Display Transactions by 'Transaction Date' Rather Than 'Posted Date' (edited)

Chris

This makes more sense for the Spending Plan. When people spend money from their budget, they're not thinking about the date it'll eventually post to their account. They're thinking about the day they actually initiate the transaction.

This is especially an issue when transactions carry over into a new month. For example, I've had to change the date on several transactions that posted in June back to their corresponding transaction dates in May so that these transactions didn't pull from my June budget.

Coach Blake

That's an incredible idea. Thank you for bringing that idea up, it definitely gets my vote!

Dom

I just wanted to add my support for this feature.

RobWilk

I like this idea too

dereckmezquita

Same here I consider this to be a bug; would like for this to become a setting we can change.

DannyB

I'm wondering about what the benefits are for having the transaction date instead of the posted date?

Won't this require the various financial institutions to include both the transaction date and the posted date in their data downloads?

Otherwise, How will Simplifi know when the transaction date was unless the user supplies it?

Do FIs already provide the transaction date in their data downloads and Simplifi just needs to prioritize or provide a way for the user to choose which date to use?

If an institution includes Pending transactions in their data downloads, perhaps Simplifi could offer a way to lock those dates since they probably reflect the transaction dates and not update to the posted date when that is downloaded? For FIs that don't include this data point, what is the solution?

pkp

@DannyB Financial institutions definitely include transaction dates in their data downloads. Some other aggregators that I've used already use transaction dates rather than posted date. Transaction dates are just much better for keeping track of things because I want to know what day I spent the money, not what arbitrary meaningless date the bank decided to post the transaction.

RobWilk

My concern, is if I withdraw $100 at an ATM, it comes out of my account THAT DAY not the posted day. If I deposit $100 cash at an ATM (or even make some phone-based check deposits), that deposit shows up in my account THAT DAY rather than the posted date. The posted date is really only useful when figuring out what statement period the transaction shows up on (if I make a deposit or withdrawal towards the end of a statement period, but the posted date is the next statement period, it will be on the next statement).

EL1234

Surprised to see that this idea even exists… why would I want to use the date the bank chose to post the transaction vs the date that I actually made the purchase?

I am seeing this issue with my chase credit cards but not with my american express cards, incidentally.

UrsulaA

I want the option to select posted date versus transaction (cleared) date. Some users may want the posted date. This is more of an issue for transactions in the last 2 or 3 days of the month, when they clear the next month.

SRC54

I support this idea too. I go back and change the dates as they post back to the date I did the transaction.

UrsulaA

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/40359#Comment_40359

I find myself changing transactions to posted date instead of cleared date too. Mostly for transactions close to month end.

SRC54

@UrsulaA Here’s one today. My wife wrote a check to one of her activities Aug 18 and it came in today. I will change it to Aug 18 once it clears overnight.

I won't say how much I hate checks and people who hold them for weeks before depositing them especially as you can now do it remotely!

EL1234

I do the same thing with checks @SRC54. Otherwise, checks that aren't deposited in the month they were written will be counted towards the current spending plan even when I've already accounted for them in a previous month's plan.

It's a little different than this request though, since neither date that the bank stores on its end would be the date that was handwritten on the check.

SRC54

@EL1234 Yes, I don't think there would be anyway for the app to do this automatically. I don't even enter these checks that my wife writes from time to time because the amounts aren't large and they take 3 - 8 weeks to come in. When one is downloaded, I go to the bank's web site to look at the image. Entering the check would do no good anyhow as Simplifi won't match anything more than a few days old and that's iffy.

UrsulaA

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/40397#Comment_40397

I agree with not liking people who hold checks for weeks. I write these occasionally for my former husband for children expenses and he takes weeks to cash them sometimes. I do keep the posted date on the check though, not the date I wrote it as I want my Simplifi balance to match what the bank has. I do enter the check as a future transaction first though when it is large.

SRC54

@UrsulaA Yep, it's a quandary. Banks should make it easier to send transfers to Organization accounts and personal accounts. I find it funny that we still even have checks!

Fun fact: One of the unintended consequences of the National Banking Act 1863 was that only National Banks could print greenbacks. State Banks felt that put them at a disadvantag, so they came up with checking accounts. This soon overwhelmed banks as it sometimes took a while to get a check cleared from one bank to another, especially if out of town, which led to overdrawn accounts. So when the Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913, national check clearing was given to them. Ultimately, printing paper currency would also become the Federal Reserve's business as well after the US Treasury stopped doing it (though I think they still could).

EL1234

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/40421#Comment_40421

I actually found that since Simplifi introduced the check number field, if I use it when entering checks that I've written, they do get auto-matched even if it's more than a few days old. It's a big help. I just wish they would store/show me the date that I entered the manual transaction instead of just switching it to the date the check was deposited, without saving the original date anywhere. Currently if I don't remember around when the check was written, I log into the bank to look at the image of the deposited check.

SRC54

That's a good catch! I'll try it. Thanks for sharing.