Rollover unused Spending Plan money [edited] (10 Merged Votes)

Ks9818 · January 18

agree !

UrsulaA · January 18

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/26114#Comment_26114

I feel the same way. I am using bills or one-time month expenses to budget for non monthly items. I thought I will miss the rollover more coming from Mint.

GerriC · January 18

I loved this feature in Mint. It helped me plan for expenses that occur less than monthly by allotting a monthly amount for that expense.

GSeroka · January 20

Has this feature been added yet? I see an option to "Release available for spending", but don't know what that means.

ajbopp · January 20

This feature has not been added.

"Release available for spending" refers to releasing any unused money in Planned Spending from the month's Savings Plan.

That is, if I budget $50 for entertainment in January Planned Spending but actually only spend $25 in that category, then on Feb 1 I'll be prompted to "release" what I haven't spent so that the month's calculations will be correct. This is helpful when it comes to reports and such where you want to see accurate historical data.

I've seen the question posed before about why we have to release this money manually, instead of the application doing it automatically. In my case, I've had several occasions where an expense in the category was posted in one month, but not cleared until the next month, potentially (in the case of paper checks) for several months. I still want that expense to count against January's budget, and not some other month, because even though the transaction hasn't been cleared yet, I don't really have that money available to spend in the next month, and I don't think it should be included in that month's spending plan.

Manually releasing available for spending allows me to decide which categories are actually unspent and which are not.

nanoviking · January 23

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/26618#Comment_26618

@ajbopp - which reports are affected? Releasing funds doesn't seem to affect any reports that I can tell. The only thing it seems to affect is the monthly "available to spend" number, which is not all that useful unless one is on a tight paycheck to paycheck budget with monthly or bi-monthly pay periods.

ajbopp · January 23

@nanoviking It affects the Spending Plan, the Spending Report and the Net Income Report, at least.

But more broadly, it affects the accuracy of the budget, which is the goal with this system. If the user goal is not accuracy, a budgeting app doesn't seem like a good place to spend money on a subscription.

UrsulaA · January 23

@ajbopp - the report calculations are independent of releasing the funds for spending. I have not seen the spending report or the net income report change after releasing spending. Rather, the release for spending function makes the available to spend number match the net income for the month. For example, the Dec 2023 available to spend number will match the Dec 2023 net income shown in the corresponding report after releasing the funds in the spending plan.

mr2clutch · January 27

Coming from Mint after using for a decade, I think Simplifi is an upgrade in many ways so far. However, one feature that was used heavily in Mint was creating a monthly budget for a category that the +/- could be rolled forward. I used this for annual budget planning in many categories such as clothing/gifts/vacations etc. That I wanted to know where I was in my annual spending vs. budget. It created much of an envelope system digitally. Some of these budgets were saved up and then once or twice a year.

[Merged Post]

UrsulaA · January 27

@mr2clutch - this is one of the most popular feature requests and it is in progress. Please comment as voting is closed.

[Merged Post]

chezrony · January 30

I was a Mint user and in the budget planning, there was the ability to flag and allow for the carrying of not-used budget items from one month to the next.

For example, if you have a budget of $20 a month to buy books and you spend $10 it will show you that you can spend $30 next month and carry it over to the following months.

Quicken allows you only to release the amount to be used in the same months, which is not the same.

EL1234 · January 31

Here's another reason I want rollover:

Let's say I order some things online at the end of January and return most of them. It can take time for them to get shipped back to the store/company and for them to issue my refund, which means that the refund will likely come through in February. It'll end up looking like I overspent in that category in January and then underspent (because we're starting out with a refund) in February - the February amount could even in theory end up as a negative!

I know I could raise the January expense amount and lower the February amount accordingly, but that's a little bit of a hassle and could leave me wondering why I planned to spend so little on that category in February. I could also modify the date of one of the transactions so that they both fall in the same month, but rewriting history like that makes it harder to look things up down the line.

From a budgeting perspective, if I return something I bought in January, it shouldn't make a difference if I get my refund on January 31st or February 1st. And if I could set that expense category to rollover, it wouldn't matter since the planned expense amount for February would automatically get adjusted accordingly.

Wedo778 · January 31

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/27693#Comment_27693

Yes I have the same situation as this for work reimbursements. It can be anywhere from 2-4 weeks after the initial charge when I get reimbursed. So that is often going to cross months. Would be great if February didn't tell me that I spent negative money on food when that check comes in.

