Rollover unused Spending Plan money [edited] (10 Merged Votes)
Comments
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@MichaelSGreen Simplifi actually has a built in recurrence function for bills/subscriptions that can do (I think) weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually. I have a quarterly expense / investment that varies from quarter to quarter, but I have a recurring bill for the average amount set up quarterly. That impacts my spending plan for the relevant month. Not perfect for accruing if you're trying to save over time with a defined amount each month (might use a savings goal for that use case), but good for layering into your spending.
That said, I also would love to see rollover functionality layered into this application.
@Coach Natalie Have you heard anything about current status of this feature? I would be very excited to see this rolled out (especially if we could allocate "rollover" directly into savings goals for certain budgets (e.g., a discretionary budget for which unused portions automatically go into a Vacation savings goal or something).
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+1 agreed
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While I see the Team seems to be working on this, as new potential user and some-to-be-Mint-exile, I really want to emphasize the importance of this feature —or something like it. As some community members have noted, I find it quite challenging to user Simplifi as budget tool. There are some great features here but without being able to roll over un-used fund within categories month to month, Simplifi seems to be monthly zero-based budgeting.
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Who wants to share their feedback with our product team regarding rollover abilities in the Spending Plan?! If that's you, click the link below to schedule a 30-minute session!
[removed link - sessions have filled up!]
-Coach Natalie
-Coach Natalie
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Adding my vote too. Coming from digital envelopes (Mvelopes, EveryDollar, YNAB, etc), this should be like not spending all the cash you have in an envelope, and your next month's funding of the "envelopes" just adds to what's still in there.
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EveryDollar - Calls the "envelope" a "Fund" if it's able to be carried over to next month.
Mvelopes & GoodBudget - A default behavior. Worked great with their "Funding" feature (with saved Funding Profiles, which I miss).
To me, it's basically a concept of saving. If you work hard on sticking to a budget, living below your means, then you're naturally going to still have money in categor(ies). Why not have the ability to just keep that money growing in the category?
Unfortunately, I am in the "deal-breaker" band-wagon, and am now looking at YNAB or something else. My needs are pretty basic, so subscription cost is a huge factor.
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Please add rollovers to budgeting!
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When is rollover monthly spending category going to be implemented?
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I LOVE the interface of Simplifi. The only missing feature that I really need is the ability to rollover each category, not just the whole spending planned amount for the amount. I came from mvelopes originally until it closed in Nov 2022, then I went to Ramsey's Every Dollar. ED has rollover categories but the interface is not very robust - such as no real reporting.
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When could we expect to see this feature added?
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I'm a recent exile from Mint, and subscribed to Simplifi because I like a lot of what I saw. I couldn't imagine that there wasn't rollover functionality, and I spent a couple of weeks getting set up in other areas and getting familiar with the program. I assumed that I would run into a rollover function somewhere, but now I come to the forum and find out it doesn't exist, and people have been asking for it for literally years. This is a total deal breaker for me, and I'm now going to try and cancel my subscription and find some other platform that offers this basic and essential functionality.
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Adding my voice to reiterate that this feature is essential for me. I'm also looking for my Mint replacement and am in the trial period with Simplifi. There are several features missing for me along with an inability to link several of my financial institutions which is frustrating but not a dealbreaker. Not being able to have a rollover budget is a dealbreaker issue for me though. Would really appreciate getting an ETA on when we can expect this feature so I can decide whether to continue my account after the trial is over.
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This is missing table stakes IMO! Your spending plan is the crown jewel of the product and why I ultimately went with Simplifi over Empower when migrating from mint. (Also the mint import was nice!) Yet, how are you supposed to have a smart spending plan around things like Travel? Big but inconsistent spend where you are trying to stay under an ongoing rate. Car maintenance is another good example. Heck, I'd use this approach for a lot of discretionary spend like entertainment and shopping, too. I get there are a lot of implications to support this but it's NOTABLY missing even in a first-time onboarding, and will be a thorn in my side until it's fixed.
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Also coming from Mint. Budget/spending plan category rollover is essential. Some months you spend more on restaurants, for example, and that overage should carry over into the next month so you know to spend less to compensate. Same for leftover amounts; you should be able to spend the extra in the coming months. Will be canceling if this is not added soon.
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This is a must have!
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I just switched over from MINT out of necessity. The lack of a rollover feature is really throwing a wrench in my gears. This is a essential function of budgeting- to carryforward unused funds. This needs to happen soon or I will have to keep looking for a new budgeting tool.
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Just to be clear, rollover is the antithesis of budgeting. Budgeting is a forward-looking function. What people here seem to be asking for is tracking spending, which is backwards looking, and trying to project the past into the future, which is not budgeting at all.
Budgeting is about what I can spend. Tracking spending is about what I have spent, so I should expect to spend that into the future.
The budget is an immovable object. It doesn't matter what you spend or don't spend in a month, aside from providing information into how you should adjust your budget. But a budget that has meaning cannot change on a monthly basis.
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye-3 -
I appreciate the honesty. If implemented, let the user choose to rollover certain categories and pair it with a yearly limit/target.
I personally like the spending plan as it is. I like seeing that the money left at the end of the month matches my net income after I release the funds back to my available funds per planned spending section.
Simplifi User Since Nov 2023
Minter 2014-2023
Questionable Excel before 2014 to present
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I'm also moving over from Mint. The lack of rollover is also a deal breaker for me as we use it to keep track of things like groceries, gas, etc. Is there any update on how soon this can be expected?
