Ability to add Planned Spending Items to our Projected Cash Flow [edited] (4 Merged Votes)

DTS

So the initial suggestion was made in 2021. The logic that gas, groceries, etc. need to be accounted for in the monthly cash flow is just common sense. How is it that after 2 years this still isn’t fixed? We switched over to Simplifi to replace Quicken for Mac because I wanted to see CashFlow from my iPad or phone and the Quicken Apps don’t include that. Overall Simplifi is better for basic household finances. But I hate that planned expenses aren’t in the cashflow.

RobWilk

Planned Spending doesn't have a specific date, it cannot be used in cash flow. Let's say you had 2 paychecks a month, which paycheck does the planned spending affect?

DTS

But it could be programmed to be averaged out at intervals. Example - I spend 600 on groceries and I could edit a planned expense to distribute that weekly. It’s been done elsewhere with budgets. MS money used to use budgets (planned spending) to do calculate cash flow projections. If you created a bill, you could assign that bill to the budget as well. So the projected balance reflected a budget based on known bills and estimated expenses like gas, groceries, etc. I loved MS Money. It was ahead of its time. I’ve never found a comparable program.

DustinB86

Can we get an update on this functionality?

DTS….as a work around to better represent your Cashflow, do the following for everything on your Spending Plan that is not accounted for in the Cashflow (using Groceries as an example).

1. Create a Recurring Bill/Subscription called "Groceries" at the desired frequency (weekly, monthly, etc.)
2. Exclude it from your Spending Plan and Reports.
3. The bill/subscription will now appear in your Cashflow, under the account selected, without effecting other functions of Simplifi.
4. On the day an occurrence of this bill/subscription is due, just delete the reminder. DO NOT link it to anything, it is simply a placeholder.

I have done this for numerous Planned Spending items: Fuel, groceries, eating out, pet food/supplies, etc., and have been able to better project future Cashflow balances.

DustinB86

This way you have a much better representation of what cashflow is…money in, money out.

RobWilk

That is the other issue, planned spending is not linked to an account, so which would it choose to affect the cash flow of.

DTS

The programmers can add a field to link to an account. It’s not difficult. For now I’ve just created a bill for “groceries” assigned to the second Friday of the month. Same for gas. Then when I close the month I’ll remove those instances. But I’ve seen this done before. It can be done.

RobWilk

Sure, but I might have some planned spending on credit card a, some planned spending on credit card b, some in a checking account, etc. It can really complicate the interface to have to specify it in so many places.

BTW, I am an app developer (independent), my app was recently in the top 40 paid iPad utilities (this month) - I raised the price yesterday, so I expect ranking to drop with that.

DustinB86

I am not seeing the issue, Rob?

As I am sure you can agree, anyone with a sound budget should know what account they are using for a specific spending category, and if multiple accounts contribute to the same category, one should know the average they spend under that category for each account.

Let's look at an example.

Let's say my wife and I use separate checking accounts for our expenses. Combined, we may budget $300/mo. for "Gas & Fuel". Historically, my wife uses 2/3 of this budget and I use the remaining 1/3. Additionally, we know this is more accurately represented as a weekly expense. Knowing these things, I would create (2) different bills (or subscriptions) that are excluded from the Spending Plan and Reports (I call them phantom bills) - one for my wife's checking account and one for my checking account.

WIFE'S FUEL BILL

1. Points to HER checking account, therefore that account's Cashflow.
2. Occurs every Monday for an estimated amount of $46.17. [ ((X*12)/52) * .667 ] where X = $300
3. Accounts for approx. $200 of the monthly budget.

MY FUEL BILL

1. Points to MY checking account, therefore that account's Cashflow.
2. Occurs every Monday for an approx. amount of $23.05. [ ((X*12)/52) * .333 ] where X = $300
3. Accounts for approx. $100 of the monthly budget.

By implementing this, I am able to see the effect "Gas & Fuel" has to each account's Cashflow individually, while collectively representing my monthly "Gas & Fuel" budget.

As mentioned, I do this for all Planned Spending and Other Spending items, for each and every account I have, and I have been able to accurately represent my Cashflow until they implement a more elegant solution.

