Rollover Holdings?

Ephemery

I want to gather cash for a "planned spending" called "Gifts". I buy gifts throughout the year but very inconsistently. I know from reviewing these answers that Rollover isn't represented in the "Available" - meaning "Available" INCLUDES the amount I should be holding on to so that my Gifts spending continues to rollover month-over-month. Right?

If I'm understanding this right, does Simplifi have plans to add a category for holding on to a total rollover? It seems crucial for me to know how much of my "Available" is actually available without dipping into the rollovers I'm trying to hold on to. It's "Available" but only sort of.

I use this same rollover method for several other planned spending categories so I need a cumulative total for this. I assume this is a normal budgeting practice!

I've seen @DannyB's post here, and I've been using the same method (Thanks for the idea, Danny!) - holding rollover in a Savings Goal. However, I like to update this regularly and I'm finding the regular update of the goal clunky.

I also tried creating a "credit" account and updating transactions in there to match the rollovers, but this is also pretty clunky and I abandoned it.

Has anyone else find a solve for this?

DannyB

@Ephemery

As far as I understand it, any funds that are "designated" in the Spending Plan are excluded from the "Available" amount shown in the Spending Plan for any given month. Another way to put it: The Spending Plan Available amount is what is left of your expected income for the current month AFTER all expenses for the current month have been deducted. Amounts rolled over from (a) previous month(s) were deducted from the previous month(s) total income and are not factored into the available for the current month. The current month "Available" is in direct relationship to the current month's income and expenses only… again, as I understand it.

Maintaining a reconciled and up to date "savings goal" to keep track of the rolled over amounts is awkward at best and adds complexity to the whole process. I have seriously considered going back to using a savings goal for all my non-monthly expenses and then simply excluding those expenses from the Spending Plan in incurred.

Ephemery

This explanation was incredibly helpful - thank you! The chat bot was just confusing me further. Thanks so much for your help!