how do I reconcile my bank/ credit card statement on simplifi

rj144

I have set up my bank and credit card on simplifi but I need to know how to reconcile. them

Flopbot

@rj144

Simplifi doesn't offer a true bank reconciliation process yet.  There's an existing idea post (click here) that you can add your vote to if this is something you'd find useful.

In the meantime, I think I found a workable work-around.

Each month, when I receive my bank/savings/credit card statement, I - on desktop - use the black “Reviewed” circles (they used to be a pleasing green color) to do a reconciliation of sorts.  I check off each transaction on my statement with pen and then mark it as reviewed in Simplifi.  Once an entire month has been turned black (I miss the green), I minimize that month by hiding all the individual transactions.

This process HAS found errors which - in my mind - is one of the main reasons for doing a reconciliation.

Yes, it’s a workaround and yes, Simplifi should create an actual reconciliation process, but in the meantime, I’m happy enough with this general process.

DannyB

@rj144

I see you received some feed back on your question along with a little side conversation on two different philosophies of reconciling accounts.

As Chris ( @Flopbot ) points out Simlifi doesn't offer a reconciliation ability and that is because the developers chose not to include that function because of how Simplifi interacts with your banking data and the core purpose for Simplifi.

Back in the day of checkbooks with hand written checks and hand written registers reconciling the checkbook with your monthly bank account statement was critical.  With the advent of online access to all your financial institutions and the ability to see your transactions almost in real time the need for reconciliation is less critical. 😀 Still as the above conversation makes clear there is still value in the process of doing an account reconciliation.

I didn't say keeping an eye on your accounts isn't critical, but that reconciling a checkbook isn't critical.  I now have real time or very close to real time access to my actual bank accounts and my actual account registers.

Quicken as a bookeeping app has reconciliation ability, Simplifi as a month-to-month BUDGETING app doesn't... for now.  

Clark

@Flopbot....just curious....why don't you reconcile on a daily basis when the charge has cleared and approve/review at that time? I do this daily to make sure the charges are correct and it only takes me about 5 minutes per day to do this.  I have to many charges to look at it all at month end. Thanks, Clark

Flopbot

@Clark,

Good question.  My main reason for doing it this way is to reduce the time I spend managing our family's finances.  With a full time job, being owners of separate small business that I bookkeep for, and with four kids there's not much time left for me to spend keeping some random personal finance database happy.  By the time I get 5 minutes to myself, it's already midnight.

These were two of my stated goals for originally seeking an alternative to Quicken Desktop.

• Live on a budget.
• Track every dollar, but don’t spend all day doing it.

With Quicken Desktop, I would dump HOURS upon HOURS on multiple days a week simply trying - and not succeeding - to keep up with things.  With Simplifi, my time spent has been greatly reduced and usually it takes me roughly 3 hours - one day a week, with the occasional login to check account/spending plan balances.

I'd rather simply wait for the statement and just do it all as one 'batch' all at once.  Also, to me, this just feels a bit more like an official, traditional bank statement reconciliation which I like and find surprisingly satisfying. 

Clark

@Flopbot,
I understand. I have had fraudulent charges over the years due to traveling out of country a lot in the oil business.  Just my way of doing a due diligence real time, so end of month means no time spent for me.  Being an engineer,  I like small bits of data to deal with at one time.  Lol

Clark

Flopbot

@Clark,

A guy I work with has a saying "A clean database is a happy database" so I get what you mean.  Doing it my way make for an occasionally happy database; however, doing it your way certainly makes for a happier database all the time...and maybe a happier Clark.