Ability to mark Recurring Reminders as "Scheduled"/"Paid" [edited] (19 Merged Votes)

EL1234

With a check that hasn't been deposited, you can create the transaction and leave the status as Pending and link it to the recurring bill. Then when the check is deposited simplifi will (hopefully) merge the two transactions (but I tend to keep an eye on unreviewed transactions in case they need to be merged manually).

It's quite a bunch of steps, though.

kents

Thank you EL. As you said, it is many steps and having to check that Simplify is doing the correct thing for these transactions.

BobS54

Sorry for the questions, just joined the app space. @EL1234 , have you experimented with linking the transaction for the recurring bill vs. Entering the transaction and deleting the reminder for that month's payment? Pros/Cons?

EL1234

I usually link it, especially for a recurring bill I pay via check and (usually) enter the pending check as a transaction so that my cash flow projection accounts for it. If the transactions don't merge when the check is deposited then I can select them both and click the Merge button.

Deleting the reminder and having the transaction download isn't ideal because then it won't show up in the Bills section of my spending plan, instead it'll be in Other Spending or Spending Plan. I like that one under bills (and definitely don't want the same bill to sometimes show in one place and sometimes in another place).

Stranger0715

I agree a MUST have option. Just came over from Quicken and spent three days setting everything up properly. Now I find this major issue that has been going on for 4 years now. How are others keeping track of the bills scheduled and which are not. Seems like a core requirement to efficiently and effectively track upcoming bills.

Stranger0715

@ https://community.simplifimoney.com/profile/EL1234 that seems like a great idea although it takes time to complete and the whole point of this is to be efficient and save users time not expand the time.

Stranger0715

Definitely a must have.

dagnabit2000

Simplifi Coaches, I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to inquire about the status of the feature request we discussed previously. The last update we received was in September 2022, indicating that your team is reviewing options for implementation.

Could you please provide us with a current update on this matter? Specifically, we would appreciate insights into any challenges or nuances that may be delaying the implementation of this feature. While it appears straightforward and does not impact transactions or account balances, we understand there may be factors or considerations that we are not aware of.

Your prompt response would be greatly appreciated as we continue to plan our operational strategies.

Thank you for your attention to this request.

Best regards

dagnabit2000

I have a payment due to Mazda Financial Services on July 2nd. I believe I scheduled a payment, but I am uncertain. I visited their website and could not find a way to verify if the payment was scheduled.

As a Simplifi user for managing my finances, I would appreciate guidance from a Simplifi representative on how their software can assist me with this issue. I should not need to contact MFS to confirm if I scheduled the payment. I should be able to determine this using the Financial Management Software for which I have been paying (including Quicken) for over 25 years. This is particularly important considering that the software (Quicken) had this functionality for the first 20+ years.

Simplifi Representatives, could you please assist me in finding a way to use your software to verify whether a payment has been scheduled or not? Thank you. (Edited: Corrected Grammar)

DannyB

While I believe this would be a useful feature I have a couple of questions which may already be answered in the preceding conversation and I admit I didn’t read every comment for the past 4 years. Anyway…

• Auto pay has become pert near universal even to the point that many billers even offer some form of benefit if you go with auto pay. I have all my recurring bills and subscriptions set up on auto pay. The three exceptions are my gardener, my housekeeper and pool service person. This answers the earlier reasons for the feature - a way to know that payments are scheduled and set to be paid.
• If you schedule a payment, you would need to take steps in QS to indicate this with this feature. Why not enter a pending transaction in the appropriate bank account register and match it with the recurring Spending Plan reminder? Wouldn’t that change the reminder from upcoming to paid status?

Stranger0715

@DannyB. my situation I only leave enough money in my checking to cover bills. Everything else is invested to earn interest. My paychecks are split between accounts to complete monthly bills.

I am paid on an every other week cycle. This means that I am not paid the exact same day each month. Auto pay is not doable for all bills since I may not get paid till the day after the auto pay date.

