Canadian user wondering what's next with the transfer I just made

pointingfinger

Hello everyone, a newbie here from the great white north.

I currently do my budgeting with Excel which I'm very happy with but I'm hoping to find an app that my better half can use without having to invest 35 years into learning Excel at my level.

Onto my questions:

I just transferred $100 from my Checking account to my Savings account at my bank so it doesn't appear in Simplifi yet.

1. Approximately how long will it take to appear in Simplifi and can I speed that process along?
2. Will it appear as a single transfer transaction between the accounts or as two separate entries? If two entries, will they automatically be linked?
3. Do I need to create a transfer entry in Simplifi while I'm waiting for the transaction to be downloaded from my bank or should I just wait for it to show up?
4. If I schedule a transfer on my banking site 10 days in the future, how should I keep track of it in Simplifi until it is reconciled?

Thanks, and have a good one!

pointingfinger

Yikes, this isn't going well.

I decided to create the transfer transaction between the Checking and Savings account in Simplifu which updated my balances accordingly. When I connected to my bank with the mobile app it synched with my bank. Now my Savings balance in Simplifi is $200 not the $100 I was expecting. Ok, no problem, I'll delete the transfer I created in Simplifi and it should go back to $100 right? WRONG. I still have a $200 balance in Simplifi (there's $100 in my actual bank account) and there are no transactions in Simplifi that account for the $200 balance.

This is anything but simple at this point.

pointingfinger

I requested a refund, it wasn't for me.

SRC54

@pointingfinger Well, there are several things here. I assume your checking and savings are at the same bank and that they are both connected to Simplifi for downloads.

1. You can wait and let Simplifi download them and you should end up with +100 in Savings and -!00 in Checking. Simplifi probably will discover that it is a transfer but if not, you can edit either transaction to point Simplifi in the right direction and it should pop up and ask if these are the same.
2. If you go ahead and enter the transactions manually, once you download the transactions, Simplifi will attempt to match. It sounds like it didn't so you should have chosen the downloaded transaction and the manual one and Merged them. However, deleted the manual transaction should work also.
3. If the balance is wrong as you indicate it is, check to make sure the downloaded transaction is cleared or pending. Some banks count pending transactions in the balance immediately. This could be the case since typically when you move money from one account to another in the same bank, it is immediate even on a weekend. Otherwise, it takes to the next business day to clear.

Check to see online what it says; whether the transaction is cleared or pending. Sometimes Simplifi gets confused or the bank does and it may update the balance correctly when you connect again 4 hours later.

Let us know what you find. Hang in there; it will take some time to get used to using Simplifi.

SRC54

@pointingfinger If you want to go ahead and make a transfer entry for 10 days out, just do it and date it ahead. Simplifi will make it a reminder and on the date selected, it will go live.

DannyB

Hi @pointingfinger

Edit Note: I see that @SRC54 has posted a much more concise response since I started my own response. I'll go ahead and post mine as a "For-what-it's-worth" follow-up.

Edit Note 2: I now see you requested a refund… sorry to see you go.

Quicken Simplifi (QS) will report your actual bank balance downloaded from your bank. You can determine whether or not QS takes into account pending transactions depending on how your bank handles pending transactions in their downloads.

This support article will give you more information about bank balances, pending transactions and how to control what QS does with pending.

https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/4202003-how-to-resolve-balance-discrepancies

As for your questions from the original post:

1. How long it takes for a transaction to appear in QS will depend on how long it takes your bank to record the transaction. Xfers between my cash accounts (checking and savings) at my main bank happen almost instantaneously and show up in QS if not the same day, certainly by the next morning refresh.
2. The transfer will appear as two separate entries - a debit in your checking account and a credit in your savings account and usually QS is pretty good at matching both sides. If they aren't matched up, you can do so by changing the Category to Transfer: [to/from accounts]
   1. All your accounts should show up in the list of subcategories that pop up when you hover over the Transfer category.
   2. The category for the xfer out of your checking account will be Transfer: [savings account]; the category for the xfer into your savings account will be Transfer: [checking account]
   3. When you created your manual transaction, if you started in your checking account and used the Transfer: [savings account] category, you should have been asked whether or not you wanted QS to create a transaction in the savings account for you and vice versa.
3. I usually wait for the transfers to show up from the bank, but there is no reason you can't go ahead and create a manual entry. If you do, remember that QS manual entries need to be dated for TODAY or a future date to if you want it to affect your current bank reported balance. If you use a date before TODAY, the transaction will not affect the current reported bank balance.
4. For the ten days out transfer you can:
   1. Go ahead and make a manual transaction entry that reflects the date of the scheduled transaction using the correct Transfer categories.
   2. If this is going to be a recurring transfer, you can create a recurring transfer series under Settings > All Recurring > Add > Add Manually. (You can get to the Add process via Bills & Payments >All Recurring tab also.)

I'm not sure what is going on with your account balance due to what you describe in your second post. My guess is that there is still some piece of the manual transaction you created and deleted still present in QS, but I have no idea where. One possible solution, since you are just getting started, would be to simply delete the savings account in Simplifi and then recreate it.

As far as what is going on in the accounts list and an accounts' corresponding account register, one thing to keep in mind is that QS reports data downloaded from the bank and even though you can make manual entries, the balance is what the bank reports as of the last download. Any manually entered transactions will affect that balance ONLY if you have selected "Balance with pending" and they are dated TODAY or with a future date. Any entries with dates prior to TODAY will not affect the reported balance.

I don't know if this will help, but the Spending Plan and what goes on in the Spending Plan, though certainly related to your bank accounts, is not the same as a dynamic bank register. The Spending Plan works with all connected and included accounts holistically without regard to the accounts actually used for any given income or expense occurrence. The Spending Plan compiles the data from you bank accounts to keep track of how your plan is working out, but the Plan itself is not dependent of your bank account data for planning purposes.

By the same token, the cash flow projections for any given account do depend on the various recurring income, expense and included transfers and savings goal contributions you have set up in your Spending Plan.

SRC54

@DannyB Your post may be easier for a newbie to understand. I maybe misinterpreted his cancellation — I thought he said it was a mistake. @pointingfinger Don't give up too soon. Spreadsheets are great but apps like Simplifi do so much more. There is a learning curve no doubt.

pointingfinger

It didn't work for me. Not ready for the masses IMHO.