RobWilk

Your use of Recurring bills is perfect, I think I clicked like on that post when it went up.

My concern is using planned spending, the idea in this series of posts. As it stands planned spending encapsulates just a 'category' and an 'amount' for a month, not an 'account' or a 'date'. I disagree that the thing called planned spending could be used for cash flow in a way that every user would benefit (me, the one i care about) - like your example with gasoline, if that were the category, would have to be somehow ' split' the planned spending category between two accounts if an account field were added, each of these adds fields to the screen which turns simplifi into complicate.

Whatever, I'm really not a decision maker, just another user with an opinion.

DustinB86

I definitely understand your concerns. I too am a (hobbyist) developer and already know how I would format the Planned Spending categories UI to assign accounts and distributions. The create/edit series window for Planned Spending categories is already very simplistic, so I don't personally think it would complicate the user interface much at all.

DustinB86

Congrats on the app BTW, Rob!

RobWilk

I would hope it would leave open the existing functionality (the app i paid for) where I have the option of not specifying the account, or having it reflect in my cash flow.

RobWilk

Thanks for the congrats… Now, to be serious, my primary income is social security (I'm disabled), and my app income has been about $30 (after apple's take) this month - and if that's enough to make the top forty, I guess paid apps don't make a ton of money… More money is in advertisement-supported apps and subscription services.

DustinB86

I would say, if no account is added, then it ignores adding it to the Cashflow. All-in-all, Simplifi has features that are far more advanced than what consumers are requesting here, and this feature definitely shouldn't take over (2) years to develop or "review".

Oh well, at least there is an alternative approach!

Dan Magnuson

I am brand new to Simplifi. A reliable and accurate cash flow projection feature which captures and projects income and expenses is important to manage our financial life. Anything you can do to improve Simplifi to include that is key. Thanks!

seucardsfan

I agree. Yesterday I spent 5 hours setting up Simplifi when I found out Mint is going away. I was disappointed to find out having to use work arounda for cash flow. Many good posts here though and I was close on mine compared to others. I set up a a bill that duplicates the amount that does not effect spending or reports

Jerrod

I think this would be an great feature, but here's how I have things set up that might help. I buy most things with my credit cards, and I currently have the credit card payments set as recurring transfers out of my checking. There are a few recurring expenses that come directly from my checking account and those are reflected in the cash flow chart for my checking account, as are the recurring credit card payments (I pay them off every month so there are no accruing interest payments). So I can just look at the line for my checking account on the cash flow tab, and that gives me a pretty good idea of future net cash flow. It's only a problem for planned large expenses, but those are few and far between for me that I can do some mental math.

MoneyPro

Groceries, Shopping, Gas & Fuel… These categories account for a significant portion of everyone's monthly expenses. The Projected cashflow feature is rather unhelpful and inaccurate because if it can't take into consideration large reoccurring expenses that aren't static bills. Please implement this, yesterday! :)

To address some of the naysayers here saying this would be complicated to implement. No, it wouldn't. Yes, an option for associating a spending plan with an account would need to be added so it knew what account to project the expense for. But what if it goes to multiple accounts some people say? I'd rather have it projected for one account than no accounts, as it currently stands. It's just a projection anyway.

KDC1996

I came here looking for this feature after considering adding things like gasoline or groceries (food), etc. as "Bills".

Adding them as a "weekly bill" would roughly get what I am looking for, albeit not really it's intended use or the best way to do this…

I almost feel like a sperate category other than "bills" and "subscriptions" should be made.

UrsulaA

@KDC1996 - yes, something like estimated spending in addition to bills and subscriptions. Then, we can add an amount, date, etc. to a chosen credit card or checking account. I charge most items to two credit cards and pay them off monthly. So if I use the statement balance on each card's recurring bill, my projections work. However, tracking the transactions in an estimated spending bucket to the credit card and continuing to have the statement payment as a transfer could work. I like seeing a transaction linked to my credit card bill/transfer payment.

