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Don't change target amounts in Planned Spending when releasing funds (edited)

DryHeat

Suggested Change:

When the end-of-month situation is like this:

Make releasing the funds cause it to look like this:

Instead of the way it looks now, which is like this:

Why do this?

I want to be able to see how my Planned Spending compared to my original targeted amounts in prior months, even if I release the funds. The way it works right now:

(1) If I don't release unspent funds the total amount spent is off because it includes funds I planned to spend but didn't.

(2) If I do release unspent funds the total amount spent is correct but I lose the information about how actual spending compared to planned spending.

This change would allow me to see the original targets, but also release funds so that the total expended in Planned Spending is accurate (and so is the amount "left at end of month").

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Feature Request

Planned Spend

Status: Active

Comments

Jenny T

I would also like to see my budget vs actual in planned spending historically. There are probably multiple ways this could be accomplished. The above suggestion is one and would be an improvement. Another approach would be to use the amount spent for planned spending totals in prior months and budgeted/projected for current/future months. This would actually eliminate the need to release the funds at all. I’ve had a couple of instances where I’ve released funds and then found a miscoded item; once corrected it looks like I overspent when really I just released too much due to an oversight or a transaction where the date wasn’t updated yet. In the above example, $100 would be counted as planned spending for this month and any future months if applicable and $70.94 would be counted as planned spending once that month ends. The planned spending visual would remain like the first image above.

DryHeat

@Jenny T

"Another approach would be to use the amount spent for planned spending totals in prior months…"

Your suggestion would accomplish most of what I want.

When looking at previous months, the figures for total "Planned spending" and "left at end of month" would reflect the actual spending but the budgeted amounts would still be available. That's what I want. (It would also function like an "auto-release" at the end of the month. I'd be happy with that, but I'm not sure everyone would.**)

The additional benefit of my suggestion is that it preserves the ability to release funds in the current month. Using that, I am able to release unneeded funds today and see my current total "Planned spending" and "available" figures immediately reflect that change. I don't really want to give that up.

** Currently, users can choose to release funds at the end of the month or not. I'm not sure what the use case is for not releasing the funds. But if people want to maintain that ability it would conflict with your suggestion.

Coach Natalie

@DryHeat, is this request the same as the one here?

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/2087/spending-plan-show-totals-for-paid-spent-vs-upcoming-left-with-a-progress-bar-edited

Thanks!

Jenny T

Great point @DryHeat. I haven’t been releasing mid-month (yet), but I can see how important that is and wouldn’t want to eliminate that option. As I think more about this, I basically want the current “auto-release” option enabled, but without losing the original budget amount. I don’t use auto release now because I don’t always have all my transaction categories updated on the last day of the month and don’t want to show “overspent” when I update the remaining transactions. I’m supportive of your original suggestion with the clarification that updated transactions adjust the released funds amount (assuming still under the original budget amount) instead of showing overspent.

DryHeat

@Coach Natalie

The discussion you linked is related, but significantly different. It is primarily about implementing a "daily progress bar" in the current month so that users can see how their spending so far compares to how far along we are in the month. Like this image from that discussion:

My suggestion is about changing the way Simplifi displays the spending, the planned target, and released funds in both the current and prior months so that the user can see how actual spending compares to planned spending, even when the funds have been released. Like this:

This way the user could release funds in a past or current month so that the "Planned spending" and "left at end of month" figures would match actual expenditures, but they would not lose the information about how much they had planned to spend.

DryHeat

@Jenny T

Your point about updated transactions that come in after the end of the month is a good one.**

I like your idea that they automatically get added to the amount spent, with the amount released adjusted accordingly. That would be the path of least effort, which as a lazy person I am always looking for.😉

PS: If you like the idea, don't forget to upvote it at the top of the page.

**I've only had that happen a couple of times. I believe I was able to fix it by resetting the target amount for the month's expense and then re-releasing the funds. But I don't remember for sure.

Max1223

Here is another string with similar discussions

on the 2nd page, I mocked up a slightly different version of this @DryHeat The $200 was the original budget.

@Coach Natalie should these two strings be combined? the one below is a slightly different topic.

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/2087/spending-plan-show-totals-for-paid-spent-vs-upcoming-left-with-a-progress-bar-edited

DryHeat

@Max1223

Your earlier post is very much like what I am proposing. Different graphics but essentially the same idea.

But I don't think the two feature requests should be merged. The other discussion was primarily about adding a date-driven progress bar to the current month's Planned Spending items, not handling the release of funds so as not to lose the spending target information.

It's true that the earlier discussion later branched out to include a number of suggestions, such as:

your idea of a better way to display released funds
having totals for spent/planned at the top of the Planned Spending page
adding bar graphs or spent/unspent totals to Bill & Subscriptions
using Watchlists to augment the Spending Plan.

