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Deleting completed Savings Goal corrupts previous months' Spending Plans

DryHeat

When you delete a completed Savings Goal the contributions to that goal in previous months' Spending Plans also disappear.

When those contributions disappear from the Spending Plan, it makes it look as if I had much more money "Left this month" in each of those months than I actually had. That makes my Spending Plan look seriously out of whack and erases an important part of the planning that was done.

This appears irreparable, as you cannot recreate a goal from six months ago and go back and make contributions in each of the previous months.

Currently, there is no way to hide Savings Goals that we longer need to see. They just build up in the "Completed Goals" section of Savings Goals. And heavy users can end up with pages and pages of Completed Goals. But if you want to get rid of them, you have to delete them.

(Here's an example of a goal I no longer need to see. I created a goal to set aside money for semi-annual property taxes. After the goal has been completed, the funds withdrawn, and the taxes paid I don't need to see that goal again.)

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Spending Plan

Savings Goals

Comments

DannyB

I agree and here is a feature request along the lines you are describing. I think your comment is a refinement and further clarification for the value of this feature request.

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/3833/ability-to-close-out-and-archive-or-delete-completed-savings-goals-edited

DryHeat

@DannyB

The ideas are similar, but what I am trying to highlight here is that the ability to delete goals isn't a satisfactory solution to the buildup of finished goals in the Completed Goals section.

We need the ability to archive/hide them because deleting corrupts past Spending Plans. I think that part of your suggestion got sort of lost in the previous thread.

For example, the only response from a coach on that thread just points out that we have the ability to delete. It doesn't acknowledge that your suggestion was primarily about archiving or hiding, not deleting.

DannyB

I agree with what you are saying and that what you point out here is a refinement or clarification of the original request. My idea is that either deleting or, in my mind better, archiving SGs should be set up so that the funds are not added back into the preceding Spending Plans. If the SG is completed, that is I have saved what I needed/wanted and have spent the funds on the intended goal, archiving the now obsolete SG should not impact closed out Spending Plans as you point out here.

I add the deletion option since I can imagine a time when I just don't need the data concerning a given SG say, 5 (or 3, or 10) years from now, and want to simply remove that goal without affecting the contributions to that goal from five or six or seven… years ago.

DryHeat

@DannyB

Maybe they could add a new section to the Savings Goals page. In addition to "Active goals" and "Completed goals" they could have "Archived goals." I think this would not be that hard to do.**

-They already know how to create multiple sections and would just need to add one more.

-They already automatically detect "Completed" goals and know how to shift them to that section.

-Once a goal is Completed (and fully Spent), the edit form for that goal could enable an "Archived" checkbox. If that box is checked, the goal could be shifted to the "Archived" section (collapsed by default).

** I say "not that hard to do" even though I recognize that everything is complicated. I just mean that I've designed and programed line-of-business database systems where the logic was much harder to work through.

DryHeat

@Coach Natalie

I think it would be a good idea if the support docs mentioned that deleting a Savings Goal also deletes all mention of that goal and related past contributions from current and previous months' Spending Plans.

I looked at the following docs and it's not mentioned there:

https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/3676756-using-quicken-simplifi-s-savings-goals#h_768c03889d

https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/4212702-understanding-your-spending-plan#h_7786061f54

This came as a surprise to me and I have yet to figure a way to bring my prior months' Spending Plans back to their previous state.

Coach Natalie

@DryHeat, I submitted a content request so your suggestion can be reviewed by our content team.

Thanks!

DryHeat

@Coach Natalie

Thanks for submitting the content request.

DryHeat

I need a little help here…

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to fix prior months' Spending Plans that have been thrown off by the deletion of a completed Savings Goal? Here's the problem I am trying to fix:

—I deleted some Savings Goals where all the contributions had been made and all the money had been "withdrawn" for the purpose of the Savings Goal. They didn't seem needed anymore.

—To my surprise, deleting the Savings Goals deleted related contributions from all prior months' Spending Plans.

—That artificially reduced the negative amount under "Goals" and increased the positive amount under "Left this month" (by several hundred dollars each month, so it is seriously off).

So what do I do now? I can't think of a way to make the Spending Plans reflect what really happened, which was that those funds were set aside to be spent on the upcoming goal and the "Left this month" amount was much smaller.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Coach Natalie

@DryHeat, unfortunately, I don't have any historical Savings Goals to test with, but I know you can at least contribute to your Goals in the most recent closed month directly from the Spending Plan.

https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/3676756-using-quicken-simplifi-s-savings-goals#h_485347d324

Otherwise, I'm not sure how you'd go about correcting prior months. I believe "completed" Goals are meant to stop being shown in the Spending Plan upon completion, and aren't intended to be deleted.

Sorry for not having a better answer, but I hope this helps!

DryHeat

@Coach Natalie

I believe "completed" Goals are meant to stop being shown in the Spending Plan upon completion, and aren't intended to be deleted.

Sadly, I never saw any mention (before now) of the idea that Savings Goals should not be deleted. Even though I've seen several mentions of deleting goals… including advice on doing so where the goal was completed and the user "did not ever want to see the goal again." That made it seem like a normal thing to do.

I wonder if the product team intended (or is even aware of) this unfortunate side effect. It's something they should consider rectifying if they revise the way Savings Goal contributions are handled (as discussed in other threads).