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Spending plan report - help with planned spending

HWanless

I am having difficulty understanding what amount is showing in my planned spending category for the current month. The amount showing is -$12,048.40. My 'budget' or planned spending at the beginning of the month was $10,025 and my acutal spending is $7984.33. So to me, I am under my budgetted amount by $2,040.67. This number is within a few dollars of the difference when I add up where I overspent less what I underspent. Probably a small adding error. So again, what is the -12,048.40 supposed to mean? When I spoke with a coach, he seemed to be very focused on where I overspent, and wanted me to confirm that the entries were correct (they were) and then change the budget - or planned spend - to equal the actual spend. He only seemed to want me to do this where I overspent, even though the amount that I underspent was even greater. This doesn't make sense to me. Hopefully I am just grossly misunderstanding something. HELP!

Regards,

Hugh

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Comments

RobWilk

There are no budgets here. You may have set up planned spending, but that's just stuff you plan to spend and is held aside in the spending plan. The amount available is income (minus bills and savings goals) minus planned spending minus other spending = what you have left (and broken down per day left in month). If you have extra money you want to put into savings each month (and not spend) I'd suggest setting up a savings goal, and that money will be held aside under 'income after bills and savings'.

HWanless

Hi Rob, thanks for your quick reply.

So my numbers are as follow:

Income $9,718

Planned Spending -$12,048

Other Spending -$64

Available -$23934

The math works, however I don't understand what the planned spending amount of -$12,048. It is not what I actually spent which was $7,984 per my earlier note.

Any clarity would be appreciated.

Regards,

Hugh

DannyB

@HWanless

Is the income you show above your income AFTER bills & savings as shown in the summary column on the left? How about your recurring bills and subscriptions? My suspicion is that your recurring expenses are somehow being double counted in your Planned Spending. This will happen if you set up your Planned Spending categories in such a way as to include recurring bills and subscriptions are included in the Planned Spending line item.

Would you be willing to share screen shots of your Spending Plan front page along with your Income after bills & savings highlighted and one with Planned Spending pages highlighted? That would be helpful.

Here is my Spending Plan with Income after bills & savings highlighted.

Here is my Planned Spending highlighted.

HWanless

Hi Danny,

Thanks for your detailed response. I have stepped away from this for tonight but will look again at it tomorrow and I can definitely share my screen shots.

Regards,

Hugh

HWanless

Hi Danny,

I looked further at your note and the screen shots. Thanks for all of this.

If you can explain the Planned Spending number that would help. The summary shows $4084.70 however the details of what was actually spent is $3504.91 leaving a difference of $4579.79. The actual expenses that I calculated were from the screen shot so oerhaps there were more amounts on an additional page.

The difference between my summary and details is where I am struggling. I haven't looked into the other questions you raised. I don't have much in recurring and subscriptions but I will look into.

Thanks,

Hugh

RobWilk

i think what is being misunderstood is that expenses you put under planned spending are reserved as if they were spent. If it’s the end of the month and you don't plan to spend more in one or all categories, you can release unspent funds either for one or all categories.

HWanless

Okay, I'm starting to get it. is there a video or something that walks the user through this? i haven't been releasing funds and will be using the rollover once 2025 starts. Thoughts?

Thanks, Hugh

RobWilk

on the top of this page is a support link, you can find any official documentation there.

DannyB

Before you get to what follows, there is another question I have for you. Are you including all of your expected monthly spending in your Planned Spending categories? For instance, do you have something like Housing Expenses as one of your Planned Spending categories that includes expenses like electric bill, water bill, etc? And are these bills also included as recurring bills in the Income after bills & savings section of the Spending Plan?

The Planned Spending number shown in the summary in the left column is the total of what I PLAN to spend in the various planned Spending categories and NOT the actual amount spent either during the month or at the close of the month.

The $4084.70 is not an actual amount spent number. This is the total of what I PLAN to spend in each category - my total planned spending budget you may say. Another way to put it is that this number is my allowance for my designated flexible spending for the month. My actual expenses as of today (the above screenshot) are as you show, $3504.91. ~~I'm not sure where you are getting the difference of $4579.79.~~ The summary is not working with actual amounts spent but is instead working with total Planned or allowed or budgeted to be spent.

What the summary is showing me as of today is that I have $7965.26 available after deducting all my fixed expenses and savings contributions as of today. At this point in my month, this is pretty close my actuals since all but 3 bills have been paid, and the three remaining bills are all fixed for a certain amount.

So I have $7965.26 of income from December that is still available to spend. I have designated $4084.70 for Planned Spending and as of today I have indeed spent $3504.91 of that planned amount, but I am still within my plan for the month with a margin as of today of $579.79. This $579.79 is still in the 4084.70 that I originally planned for spending in these categories.

I received a refund of $140.00 that remains in "Other Spending" as a positive instead of a negative and so…

7965.26 - 4084.70 + 140.00 = 4020.56 "available to spend" of my original expected income.

If you take what I've actually spent month-to-date this is what you would see.

7965.26 - 3504.91 + 140 = 4600.35 is what I actually have available to spend if I include unspent Planned Spending funds.

I hope that helps clarify this a little more for you.

HWanless

Thanks Danny, you have given me a lot to work with. Unfortunately I won't be able to look at much today, if at all. However I'm sure with what you have given me I will be able to figure it out. I will update the ticket over the next few days.

Thanks again for all of your help and Happy New Year!

Hugh

HWanless

Hi,

Just to clear up some confusion, the $4579.79 was a typo with an extra $4000. Should have been $579.79. No need to respond, I still need to look through what you sent me.

Thanks,

Hugh

HWanless

Hi Danny,

I think I am okay now given all of the help and clarity that you have provided. My major sticking point was that I was thinking of the spending plan as a budget, and I didn't want to change that number so that I could see how my actuals compared to my plan. Now that I am over that, I went through and released any additional planned spending that I will not be using and, while I am well over my original plan given some one-time expenses, some unexpected, I can reconcile back to what the report shows under planned expenses. Note that I did not change thye 'planned expenses' when I was above the amount (overspent). I think that the only implication is that I have the warning triangle symbol against that category. Do you agree?

I also had one of my 'bills' amount also included in planned expenses, so I have corrected that.

For 2025 I am going to utilize the rollover capability for some or all of the categories, depending upon how random and differing the amounts are. Any thougths around rollover vs the standard approach? I have a bunch more questions as this will be my first full year using the software however I will hold off for the time being.

Thanks again for all of your help.

Regards,

Hugh