I know there are manual workarounds like changing dates, marking things as hidden from the spending plan, etc. But thats a lot of manual effort. I want my tool automating things, not making more work for me to do.

ajbopp · January 31

@Wedo778 That is a great suggestion, but better suited to a distinct tracking function than a rollover. I've just created an idea post for it.

TJ_JR2 · January 31

HI, I am new to Simplifi. I have been using a budget tool called Mint, but it is being discontinued for CreditKarma, which is not a budgeting tool. I therefore switched to Simplifi.

I have an annual plan divided by 12 to have a uniform monthly plan.

Therefore, each month will have over and under expenditures to the plan.

I took note that Simplifi currently does not rollover +/- amounts to the next month.

Is there a timing on this adjustment to the application?

I assume the work around is to release unused amount at the end of each month?

UrsulaA · January 31

Good news! This request is in progress. Vote for it below.

[removed link to merged thread]

Tessellate · January 31

I recently migrated over from Mint and I am really struggling with some basic budgeting features not being available in Simplifi which I was using in Mint. One of them is a way to add planned expenses that you only incur on a quarterly, bi-annual, or annual basis... For example: my auto registration costs me $400 once a year and I know I pay for it in February. So Mint would allow me to create this and it would allocate a monthly amount of $33 to put aside so that by February I would have saved up the $400 for my planned expense, rather than being hit with a huge bill in Feb that I haven't saved for. Do you understand the importance of this? This is so key to good budgeting. Simplifi doesn't seem to have a way to reflect this. Another example: I pay for some of my utilities like trash collection on a quarterly basis, they only bill me once every 3 months, but this is for a utility I want to track monthly. So in Mint I was able to add a planned spending which occurs every 3 months, and I would set aside money for it monthly. This applies to inconsistent incomes as well. I was able to track the bonus I am paid from work on a quarterly basis. I want to be able to budget this in, on a cycle that receives it every 3 months but distributes this income out monthly. So that I can spread it out to cover expenses not only in the month that this income is received but all months in that quarter. You need to create a solution for these types of things. Right now Simplifi seems to have zero awareness of the previous month's carry over income/expenses - it is like each new month is viewed in isolation and that is NOT a realistic way to manage finances.

Tessellate · January 31

I have recently moved over from Mint and I am finding that the useability of Simplifi is really lacking in some key areas. One request is that you need to set up the budgeting solution so that there is an awareness that some categories of expenses will fluctuate from month to month. For example: if I budget $200 for groceries in January and I spend $195, then I would like February to show that I now have $205 available (when the budget for Feb is also set to $200). This makes it s true reflection of the real world where I am able to send more in one month if I saved more in another month. I want the ability to rollover my spending - even if that means that I over spent in one category by $5 then I will have to take that out of next month's allocation for that category.

This is even true for expenses like utilities - I spend more on electricity in summer months than winter, and more on gas in winter than summer. This is a far better and more realistic approach to proper budgeting, than simply wiping the slate clean and starting with a fresh budget like it currently works in Simplifi.

In Mint there was a setting in the planned spending setup where you would either check a box to say that you want the budgeted amount to rollover to the following month, or if you do not check it then the category just resets each month.

UrsulaA · January 31

Your idea already exists and it is in progress and popular. Comment via the link below.

[removed link to merged thread]

DannyB · January 31

Hi @Tessellate Welcome to the Simplifi user community forum and to Quicken Simplifi. You're observation and feature request are a common first comment by new users posted here. I posted pretty much the same question and suggestions you do here. I've never been a Mint user and have no clue about the Mint platform but have been a Quicken Classic (2002-2021) and Quicken Simplifi (2022-present) user for many years.

Your feature request is already available in this forum and is currently being worked on by the Simplifi design team and this request

Here is one discussion started by Simplifi's @Coach Natalie where you can see a very long discussion with lots of user input:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/3574/we-want-your-feedback-on-the-spending-plan

If you type in "roll over" in the home page search box, you will receive lots of results on this topic. If you read through the results you will find that there are several types of "roll over" usage scenarios discussed and requested:

Your particular scenario to build funds for non-monthly recurring expenses..
Roll over of "left at end of month" whether positive or negative.
Roll over for Planned Spending categories so that if you over or under spend in a category that surplus or deficit will be rolled over into the next month.

…to name a few.

Hopefully this will help you understand that this capability is being actively discussed and looked at for inclusion into Simplifi.