In addition not all billers allow you to update the autopay amount. In these cases I still need to visit the biller website and manually make an additional payment, So I simply do not use auto pay for bills that vary month to month. In addition my small town water and electric company charge a fee for paying on their website. So these are sent via billpay.

For the most part I make most of my payments through each website. It is difficult to keep up with without being able to mark bills as scheduled.

On your second note, Quicken Simplifi states how quickly it is to manage your finances. If I need to create pending transactions and remove the reminder for about 40 different billers a month, it is taking me double the time to complete. Simply clicking a checkbox or adding a tag to the reminder would take seconds. Adding and removing of transactions to side step the software is cumbersome and a much longer process.

The simple checkbox or ability to tag a reminder would make the 15 minute process of going to payer making payment and creating new transaction then delete reminder down to about 5 to 7 minutes. Cutting the time for recording scheduled transactions in half. In my situation this would lower my time for paying bills down from 600 minutes a month to 280 minutes. This is a savings of over 5 hours of my time per month.

This simple change to expose the tags field in the reminder so I can add a tag stating it has been scheduled would take QS about 1/2 hour to code, QA testing of 2 hours for a total of 3 to 4 hours. For multiple users to save hours of time each month.

Frustrated406

I’ve been using a manually updated spreadsheet for all my bills as I don’t think they’ll ever address the issues in this thread.

The only thing I use Simplifi for at this point is a general ledger where I can review all of my transactions from all accounts in one place.

tamala73

I also have to use another app to help me with Bill Management… would love to have one place to manage my bills and finances. Simplify has some features that help but having this feature would move me one step closer to not having to use Chronicle any more.

DannyB

@Stranger0715

Like I said, this could be a useful feature to have added to QS.

If you will allow it, can I make a couple of observations for conversational purposes only?

First, I keep a buffer balance in my cash account equal to about 45 days of living expenses, i.e. the money going out to my June billers and my planned spending has been in my checking account since at least mid-April. In this way whatever day of the month my paycheck arrives in my checking account is irrelevant.

Second, unless your savings account(s) have extremely high interest rates (I'm currently receiving 4.25% - 4.80% in my HYS accounts) it seems that keeping a 30–45-day buffer in the amount of your monthly recurring bills and living expenses in your checking account would be highly cost-effective for you allowing you to take advantage of autopay and would probably even justify paying the service fee for your local water and electric utility, but I can understand not want to pay a service fee for the convenience.

For me, the interest I "loose" on $5 or $6K would be more than worth the amount of time you are spending in your currently process even if a "Payment scheduled" check box is added and you are still spending 280 minutes paying bills. I'm trying to remember how much time I spent paying bills back in the "good ol' days of writing checks every month and sending them via USPS, but I don't think I spent more than a couple of hours a month doing so. I currently have 50 separate bills, subscriptions, and tracked transfers per month. Almost all of them are on autopay/transfer. I am notified via email for every one of these payments and transfers. I receive email notification for my variable bills before payment is due telling me the amount of the current bill and I receive notification when the payment is triggered by the biller at my bank. I do have a couple of bills I have to take action to pay, but this never takes more than a few minutes via Zelle or the biller's bill pay website.

I will typically log into Simplifi in the morning and do a quick review to see what's up, but even that isn't really necessary.

In addition not all billers allow you to update the autopay amount.

This is something I've never experienced. In all my instances, autopay bills me for current amount due and if the is different from last month, the amount due and pulled from my checking account or charged to my credit card is the current amount due. I'm curious which autopay accounts don't automatically update the amount due.

Again, I'm for any feature that makes QS a more powerful tool for all users, as long as it doesn't undermine the original elegance of the app. Also, I'm not suggesting in any way that what I do and what you do are better or worse, I just like hearing about how others do this stuff and learning different approaches.

idlehand

The biggest issue for me, I have said this in my original post is making sure I scheduled the payment and the amount of the bill is updated correctly. Not everything can be autopay. I also heavily rely on future forecasting of my cash flow as our income is not the same month to month

I treat my finances similarly to @Stranger0715 where my checking account has enough to cover my bills and that is it. Leaving money on the table is not conducive in my financial strategy.

