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Incorporate Recurring Transactions into "Planned Spending" Dashboard

Strahan001

Summary:
Currently, the "Planned Spending" section in the "Spending Plan" allows users to track spending based on categories and provides a budget-to-actual dashboard. However, recurring transactions are classified as "bills" and excluded from this feature, which limits the ability to forecast and track spend in these categories over time. This request seeks to enhance the functionality by integrating recurring transactions into the "Planned Spending" dashboard to allow for comprehensive budget tracking, even for recurring expenses.

Problem Statement:

Recurring transactions (e.g., utility bills) are automatically classified as "bills" and excluded from the "Planned Spending" dashboard.
Non-recurring items cannot be forecasted into future spending plans, which limits the predictive capability for these transactions.
This creates a gap in budget tracking for categories with recurring but variable expenses (e.g., electricity, water).

Proposed Solution:
Enhance the "Planned Spending" feature to:

Include Recurring Transactions in Budget Tracking: Allow users to incorporate recurring transactions (classified as "bills") into the "Planned Spending" dashboard.
Enable Budgeting for Variable Recurring Expenses: Provide the option to set a planned spending amount for recurring expenses that may vary monthly (e.g., electricity).
Forecast Future Spending: Allow recurring transactions to be forecasted in future months based on historical trends or user-defined budget amounts.

Use Case Example:

A user has a recurring monthly bill for electricity, a fixed category but with variable costs due to seasonal or external factors.
The user wishes to set a monthly budget of $150 for electricity and track actual spending against this budget within the "Planned Spending" dashboard.
The system automatically incorporates the recurring transaction data and displays a month-over-month comparison of planned versus actual spending for electricity.

Benefits:

Provides a more comprehensive view of budget tracking across all categories, including recurring expenses.
Improves the forecasting ability for variable recurring transactions.
Enhances user experience by centralizing budget tracking within the "Planned Spending" dashboard.
Reduces manual workarounds for tracking recurring expenses outside the dashboard.

Thank you!

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Comments

Strahan001

Note that if someone has a means to leverage existing functionality to do a budget to actual tracking for recurring expenses, would love to review that approach. Thank you

RobWilk

Not in favor of this idea which looks a.i. generated

Strahan001

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/46705#Comment_46705

Hi there,

I did use AI to asssit with formatting the request, can you outline why the feature is not viable? How is a budget to actual review done with recurring items?

Thank you

RobWilk

It's "viable"

But really, when you're budgeting and trying to control what you spend in what categories, bills are a "must" so to say "I'm budgetting $50 for the cable bill" when your cable. bill is actually "$250" is not useful - if it's a recurring amount it should come out before the budget. Bills should be separate from the budget…. However, I'm not even a little bit of a fan of budgeting by category, I don't like to say I budgeted $200 on gas and only spent $75 this month, now I have to go and spend $125 more on gas (gotta drive randomly to burn it!) to reach my gas budget [and I can't spend that $125 on anything else! because the budget says so] - I'd rather just have a picture of what's spent, what's planned to be spent (not a budget) and what have i spent elsewhere so far — where elsewhere is what i call non-bill "discretionary" spending - not "must" spending.

As-is, as-designed, the spending plan is.a large part of the reason I use Simplifi. The only thing about it i don't like is rollover, but i just don't use that.

-Rob

p.s. You asked for an outline, so I had AI do it, here, if you prefer this, but i'm not convinced it's as readable:

I. Viability of BudgetingA. Acknowledgment of budgeting as "viable."

II. Bills and BudgetingA. Bills as non-negotiable "musts."1. Example: Budgeting $50 for a cable bill that is actually $250 is not practical.B. Bills should be separate from the budget.1. Recurring amounts should come out before the budget is planned.

III. Critique of Category-Based BudgetingA. Dislike for strict category-based budgeting.1. Example: Budgeting $200 for gas but only spending $75 creates unnecessary constraints.2. The issue of being restricted to spend the remaining $125 on gas only.B. Preference for a broader spending overview.1. Focus on:a. What’s spent.b. What’s planned to be spent (not categorized as a strict budget).c. Discretionary spending (non-bill, non-essential).

IV. Preference for SimplifiA. The spending plan is a significant reason for using Simplifi.B. Dislike for the rollover feature.1. Solution: Opt not to use rollover.

Strahan001

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/46723#Comment_46723

Got it,

And I see your approach and is viable for sure. I have used Simplify for the past 5 years and have had a primary focus on the analysis of the transactions as they come in, and then forcasting out needed $$ using the recurring transacations. Now I am trying to use the spending plan portion of the platform, to develop a descrete list of buckets for spend estimate based on past data. These spend items take into account "non-bill discretionary" spending as well as the "must" spending. With your experience on the spending plan aspect, how are you reviewing at a high level where the $$ is going based on the planned spend vs the actual spent regardless of if it is a "must" vs "discretionary"?

Thank you!

RobWilk

For me, PLANNED SPENDING strictly incorporates money that either:

(1) I know i'm going to be spending the money THIS MONTH — That is, if I know i'm going to spend $800 on a pair of eyeglasses this month, I might put that in planned spending so it holds that money aside as if it was spent already. i.e. So "what's left" factors in things i didn't spend yet but know I have to spend.

(2) The other case, for example, is if I don't want a particular large one-time purchase to influence future month's estimate of "other spending" (discretionary, non-bill) which is based on average other spending, then I separate that one charge into planned spending. For example, I had a semi-planned (since october) expense on my new M4 MacBook Pro, and I decided I didn't want the large purchase to count towards my other spending amount for future months' estimates because, in the end, this was more of a one-time (or once every 2-3 years) kind of expense.

SRC54

I have to agree with @RobWilk. When I first started with Simplifi, I too was disconcerted that my Power Bill, for example, wasn't including in Home Expenses. However, after using it a while, I saw the logic. You will have a Power Bill every month but your home supplies, upkeep may vary. All we can do with that is budget a certain amount because it is unknowable how much we have to spend.

When I know I have to cut to grass every two weeks from April through September, that is a bill, and I can schedule that but treating a sudden appearance of Army Worms (upkeep) is not.

It's not perfect but it works so much better than say Quicken's old fashioned budgeting plan, which is a horror.