Best Account Update Frequencies within Simplifi

Question

Now that I have gotten more of an understanding (logic and practice) with Simplifi, what would be account types to perform the updates of Always (default), Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Never (Manual Refresh only). As I have been working with Simplifi, I have changed some of the update frequencies from its default to be on one of the update frequencies. I do understand that this is a personal preference for the updates, but also, I am sure there are recommendations from the more experienced, long time users. What I have at this time is Cash & Checking is daily, Credit is Daily, Savings is Daily, Brokerage is weekly, and loans is weekly (but could be monthly – thinking on this one).

Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

SRC54 · Accepted Answer

I just kept everything with the default.  I know that many accounts don't update but once per day but if you have an account that downloads pending transactions, you want them to come in.

I personally wouldn't do anything less than once per day because one of the benefits of Quicken products is keeping a look-out for fraud.  Of course, most of my accounts give me a text message when a debit or credit card is used, so that can mitigate this somewhat.

And if you do set it for once per day, and you expect something in a certain account, you can trigger (after 4 hours) an update for that specific account.

I assume the weekly and monthly options are for investment accounts or savings accounts that have infrequent transactions, but I am just not going to wait a week and hope all is well.  But that's just me.  😃

So it does come down to a matter of personal preference.

@Dick_Davis

TheReal702 · Accepted Answer

I played with it to see if it made any difference to me and how I manage my finances, and it didn't so I returned everything to the default.

DryHeat · Accepted Answer

@Dick_Davis

My usual practice is to change the defaults only if there is some reason to do so.

Some financial institutions balk at frequent updates, or ask for multi-factor authentication when updating. In those cases there is good reason to make the updates less frequent. Particularly if the account is one — like some investment or loan accounts — where changes are infrequent.

But if you are currently having no problems, there is no need to change.

KP_9 · Accepted Answer

The only one I changed was my mortgage account; it requires a token MFA revalidation every time it refreshes, which was a bit of a hassle given that I usually am in Simplifi at least daily. Additionally, the balance is static all month until the day when my auto-payment applies and drops the balance, so it made sense to bump it out to refresh less frequently than the other account types.

I could also see a use case for bumping out refresh cycles on investment accounts for someone who's deliberately looking to smooth out market moves and not worry about daily fluctuations by checking those balances weekly/monthly, etc.

I prefer to have all my investment accounts refresh on the default, but I know other folks who intentionally don't check their retirement account balances too frequently to avoid making stress-driven portfolio decisions during high volatility times and letting their long-term strategies play out.

SRC54 · Accepted Answer

Good point. Luckily I don't have any problem with MFA, but one never knows.

I changed by Fidelity accounts today to once per day mainly just to try it out.  Fidelity doesn't usually do pending transactions, so I will see.  Of course, there is manual update as a fall-back.

@KP_9

SRC54 · Accepted Answer

@KP_9 Thanks! It's what we are all here for, to get advice and/or help and offer the same.

We also learn about features, sometimes that we didn't even know existed too.

DannyB · Accepted Answer

My daily active accounts I keep set up with the default setting.

My occasionally active accounts I have set up for Daily.

My savings accounts are set up for Weekly or Monthly.

This has reduced the amount of time QS spends refreshing when I sign on in the morning and especially if I happen to sign in during the afternoon or evening for some reason.

SRC54 · Accepted Answer

It didn't really work for me to put my Fidelity Accounts on once per day so I went back to default.  The problem is that it is afternoon and sometimes late afternoon before it really updates and so if I update in the morning, it might get off 24 hours.  So everything is back to every 4 hours.

I guess I could fiddle with it, but just easier to leave it on default.