also go up and down. I understand this is totally confusing, but it is what it is.

Ultimately, in this mode, the budget is cosmetic and the owner is simply drawing an unsophisticated line at your cash max.

This is with owner controls the budget on, not use full revenue stream.

So, is the answer just that the available money shown on the free agency page means nothing? I can accept that, if it is, but my issue is not knowing where the line is.

[RonCo]

As far as the OP is concerned, if you update to the newest update, I think that Gate Lost line should drop a little.

[LansdowneSt]

The only time the numbers matter is the preseason when the budget is eligible for changes. If you sign a big FA contract after setting it that then puts you over into the red on the bottom accounting number, you need to walk back the budget or you will trip the auto-check against said budget and get the half-league-average value.

[HuntSchmitt]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

The only time the numbers matter is the preseason when the budget is eligible for changes. If you sign a big FA contract after setting it that then puts you over into the red on the bottom accounting number, you need to walk back the budget or you will trip the auto-check against said budget and get the half-league-average value.

Yes, I of course understand that. But that is not the issue. The issue is that it is all showing green, preseason and regular season, showing available money for FA, and yet simultaneously reducing player dev/scouting because it says I am over budget. This is also what the OP was referring to.

[LansdowneSt]

Originally Posted by HuntSchmitt

Yes, I of course understand that. But that is not the issue. The issue is that it is all showing green, preseason and regular season, showing available money for FA, and yet simultaneously reducing player dev/scouting because it says I am over budget. This is also what the OP was referring to.

I mentioned the timing because you said “ This screenshot is from the offseason, but the same thing happens during the season, as well.” Thus I thought it worth being explicit because neither of those timeframes is the preseason.

[RonCo]

For teams who are running right at the limits (particularly low revenue teams) this can matter throughout the season, too, since if revenue projections dip, it cuts off the ability to spend.

[HuntSchmitt]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

I mentioned the timing because you said “ This screenshot is from the offseason, but the same thing happens during the season, as well.” Thus I thought it worth being explicit because neither of those timeframes is the preseason.

Below is the accounting page one week into the preseason. Everything is showing green. Free agency page says over $33M available. Yet scouting and player development says I am over budget and thus they are reduced to half the baseline.