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

Melissa D

Doesn't seem like planned spending is included in cashflow projections at all right now. Would be great if it was, or even better if there was a way to toggle that on and off.

UrsulaA

Your request is already in review. It is better to start with more than one vote to increase the chance of consideration.

[removed link to merged thread]

RobWilk

@Melissa D Schedule an recurring transfer for the $1000 on that date and it will be reflected in the cash flow chart.

Bill G

I add my vote for including the planned spending in the cash flow projections. Do it on a smoothed out basis for the month. The spending plan shows how much is left for the month, it could project on a straight line basis to fill up to the spending projection for each category. I find the account projection graph to be pretty useless as it only shows part of the story. I find that I start with the existing balance, the go through the spending plan and adding up all the yet unused amounts to manually project. Please include at some point/

ClanMan

This just has to be fixed. I can't believe it wasn't included in the initial release of Simplifi, it is such a basic, but critically important feature. PLEASE ADD THIS FEATURE IMMEDIATELY!!!

ajbopp

IMO, each planned spending item should have a date associated with it. That is, what day of the month would you like the planned spending item to be calculated into the cash flow.

I have Entertainment and coffee shop planned spending items that I would calculate at the end of the month. I have a groceries planned spending item that I would calculate weekly.

UrsulaA

@brad08 - Looks like this is the idea you are looking for in the spending plan discussion. Check it out. Go to the first page to upvote by clicking on the up arrow.

MichelleB

since Simplifi can project my spending based on past months, it should be able to show that on the cash flow

Wedo778

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/28706#Comment_28706

Not just a date, but an account. And, it needs to account for spending-to-date in the period so that you arent double-hit in your projected balance.

EX my CC cash flows quickly run into negative balances because I have scheduled payments every month based on my average bills. But I don't have very many scheduled charges because I can't schedule things like the grocery store or gas station. And if Simplii takes my Spending Plan value, and associates it to CC#1 at the end of the month, on the 25th I want it only applying the unspent amount for that Spending Plan category.

SimpliJSHL

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/14047#Comment_14047

@Coach Natalie Have you heard any update on this from the team? This is really the last major thing that prevents me from fully moving off of excel as a supplement to Simplifi. Being able to see expected balance across accounts based on recurring + spending plan would be a huge benefit for planning purposes.

CTopher

Objective: Allow dates to be assigned to planned spending so they appear in Cash Flow without reducing project fidelity.

From what I gather, the two remain separated (Cash flow and planned spending) because introducing date-less spending amounts will reduce the fidelity of the cash flow projection to identify where balances are expected to drop below pre-set thresholds or below zero.

However, you can allow planned spending to be captured in cash flow projections if you can program planned spending items with dates.

For example, I will grocery shop on my next payday, buy an additional solar panel on the second payday, and send $1,000 to my son for college and the end of this month. None of those are bills, and I want to keep them separate from my bill list while seeing them in my cash flow projections. I need this to answer questions like, “Can I afford to send another $1,000 to my son in August?"

Cash flow is a great quick-look tool for this, but I am only getting a partial idea of how my planned spending merges with bills and income. Plus, the planned spending summary is limited to only one month, whereas cash flow extends to six months.

It would be fantastic to add expected dates and a radio button or toggle to show the specific planned spending or expense category once a date is assigned in cash flow.

Feh

Hello,

I think that would be very helpful to add the Planned Spending to the cash flow projection.

Right now, if you look at the cash flow projection it provides you biased information because it does not consider other planned expenses.

For example: If I am planning to go grocery shopping every week and I want to spend $100, I can not see that in my cash flow. And if I look at my end of month cash flow projection it is not even close of what will be my cash position at the bank for the same period, because I cannot included this "other projected expenses".

Right now, I am using the bills section and creating a recurring bill for Groceries, but it is very confusing when I look at the bills and I see other expenses there that are not related to the bills.

ajbopp

Good news! this request already exists and has 150 votes. Add yours!

[Removed link to merged post]

Feh

@Coach Jon do we have an update on this?

Thanks!

Coach Jon

Hello @Feh,

We do not currently have an update on this, but when we do we will update this post!

Thanks,

Coach Jon

ajbopp

Idon't have any particular insight, but I would imagine that at the moment, rollover and apple card are occupying the majority of the development effort right now.