Recurring Income and the Spending Plan

RobertoT

Hello. I’m a new QS user and still trying to figure out how the spending plan works. Earlier this month, my available to spend amount seemed abnormally low, and I just found out why. I get a pension payment on the first of each month. Because September 1 fell on a Sunday, the pension was deposited on Aug 31, so it was counted for the month of August. Once I updated the transaction date to the month of September, the problem seemed to resolve. Should this income have rolled over to be available in September? Is there something I may be missing here? Thank you for your assistance.

DannyB

Hi @RobertoT welcome to Quicken Simplifi!

You’re not missing anything. This is how the Spending Plan works. It is a month to month planning tool that focuses on the current month exclusively with no consideration of last month’s final results.

Here is a helpful article about the Spending Plan:

https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/4212702-using-the-quicken-simplifi-spending-plan

The only exception to this is the recently added Planned Spending roll over feature which now allows a user to “accumulate” funds month to month for a given planned expense category.

https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/9029030-using-rollover-in-planned-spending

UrsulaA

Looks like you got what you needed, moved the income to September by changing the date received. That is what needs to be done if you encounter the same scenario again.

RobertoT

thank you both. So, in cases where there is income left to spend at the end of a month, I need to go dispose of it, because I can’t make it roll over? Wish it could become available to spend in the following month.

SRC54

@RobertoT I always have money left to spend at the end of the month. I figure the more I have, the more I "won" the month. 😃 You can also set up a Savings Goal to use some of that money or all of it, but I don't use that feature so I will let someone else advise you with that.

I get paid near the end of the month and my wife on the last business day of the month, so I have thought about moving it to the first, but I just got used to spending money and getting all my income and interest at the end. The Spending Plan takes that income to come into account. That is what I love about the Spending Plan.

In your case, moving the date to Sep 1 is the logical thing to do. Enjoy getting used to and learning to love the Spending Plan!

DannyB

Here is a feature request to create a way to provide the options to move the "left at end of month" to next month:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/9040/spending-plan-option-to-forward-left-at-end-of-month-to-the-following-month-edited

One thing to keep in mind with QS and part of its genius in my opinion is the Spending Plan's exclusive focus on the current month. That keeps the user focused on monthly planning to keep spending in alignment with income. Like any other planning tool, it needs to be used as intended. On the other hand, this is a tool that is evolving and users input is taken into account.

P.S. I use a Savings Goal to set aside any left at end of month as a way to keep track, but that doesn't bring the funds into any future Spending Plans .

UrsulaA

The spending plan also allows the user to enter a custom income number for any given month. You can add the extra income from the prior month to the current month. It is a manual step but a reasonable workaround to add income to any given month.