Planned Spend not linking to all transactions. (edited)

johnnydr4

Have a recurring expense that should be shown against my budget in the spending plan under the set up category, but the expense does not show against the spending category. This shows more money that should be within the budget spending plan that exists and isn't tracking the expense correctly between transactions and the spending plan.

Coach Natalie

@johnnydr4, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

Since it sounds like the item in question is recurring, meaning the transaction is linked to a Recurring Series, you would not see it in a Planned Spend expense that uses the same category. Instead, you will see the item in the Income or Bills section, whichever applies.

https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/5142441-planned-spend-expenses-versus-recurring-expenses

Please let us know if this helps!

johnnydr4

How do I then stop these from showing under recurring bills within the spending plan? I have the utilities within my budget spending plan and would like for these bills to go against the budgeted amount I set up within the spending plan. The program is inconsistent as to what it puts where within the spending plan. All these items I marked as utilities within the category, which should go against the utility budget I set up in the spending plan. Instead, only some are counted against this budget and others go to to the bills section of the spending plan.

How do I take these expenses out of the bills section and let it count against my budgeted utility category?

Thanks

Coach Natalie

@johnnydr4, thanks for the reply!

To have the transactions counted toward Planned Spend instead of Bills in the Spending Plan, you would want to unlink them from the Recurring Series: https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/4436514-linking-transactions-to-reminders#h_5a42f3a31e

I hope this helps!

EL1234

The other option is to track utilities using Recurring Bills (and one-time bills if necessary) and remove that category from the Spending Plan

Coach Natalie

@johnnydr4, what EL1234 stated would be the "official" way to use the Spending Plan: https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/4212702-understanding-your-spending-plan

Something else to consider — if you want to budget or track spending in a specific category that has recurring items, such as utilities and other bills, Watchlists may be a great solution for you instead of using Planned Spend.

https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/3472367-using-watchlists

EL1234

What I settled in to doing is using recurring bills for things I pay out of my checking account (or cash) - so that they are accounted for on my projected cash flow, and then using Spending Plan for things that are paid on credit cards. I don't need to see those on my cash flow projection until the credit card bill is due a few weeks later, so that works for me. I also use recurring bills/subscriptions for small recurring transactions on my credit card if I don't have other, non-recurring items that will be in the same category. (I find it confusing when a category is split between recurring bills and planned spending.)

johnnydr4

The watchlist of upcoming bills is great, but it runs counter to a budget plan when it replaces a budgeted category expense with the bills category. Sort of defeats the whole budgeting idea. I'll make it work, although the budgeting portion of quicken can use some attention to not have these conflicts while also showing upcoming/overdue expenses.

Thanks for providing a work around though.

SRC54

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/57620#Comment_57620

What I do is use watchlists for subcategories I want to check and mainly use parent categories for Planned Spending. Automobile:Gasoline is an exception since we need to budget for that. So it's in Planned Spending.

I enjoyed reading the thread. You got great advice and I am glad that you are figuring out how to make it work for you.

DannyB

For me the genius of QS is this very feature of sorting out my monthly spending between my fixed recurring expenses (regardless of what category I may assign a given recurring expense) and my flexible recurring expenses. This is certainly a different approach from many other apps and has caused some confusion and consternation for some. But it's certainly a legitimate and sound way to plan out and keep track of income and expenses as one works toward a desired end.

I would suggest going with how the QS Spending Plan is designed to be used for a few months to give yourself a chance to adjust to this different way of thinking about personal money management.

The goal of any "budgeting" process is to balance out inflow and outflow in such a way that we are moving toward a desired future. The fixed and flexible method is one way to do this among a number of others including the more traditional strict Category based budgeting.