If you want to know how many in the Simplifi community handle the expenses you have mentioned, here is a typical workaround:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/3446/tiptuesday-using-savings-goals-to-break-down-annual-bi-annual-expenses-in-the-spending-plan

As noted in the comments to this post this is not ideal and is in all respects a workaround, but it is the best solution until some kind of built in roll over solution is incorporated into Simplifi.

Gizzle · February 5

Is there an ETA for this? Or should I use [removed] for now?

Uricasha · February 5

I went with [removed]. It’s a little more expensive but seems to have more features. I’ve also tried to turn off notifications from this thread but that’s broken as well.

ajbopp · February 5

It's always a dangerous business to ask when something will be delivered when there can be no definitive answer to the question.

This is probably the most hotly requested feature right now, and the dev team is working furiously on it. It will be available at the earliest possible time. Q-Simplifi doesn't want to lose tons of Mint refugees over this issue.

UrsulaA · February 5

Eta is sometime this year, hopefully soon. This is my best guess based on communications by Simplifi staff read here and via Reddit.

seshwan · February 9

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/25193#Comment_25193

Here's an example: If I plan to spend $2400 per year on vacation, even though I might only go 1-3 weeks a year, I set my budget at $200 per month. This means if I actually spent $3000 on my vacation last year, this year I won't have that much to spend (as I'll be negative $600 to start the year).

When I revisit my budget limits for 2024 I can either:

a.) acknowledge I went over budget on vacation and try to reign in my spending next time i.e. go somewhere cheaper, spend less on alcohol, not stay as long, book flights / hotels way ahead to get a discount, etc.

b.) go for vacation less often so I get back within budget in future

c.) realize I enjoy vacations more than I expected, and increase my budget allocated to Vacation to reflect that. Since I prefer my overall spending budget to remain static throughout the year, I can take money out of another budget that I'm historically underspending on. Let's say I stopped drinking at coffee shops since I work from home more so I reduce that budget by $50 / month and give it to Vacation. Now I'll have the full $2400 to spend on vacation this year ($1800 left + $600 added), and next year I'll have $3000.

In summary, I don't go moving budget allocations around every month. I know what I spend approximately, if I spend more on restaurants in summer and less in winter, I know it'll even out later and don't worry about it going negative. But if I start going way over by multiple months of spend, then I need to look at it and understand why.

seshwan · February 9

Seems like it's time to find a new platform as Mint shuts down next month but Simplifi refuses to add this simple functionality. It's not that hard, just don't reset the budget remaining in each spend category at end of month to $0 if user selects rollover budgets. I now believe any mention of development underway is just a stall tactic hoping users settle. Sorry, not settling.

ajbopp · February 9

Actually, it is hard. Software development is hard, always. Especially with a cloud app, where you have to consider latency and such.

That said, this is a priority item and the team is working on it as hard as they can

DannyB · February 9

And whatever the team comes up with has to mesh with the elegance and functionality of the existing system that is Simplifi.

Jeffro14 · February 10

While yes the rollover feature would be handy, I do think I see why QS didn't include the feature in Spending Plan, the whole point of which is so the user can see how he's actually doing in in trying to live within his monthly income; to see how you're doing, you need to compare your expenses this month to your actual income this month. While I do think that should be the user's goal, yes it also would be a handy plus to be able to hit a rollover button to show you the previous month's leftover money that's available to spend this month, but you also have to realize that this end-run will make it harder to determine if you're actually living within this month's income.

EL1234 · February 11

So users who only want to keep this month's spending within this month's income can choose not to use a rollover feature. Dates of the month are arbitrary, if I have $70 left to spend on gas this month it shouldn't make a difference if I spend it on the last day of the month or if I wait until the first day of the next month because I didn't run out of gas yet and it's more convenient to go the next day.

Yes, I can subtract from this month's planned expense and add it to next month's manually, but what we're asking for is not not need to do those manual steps each time it comes up.

I don't use spending plan to make sure that my bank accounts don't go into the red - most of the spending I do is on credit cards and therefore I use the cash flow projection to monitor my cash flow. (I have recurring bills for $1 for each credit card which I manually update to the correct amounts each month. These two ideas are the ones I'd choose if I could choose two to be implemented.) Even if someone did all their spending via debit card or cash, Spending Plan wouldn't be a good way to make sure they don't run out of funds unless all their income comes in at the beginning of the month.

Rollover unused Spending Plan money [edited] (10 Merged Votes)

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