UrsulaA

As I think about this and after re-reading @RobWilk 's comments, I am tracking my projected cash using the credit card transfer payment recurring series. I pay off my credit cards monthly and having those statement balance transfer payments incorporated in the projections helps me get a more accurate idea of future cash flow.

If I were to use groceries as a planned spending category with cash flow links like outlined in this feature request as requested, I would find it hard as I buy groceries with three different credit cards. I have the same scenario with gasoline and other planned expenses. I will have to review my transactions more often and link them to the appropriate estimated spending series to get accurate projections. I will have more than one series for groceries to review as I use multiple accounts to pay for them. For me, using the recurring transfer credit card payment series to estimate cash flow is cleaner. Am I overthinking this?

KDC1996

Also jumping in here, I recently started using the "spending plan" tab, which allows you to input "planned spending" allowances throughout the month that uses your income and all bills/subscriptions to get projected monthly cash flow.

I know this isn't exactly what this is about, but maybe somehow that could be incorporated into the "cash flow" chart on the Bills and payments page. I think that might be the best option

handleBar

My projected cash flow is wildly inaccurate. Its only looking at my bills/subscriptions. I know I am purchasing food, gas, other essentials, and other discretionary spending before I get paid again. I would enjoy the ability to name every dollar, for the dollars that are actually in my possession at this time. Otherwise spending plan is just a spending wish. When I am forced to face the scarcity of money one or more items on my spending wish will not be funded this month. Then there are my saving goals. I believe adding the spending plan and the savings goals would make the projected cash flow more realistic.

RobWilk

It's only projected based on known expense to get an actual balance on a given date based on those expenses. So you know how much money you have for food, gas, and other 'essentials'. Those amounts can vary, and it would be guesswork to figure them in.

DannyB

My 2 cents on this topic.

I’ve commented on this issue in another thread where this is discussed.

1. For me, an effective “cash flow” projection would need to incorporate activity from all active accounts, i.e. all active checking, savings and credit card accounts, into one single cash flow graph since my financial activity is spread across all these instruments. Having a “cash flow” projection graph for each individual account is good to have to keep tabs on each account’s balance and balance predictions. But my actual cash flow is the sum of all my financial activity in all active accounts.
2. For Projected cash flow to be meaningful in the sense of this feature request, yes, some way to include planned flexible predictions would be, it seems to me, necessary. I’ll remain a “naysayer” and predict doing so is not a simple as it might seem.
3. @RobWilk makes a good point for the current projected cash flow - as is, we are given an estimate of what is available for flexible spending on any given date in the graph after fixed expenses are accounted for. In the case of cash accounts, how much cash is available to spend and, in the case of credit cards, how much credit is available. This is consistent with the basic philosophy behind the Spending Plan.

kcorer

I am working through a remodel and a child at college - so have added these expenses as planned expenses. The main thing I want out of simplify is to be able to see and plan my overall cash flow to make sure I have enough buffer and am not suddenly out of pocket in some month (remodels - sigh). To manage this I have a series of stock sales planned based on upcoming grants. Including planned spending in cashflow seems like a great step to help me get what I want… also wondering how to enter my planned stock sales so that my simplify has a "planned income" similar to planned spending?

EL1234

For me, most of the expenses in Planned Spending are things that are put on a credit card. So they don't actually affect my Cash Flow for this month - they will affect my Cash Flow next month when I pay the credit card bills (which I have entered as recurring bills and I manually update the amounts each month). I have one expense that I pay every week via check - and after experimenting a bit, I took that out of my Planned Spending and put it in as a Recurring Bill with an estimated amount which I update manually. That way it's accounted for in my Cash Flow, which I review pretty often to make sure all upcoming bills etc are covered and to see what money can be moved to a savings account.

DannyB

@kcorer you can set up your planned stock sales as recurring transfer to your cash account from your investment accounts and deselect the exclude from spending plan. If you don’t have your investment accounts connected (I keep mine as manual accounts and don’t track transactions) you can set up a recurring income event into the income section of your Spending Plan.

Melissa D

Would be great for cashflow estimates if planned spending could tied to specific accounts. For example, if I want to spend 1000 from checking each month on a certain date to paydown a loan, would be great to be able to see it in the cashflow projection for that account.