Setup for recurring yearly transactions

christiney

It is very difficult to set up recurring yearly transactions. If I link the series to a transaction, it defaults to making the transaction monthly. It only gives me the option to start the series at the next transaction, which it wants to set to the next month. Furthermore, it does not want to start the series at the first transaction (which already happened), but I need to set the first transaction for the next year, but I then have to change the month back by one... Please help me to understand how to do this in a logical, efficient manner!

SRC54

Yes, Simplifi does default to monthly, so if you choose to make a transaction recurring (the usual way), you have to change it to yearly and change the date back to the date you want it to start. I have noticed this behavior too. It's great when you want it be monthly but not so much otherwise.

I think you are doing it as efficiently as possible. The next time you want to create a new recurring that isn't monthly, I would just create it from scratch (Add Bill: Manually from the Bills and Payments or Spending Plan), and then go back and link any old transactions you have to it. That would be more efficient.

DannyB

@christiney

Annual, semi-annual recurring fixed expenses have quite a history of conversation in this forum and there are feature requests suggesting ways to integrate these recurring expenses more effectively into the Spending Plan.

In most cases, I have personally settled on using a Savings Goal as my workaround until non-monthly recurring expenses are more effectively addressed.

I know what my non-monthly recurring expenses are including insurance premiums, property tax, auto license and registration, certain subscriptions and membership fees, etc.

To "make" these annual expenses a part of my monthly planning, I add up the total for all annual/semi-annual expenses and create a Savings Goal for that amount at the beginning of the year with a monthly contribution equal to 1/12 of the total. When I set up the new SG, for instance the Annual Expense SG for 2025, I will add the balance of my Annual Expense SG for 2024 as the beginning balance.

When I actually pay one of these expenses, I make a withdrawal to spend on goal from the SG and mark the transaction record for this expense to be excluded from the Spending Plan.

It sounds a bit complicated but in practice it works just fine and matches what I've done for years in handling these non-monthly recurring expenses by setting aside money in savings to cover these expenses when they come due.

Hope that helps.