But I think adding various different suggestions to an existing feature request targeting a specific change — as was done in that thread — creates the risk that those other suggestions will get lost in the shuffle.

Ed Rizzolo

Seems like an easy solution for this. For me (and apparently for others), it is extremely important to look back at past months on the spending plan and see if I have been coming in over or under plan by category. I also want to see how much total I actually had available at the end of past months. With how the program works today, if I release unused funds, then the total amount that is shown as available at the end of the month is accurate, but I lose visibility to how I did against planned spending by category. If I do not release unused funds, then I can see how I did against plan for each category, but the total number for how much was available at the end of the month is understated (assuming I had some unused funds on any of the categories). I think both needs could be easily met if, FOR PAST MONTHS ONLY, the available at end of month would be based on the amount actually spent for the month, and not what was budgeted. Today, you do this for when the plan was overspent, but not for when it was underspent.

p.s. I apologize if this solution was already discussed as I may have missed it in the thread.

DryHeat

@Ed Rizzolo: Your solution — leave the budgeted amounts as they are but use the actual spending to determine "left at end of month" — is similar to solutions proposed above but differs a little bit.

@Jenny T's idea does that, but also makes the total "Planned spending" for prior months reflect actual spending and specifies how to deal with expenses added after the month is over.

My suggestion is much like Jenny T's, but allows for manual release of funds during the month (while still preserving the budgeted amounts), allows users to continue to choose whether to auto-release funds, and suggests a change in display to make what was done more apparent.

Ed Rizzolo

Today, the total for the month uses the actual spent amount IF the budget was overspent. If underspent, it uses the planned amount. I understand why it would do this during the current month since spending is in progress, but once the month is over, you spent what you spent, and the only value of knowing what was planned is to look back and see if you spent more or less than plan.

I guess I am hoping for as simple of a solution as possible. To me, all of the functionality in the program regarding releasing unused funds, manually or automatically, just makes things overly complex for the user and is unnecessary. What value is "freeing up unused money" AFTER the month is complete when it is too late influence spending by re-allocating to anything else? If I think I am going to underspend during the month, it would be better to update the planned amount mid-month and re-allocate to something else, which could add value and influence spending.

DryHeat

@Ed Rizzolo

I agree with your desire for simplicity in operation. But complexity often sneaks in when some users want things to work one way and some users want another.

I also agree with what you wrote earlier about not wanting to lose your original spending targets. But I'm not sure I understand how that would work with your latest suggestion that we just update the spending targets mid-month if we are underspending. (Of course, if "updating" the target would still show the original target it doesn't seem really different from releasing some of the funds.)

Personally, I want a system that maintains visibility of the original spending target, allows me to release some or all of the funds during the month, and bases end-of-month totals on what was actually spent. Internal computations would be different, but I don't think the interface need be any more complex that it is now.

But I'm just one person. In the end, some poor developer will have to assess all the opinions and decide whether and how to make changes.

Ed Rizzolo

I like how you are thinking and hope they come up with a simple way to meet the major requirements. To clarify on the mid-month releasing, yes if you do that you will lose the original spending target. If you don't want to lose the original target, then don't change the target mid-month. Personally, I am not going to adjust the targets mid-month as I am interested in how I did against plan. Either way, once the month is complete, spending is complete, and so I am not sure why they would still deduct unused funds when calculating the total for how much was left at end of month.

DryHeat

"Either way, once the month is complete, spending is complete, and so I am not sure why they would still deduct unused funds when calculating the total for how much was left at end of month."

I have no clue.

If there is one unifying idea in this thread it's that no one seems to think it's a good idea.

(But as soon as I say there is no good reason, someone will prove me wrong.😉)

egal

I agree, it would be more clear to view how you did vs. planned. To take it a step further, I would like to see an option to view all spending in a more traditional budget vs. actual table view for all categories. I understand why they only show the categories defined as planned since you have already defined the bills and these are the non bill categories.

I actually never release funds because I find the whole interface a little confusing. I just go here to see how my spending is going on the specific planned categories, and then look at the Other Spending to see if anything stands out.

DryHeat

@egal — "I just go here to see how my spending is going on the specific planned categories, and then look at the Other Spending to see if anything stands out."

That's exactly what I do. For me, having the income, bills, etc. (which are pretty static anyway) separated out from Planned Spending and Other Spending makes checking my progress quicker and simpler.

Be sure to vote for this if you haven't already. Those who comment seem in favor but it hadn't garnered many votes yet.

Max1223

For me, I think its important to:

KEEP the original budget visible AFTER the release so that when I go back, I know what was budgeted.
SEE what was actually spent for the month.
Release the funds to see how the budget went overall. So a "released" amount per some of the images above would be great as that resolves the math quickly. Budget minus Spent = Released