I am just shocked that this isn’t a more requested feature and seems like a quick and easy feature to add software wise.

they just added a spot for Check # in the latest update so it can be done.

Wedo778

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/37307#Comment_37307

Ticking a box each month is a lot less work than entering a dummy transaction.

Ticking a box just once when setting up a bill that is on autopay is a lot less work than that.

DannyB

@Wedo778

Agreed.

I happily gave up the good ol' manual checkbook with all the required stuff that went with it easily over the years as this stuff became more and more digital and online and I have no desire to go back to manually entering transactions.

Doug Hall

As many others have noted, we have to use an external means, such as a spreadsheet, to determine if we've scheduled a payment. This is a fundamental feature that all other personal finance software I've reviewed, including Quicken classic, supports.

The status on this request has been "reviewing options" for a long while now.

Can we please get confirmation this is still being considered?

From our layman's point of view, it seems it would be a simple matter to allow future dated bills and transactions to be marked as paid and placed as pending into the register. I'm guessing there are challenges with this though? If so, I would suggest presenting those pros and cons to the community here or at least a subset of passionate users so we can understand and maybe present possible ideas that could help. We pay for this app, so we are your biggest fans. Use us!

Thanks,

Doug

idlehand

I'm coming up on the end of my first year using Simplifi, and I'm still amazed that this topic has not been addressed. For me, this is a crucial piece of the budgeting process.

BadgerHat

Please add an option to mark a bill as "scheduled". I often schedule payments and find it a bit cumbersome keeping tabs of what bills have a scheduled payments. Marking a bill "paid" after the transaction has cleared is not the most helpful. It would be nice if you could manually mark the bill "paid" or "scheduled" prior to the transaction hitting Simplifi.

Suggested idea: In Bills & Payments under the "reminders" list of upcoming bills. Add an option "scheduled" or "paid" in the kabob menu above "link to transaction". Once selected this would trigger a "scheduled" or "paid" chip to appear in the calendar view and spending plan when reviewing bills. You could trigger a rule for the chip to update once a transaction is linked.

SRC54

@BadgerHat For me just being able to mark it paid and enter it into registry would be fine. I am not one for scheduling way in advance except for one or two automatic withdrawals but I can see where marking it schedule would work for some users.

It is also disconcerting sometimes when I have entered it manually or it is pending that it still shows as "Today" in Bills & Payments. Once it is pending it should show as paid as it does in the Spending Plan. But maybe I am just missing the logic there. The nomenclature is sometimes confusing. I think they have changed this from what it used to be but memory fails.

PhilS

I'm not sure if this request belongs here, but, when editing the next instance of a recurring reminder, it would be helpful if one could add a note and/or add a flag.

Currently, when you edit one, you can only edit the date or the amount. I have some recurring reminders that I have to pay by check and it would be nice to be able to enter a check number.

Also, if I need to change the amount or date, sometimes it would be helpful to add a note for explanation.

And, having the ability to edit the flag could also be used as a "Paid/Scheduled" notation.

Thanks

Jenny T

I think this is a great idea! I feel like there are three statuses: items set on recurring auto-payment/direct deposit (that need indicated at the series level as scheduled), items that are not automatic and should create reminders as "Needs Scheduled/Paid", and items that have already been "Scheduled/Paid". For example, paychecks and subscriptions would be "automatic". Bills/transfers paid via check, bill pay, one-time payment/transfer, etc would initially flag the reminder as "Needs Scheduled" and then once you submit the payment/transfer request/check, you could mark it as "Scheduled/Paid". The terminology for each status would either need named slightly different for expenses, income, or transfers, or need to be generic enough to work for each type of transaction.