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I disagree. I budget for future expenses using rollover. For example, I might have a $400 life insurance bill that comes due every November. WITHOUT rollover, I would create a category in November and set it for $400 and then have to find $400 to clear it. WITH rollover, I set the budget target for $400 due every Nov 1. The app should then automatically budget $33.33 each month in my budget so that come November, I have the $400 sitting in the category waiting for me. The budgeting you describe is not 'forward looking.' It is immediate for the month. If you go over, then it has no impact on the next month. With rollover, you plan your budget throughout the year so it's truly very forward thinking. The one thing I dislike most about Simplifi is that it is very hard to plan for future expenses with it. It's like budgeting in 1989 yet it's 2023.
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@Chrobrego OK, if that's what you mean by rollover then Q-Simplifi already has what you're looking for. Check out Savings Goals and that functionality will do everything you've indicated you want done.
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye1 -
Outside of it being, IMO a kludgy workaround to what seems like a simple function on the surface, this is not automatic. chrobrego and many, many others have mention they are looking for an automated solution as it pertains to rollovers.
To make this issue even more perplexing, and AFAIK there have been requests for an automated solution to contribute to goals as far back as 2020? Are we missing something does this functionality currently exists?
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@RJ_ As mentioned in the voting box of the first post of this thread, adding this functionality is currently in progress.
However, I'm uncertain if it will behave the way @Chrobrego and you describe (which is neither budgeting nor rolling over - what's being described is a slight variation on how Savings Goals currently behave - a regular accumulation of money into a particular bucket).
Rolling over is budgeting an amount, spending differently than that amount, and having the difference be reflected in the next budgeting period.
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye2 -
Sorry, perhaps I was not clear in my 2nd paragraph. I referenced an automated solution to contribute to goals.
I brought this up because of your suggestion to use Goals as a seemingly exact replacement for the rollover feature chrobrego and many others are requesting, but missed he and others asking for an automated function as it pertains to Rollovers.
I agree, IF you could automatically contribute to Goals, it would make this Kludgy workaround more 'palatable', but it appears you can't?
I think at this point those who have read through, at least the last few pages of this 'thread' (for rollover) know it's being added. I think the last few pages of responses are in regards to the Time-to-Release for the Rollover feature.
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Fellow Bopp… You might be right about how budgeting works. And I definitely don't think it should FORCE things to work this way in the app, but it would be an nice option, and critical to the way I budget ('track') spending.
For example, if I do a good job of not eating out for a few months, I like the benefit of having some extra on a month when I'm eating out more. Or if I have an allowance for certain activities… saving that allowance over time for a month when I want to use more. I know that 'goals' do this somewhat, but it's hard to 'track' this sort of spending in goals.
In short, this might not be adhering to a strict definition of 'Budgeting' but it would nonetheless be very valuable to money management in our house. It's clear that many existing features in Simplifi are not strict 'budgeting' tools, but also tracking spending.
I appreciate that this feature is being worked on! I know it's not a trivial request. This app has everything else I need, so hopefully when this feature arrives we'll be able to switch over to it.
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Also ex-minter. I wouldn't say I use rollover for "budgeting" - but our three main use cases were for categories that we can't count on the spending frequency: Home Maintenance and a His/Hers Fun Money system.
I'm currently evaluating using the Savings Goal feature as a stop-gap, but the inability to link a transaction to decrement a goal is a major limiter. We basically like to put aside $X each month for maintenance and fun - but we also withdraw these funds with regularity, so goals are a nuisance from a maintenance standpoint. Rollovers fit this scenario best historically for us.
Would love to hear about how anybody handles scenarios like the above. Cheers all.
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Goals, rollovers…. I don't care. I want to be able to SIMPLY add a date for a transaction and have Simplifi automatically budget for it. I also want money that is left over in a budget category to 'carry over' into the next month automatically without me having to do anything or 'release funds' or any other nonsenses. I don't need an entirely SEPARATE category called 'GOALS' which is clunky and just adds more weight to an already cumbersome app. Paying my annual Life Insurance bill is not a GOAL; it's a need. For something called 'Simplify', you would expect this app to attempt to minimize the amount of user inputs, but I find that I have to do a surprisingly large number of tasks to accomplish simple things that are more elegantly handled in other apps.
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Chrobrego, you're describing a Bill with a frequency of Every Year for $400 for Nov1 - I use this today for several bills. The tool doesn't seem built to break apart large bills into monthly amounts (because you aren't paying monthly - you're paying yearly.)
I think you're requesting for a way to have bills to be displayed each month for the partial amount like Mint did, instead of the amount that is actually due on the due date - might want to make a separate request for that.0 -
thanks. This my point though. You shouldn’t need an additional feature in Simplifi to do this. Just allow the budget categories to roll over into the next month. Simple and elegant solution. Solves a lot of user requests without adding feature bloat. This could be a feature than can be enabled or disabled too. It also should not be difficult to program. The fact that Simplify is taking four years reading this feature request with no action doesn’t give me confidence it will ever be implemented though. I keep trying out Simplify, but it doesn’t appear to meet my needs. I only come back because it’s cheap. I guess you get what you pay for.
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Without the rollover, I release the funds available for spending and know if I have money left at the end of the month. If the spending plan and income were tracked properly, my total left at the end of the month matches my net income at month end. The goal of the spending plan via Simplifi is to ensure that one does not spend more than one brings in during a given month.
If I rollover, the net income at month end will not match the total funds left at the end of the month. Instead, the funds got put into categories that I designate (example dining & drinks with variable spend). Most users here seem to want to rollover left over funds to spend next month.
I am in the minority and agree with @ajbopp. I used to use rollovers but ended up spending more in the variable categories that I otherwise would have with the extra funds from months past. Given the demand, the rollover should be an option for users but not a default.
Simplifi User Since Nov 2023
Minter 2014-2023
Questionable Excel before 2014 to present
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