Recurring expenses paid from different accounts

nrp06

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have suggestions on how to handle a recurring expense (e.g., my water bill) when I pay it using a different account each month?

For example:

Month 1: Credit Card
Month 2: Checking Account A
Month 3: Checking Account B

I noticed that Simplifi assigns recurring expenses to a predefined account, which doesn’t align with how we manage our expenses.

Any tips or recommendations?

Thank you.

RobWilk

When the transaction downloads or you enter it, you should be able to link the proper transaction to the recurring reminder regardless of what account it is assigned to, but it will be a manual process.

Mostly, recurring transactions are used to forecast balances in these accounts, so it will be difficult to use it for that purpose if it doesn't know what account the money is coming out of, otherwise.

RobWilk

Alternatively: You could make the bill a planned expense category, if you use the spending plan, and just not schedule a recurring transaction.

nrp06

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/48000#Comment_48000

Thank you for your reply.

This is interesting.

And a little frustrating, I might add.

My main objective is to control my overall budget. The fact that "recurring transactions are used to forecast balances in these accounts" shows a gap between what I want to do (to have and manage a budget, first and foremost) and what Simplifi wants to do (forecast account balances). These two things are not necessarily the same.

RobWilk

then put it as a planned spending expense instead. The spending plan is the budget area, though it’s not a traditional budget

nrp06

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/48014#Comment_48014

That is a good avenue to explore. Thanks.

DannyB

@nrp06

Just curious. How does paying a recurring bill using different accounts from month-to-month help with managing you budget?

I agree with @RobWilk that based on your practice of using different accounts to pay this bill, a Planned Spending category would work best. I do this for one of my recurring monthly bills, but for a different reason. This way the bill is accounted for in my monthly Spending Plan even though it doesn't work for me to set it up as a recurring series.