Rollover unused Spending Plan money [edited] (10 Merged Votes)
Comments
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Thanks for answering! When you spend on snow removal, how do you link that transaction so it subtracts from the amount in the savings goal?
I'm trying this out now with one category but the transactions still show up in Other Spending since they don't fall under a Planned Spending category. Do I need to manually hide them from Spending Plan?
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@EL1234 sadly there is no way to do that yet. I manually withdraw from the savings goal to account for the check that I wrote. The withdrawal is credited back to the checking account so the balances are correct, and i categorize the transaction to reflect the savings goal activity.
Reading this, I'm struck by how insensible this all sounds. Let me know if you have questions.
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye0 -
@EL1234 What i guess I mean is, I have a spending category called "Snow Removal" and I have a Savings Goal called "Snow Removal. " Writing a check with the category matches nicely with the withdrawal from that particular Savings Goal.
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye0 -
Got it. So how do you determine the amount to put in the Spending Plan? Do you overestimate and adjust it as needed?
Seems to me that those asking for Savings Goals to be linkable to transactions, and those asking for Rollover in Spending Plan, are really essentially asking for the same functionality, just under a different name.
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I guess if I was going this route I'd probably withdraw the amount from the savings goal once per month, not once per transaction. But it would be a lot more seamless if I could link transactions (via categories) to the savings goal.
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@EL1234 I determine the amount to put in based on personal experience, just as I estimate the amount to put in for the groceries or the utility bill. When personal experience changes, as can be determined by comparing expenses year to year, I adjust. Just as I adjust when the utility bill unexpectedly changes from year to year.
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye0 -
@EL1234 what would be the advantage of withdrawing from the savings goal once per month? And for that matter, during which months would you withdraw from? And why?
But i agree that there should be a direct link between transactions and savings goals.
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye0 -
So for something like snow removal you'd adjust it per month? Since in the summer months it's going to be zero and in the winter you can guess based on other years.
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The advantage of withdrawing once per month would probably be for categories that have a lot of smaller transactions, vs something like snow removal which you might be only paying once or twice a month.
Take something like clothing, my spending tends to be a lot higher during certain months as the seasons change. So on the months when there's a lot of spending, I'd see that in "Other Spending" (since it doesn't have a spending plan), and I guess withdraw that amount from the Savings Goal and mark the transactions to be ignored from spending plan?
I'm still not sure if that's the best approach. Maybe I should just have a Spending Plan for clothing and adjust the amount based on the expected amount of spending each month… especially since I like to amounts in Other Spending to be low because those are things that I technically didn't "plan" for.
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"So for something like snow removal you'd adjust it per month? Since in the summer months it's going to be zero and in the winter you can guess based on other years."
No, that's the point. I don't adjust it. I plan during 12 months what I will spend for 5 months. I pro-rate what I expect to spend in those 5 months over the course of 12 months.
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye0 -
"So on the months when there's a lot of spending, I'd see that in "Other Spending" (since it doesn't have a spending plan), and I guess withdraw that amount from the Savings Goal and mark the transactions to be ignored from spending plan?"
Exactly. That is the very best approach.
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye0 -
I don't mean adjusting the savings goal, I mean adjusting the spending plan for that category.
I looked back and I see I misread, when you wrote that you have a spending category for Snow Removal I thought you wrote Spending Plan.
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I got it! Sounds like a workable approach.
But I still think it'd be easier if I could accomplish it without a savings goal. If I could put an average in the Spending Plan, and then at the end of the month, instead of releasing available funds to the rest of the current month's spending, if there was a way to release them to next month's Spending Plan for that category, then I could save up in the quiet months and then easily stay within budget (spending plan?) on the busier months. That would be a lot fewer steps and exactly why I voted for a Rollover feature.
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Would be easier for us, but a lot more complex in the implementation. For a product that's - what, 5 years old? - that sort of complexity is something I'd like the team to take their time on. Because delivering it wrong is a lot worse than not delivering it all, given what we are currently able to do as users.
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye0 -
@ajbopp @EL1234 certainly feels more complex that it has to be, marking each transaction as ignored, creating some kind of report to see how much was spent on the goal, then manually withdrawing from Savings Goals.
Where goals are truly a one time transaction, this isn't too much effort, but for other goals where, amounts, number of transactions and when they happen are not predictable, the current Spending Plan/Savings Goals approach is quite tedious. Vacations are another example of the non predictable, unless you plan each vacation separately and create a separate goal for each. I guess that would work for some. But for me, I just have an annual travel budget/goal, save $xxx each month and plan trips as they come. Some are more predictable than others.
With that, I use Watchlists as sometimes the big trip comes early in the year, so the watchlist is the a way to see what has been spent BUT, it falls short as you can't adjust dates like just see this year (to be fair, it does show a YTD number). So go to Reports, that will show me this year…but I have to select Vacations each time and can't save a report. That's a whole different topic!
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I think that having it apply retroactively to all spending plans would be complex and not a good idea, but letting us roll over on a per spending plan and possibly even on a per month basis shouldn't be nearly that complicated.
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I've said things in the forums before that were interpreted as snarky, and I really don't mean this as a snarky response, but...
Q-Simplifi doesn't allow the creation of more than one spending plan. I'm not sure what is being asked for here.
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye0 -
I believe @EL1234 is referring to monthly historical spending plans, not multiple spending plans per user. I agree with the elective rollover change, it should apply to the spending plan in the current month and going forward.
Simplifi User Since Nov 2023
Minter 2014-2023
Questionable Excel before 2014 to present
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Yup I mean per category on the spending plan. Like what we refer to when saying "Add a spending plan for groceries". Technically, "Add Expense" would be more accurate.
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yes! We need this rollover feature!
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Honestly, somehow the watchlist rollover forum seemed more accurate to rollover in spending plan desires than this one. Also discouraging that this request is so old and hasn't been updated. The 25 million+ mint users that are looking for other options will strongly desire this rollover feature and upon reading other forums, have even chosen Monarch for this feature despite the cost.
I have $40 in my entertainment budget. In January, I spend $10. In February, my entertainment budget is $70: or $-30.
OR
I have $40 in my entertainment budget. In January, I spend $50. In February, my entertainment budget is $30: or the budget is still $40, but $10 have already filled.I've seen a ton of Reddit and Quicken posts on how people deal with this and many people do not seem to be satisfied, nor am I. Like has been mentioned elsewhere, I'm seriously considering switching to another budget client because of this.
Side note - transactions linked to saving goal accounts would be great too but much less of a priority.
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It appears that what many proponents of rollover functionality really want is a monthly view into an annual budget, which is a very different thing than what is generally being asked for.
Q-Simplifi doesn't look at finances that broadly. That is, it doesn't have you set up an annual budget so that you decide how much you'll spend in some months rather than others over the years. Or so that you can see if you overspending this month you need to adjust what you spend the rest of the year.
Trying to twist the existing product into something that seems like it does that, without actually doing that, is likely to be unsatisfactory and frustrating. And counter-productive to effective home budgeting.
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye0 -
I just moved to Quicken Simplifi from Mint but I’m finding it difficult to use without the rollover feature. I have so many categories I like to set money aside in every month but only have random expenses in. Impossible to do with Simplifi! Not sure I will continue with this platform if a rollover feature isn’t added :( Otherwise I really love it. It’s an unfortunate miss.
[Merged Post]
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Savings Goals are an excellent use for that purpose
[Merged Post]
Anthony Bopp
Simplifi User Since July 2022Money talks. But all my paycheck ever says is goodbye1 -
Hi @Cwillerton1
This is an ongoing conversation and feature request in this community.
Please see this post for current update and discussion on "roll over."
There are differing views on how useful or necessary roll over abilities may be and a variety of types of roll overs, where to use roll over what gets rolled over, etc.
I have successfully used Simplifi for two years and heading into my third year without roll over functionality so it's not absolutely necessary though many former Mint users have held your same view "Not sure I will continue with this platform if a rollover feature isn’t added…"
[removed link to merged post]
Danny
Simplifi user since 01/22
”Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer0 -
I also need this feature. I have a water bill that is once every two months, and a phone bill that is once a year. I also don't buy things like toilet paper every month, but when I do, I buy in bulk, meaning that my toiletries/consumable goods is sometimes $200, and other times $0. I think I'm going to leave simplifi because this is pretty much a dealbreaker when it comes to budgeting, and seeing as how people have been asking for this feature for 4 years, it doesn't bode well that quicken/simplifi has any interest in providing this feature.
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@quickno give the Spending Plan a try. Water and Phone can be bills at intervals you decide. TP would show up in other spending at the time you make the spend. Mint and Simplifi are two different products. I do think rollovers would be nice, but I don't use Simplifi like the way I used Mint as they have different approaches to budgeting. It was a little challenging at first but I'm now liking Simplifi more than I did Mint.
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Coming from Mint and this is my biggest issue with this platform. Enough that this just may not be the best budgeting tool for people coming from Mint
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