Spending Plan should include Recurring Transfers [edited] (8 Merged Votes)

bcrossman

It took me a while to understand how to use the Spending Plan, but I've come to really like it. I find it presents a simpler and more useful way to budget for the month.

One suggestion would be to add recurring transfers in addition to "Bills & Subscriptions" as a category that is deducted from Spendable Income.

Currently, I have several recurring monthly transfers that operate more like savings (e.g., mortgage principle, brokerage, 529s). Because I transfer the same amount every month, I don't consider this part of spendable income. I can account for them in my Spending Plan by including them in "Bills & Subscriptions," but they're not really bills. It would be great if I could separate them from the recurring bills in my Spending Plan.

(Of course, this probably requires working through some bugs with recurring transfers, which I know is an ongoing issue.)

Anyway, the Spending Plan is great!

Coach Paco

@bcrossman Great suggestion!

SPICYSMOM

I agree, every paycheck I send money to tithe and money to emergency savings fund and money into savings for my 15 "funding accounts" - which really goes into one funding savings account - but so far I have kept track on one funding spread sheet.
But anyway these are 3 items that always come out first thing from my paychecks - same amounts every time. And we have other tithe amounts going after other income comes in - that could be transferred just like he mentioned above just the same. This is an awesome suggestion. Please make it happen.

gildrush

I too would like to see this, as I have mostly scheduled transfers to different accounts

mverbree

I have a number of transfers that come in as income like for example my son and mother-n-law pay me for a group cell phone plan that I manage.  I also have a number of transfers that go out, like money to a brokerage, Vacation fund, Tax Fund, etc....  With both of these type of transfers, it would be nice to be able to add them to my spending plan, because they influence how much I have left.  What I am doing now is creating categories under financial like "Transfer (Vacation)" or "Transfer (M1 Finance)" so essentially this allows me to break the transfer between accounts and set them up as planned expenses.  I know this is not right, but not sure how else to go about this.  I see an area where the transfer is setup under recurring, just need this to be available as a tab under the spending plan and have it part of the calculation.  Thanks

dgalt

The Spending Plan is one of the big draws for me to Simplifi, since I was basically doing something similar with Excel manually prior to discovering Simplifi. 

One thing I'd like to see added, though, is the option to track transfers as essentially spending for the month. For example, every month I make an automatic deposit in to a brokerage account as part of my retirement savings. I don't want this to count as an expense, but I would want this to count against my available cash each month. Currently there doesn't seem to be a good way to do this, as far as I can tell. The only option would be to add this as a Savings Goal, but that's really not appropriate either since there's no specific amount or date that I'm saving for. To that point, it might be nice to have as an option for Savings Goal just a monthly saving amount, unassigned to an end-date or total amount, which could then be used for what I'm asking with respect to the Spending Plan. 

bcrossman

Totally agree. There are some unresolved issues with how Simplifi handles transfers, but once worked out, it would be great to include exactly the type of transfers you describe in the spending plan. Seems like this should be an easy addition.

Also, see this thread: [removed link to now-merged thread]

RyanB

I have multiple savings transfers where I don’t have a specific target amount. The goal is to save a set amount every month until it makes sense to stop.  College savings and retirement are perfect examples of goals with out a set goal amount and a fuzzy end date.  Seems like the simple fix is to allow goals without a target amount…

DannyB

I vote yes to transfers.

Josh H80

I agree that recurring transfers need to be included in the spending plan. This may also require better integration with the "Savings Goals". My savings goals each align with a savings account into which I have scheduled recurring transfers. When I achieve the savings goal I now want to expense the money in savings (e.g. "Christmas Gift Fund", "Vacation Fund"). I cannot show the "Savings Goal" as an income; therefore, when i spend the money saved it shows as an expense greater than the amount of income for the month. Some manner of transfer out "expense" and transfer in "income" would greatly assist in identifying the "actual amount" of income available in the spending plan.

cerebralvision

Has there been any update on this by the Simplifi team?

Coach Natalie

Hello All,

Great news! Although we don't have an exact ETA to provide on this request, our Product Team has confirmed that Recurring Transfers are expected to become available in the Spending Plan in the near future. 🥳

-Coach Natalie

chouser10

I totally agree. Transfers would be nice to show as income.

mverbree

Just checking since it has been a while, is there any update on ETA on this feature.  This is a feature that I have been waiting for, I have transfers set up as bills and it does not really seem right.

Coach Natalie

Hello @mverbree,

Thanks for reaching out!

Sadly, there hasn't been any further updates to provide on this request as of yet. As soon as I hear anything, though, I'll be sure to post back.

-Coach Natalie

Coach Natalie

Hello All,

Great news! The Product Team is working on the design and specifications for Recurring Transfers in the Spending Plan, and they are looking to have 10-15 minute sessions with a few users to go over design ideas. Is anyone here interested in participating in a session?

Tagging some active users who have commented -- @bcrossman @dgalt @DannyB @mverbree

Please let us know, thank you!

-Coach Natalie

bcrossman

I'd be happy to participate. It looks like these transfers are now included among other recurring transactions, which is great and partially addresses my request above. Including them in the spending plan would be even better. Thanks!

DannyB

Hi @Coach Natalie I’d be happy to participate in this conversation.  However, now that I have more experience with Simplifi and having reread this thread I’m not sure what it is that’s being asked for.  In some instances this feature request seems to be more about what others are calling rollovers and in other instances it seems to be about actual transfers between accounts, i.e. to set money aside for annual fixed expenses.

But please put me down as a potential participant in one of these sessions.

Coach Natalie

Hello @bcrossman & @DannyB,

Thanks for being willing to participate!

I went ahead and sent your emails to our Product Team, and they will be reaching out to both of you directly to schedule a session. As far as what they're working on, it is my understanding that they're looking to add a "Transfers" section to the Spending Plan in addition to Income, Bills, and Subscriptions. I believe they may also be adding the ability to include Recurring Series' with the Category of just "Transfer" in the Spending Plan as well, though I'm not entirely certain on this part. 

Let me know if there are any additional questions or concerns!

-Coach Natalie

mmiles3gt

@Coach Natalie I'd be happy to participate as well. I use recurring transfers within my savings accounts much as you describe in your post from 9:34am on 10/5.

Coach Natalie

Great, @mmiles3gt! I let them know.

-Coach Natalie

dgalt

Bit late to the recent updates, glad to see this is moving along though. This is exactly what I'd suggest / what I'm looking for (the quote below). 

Coach Natalie said:

As far as what they're working on, it is my understanding that they're looking to add a "Transfers" section to the Spending Plan in addition to Income, Bills, and Subscriptions. 

 Not sure I'd have other comments, but if the Product team is still soliciting feedback happy to provide some 

cfields

Any updates on this feature request?  Is it being planned for a release?  

Coach Natalie

Hello @cfields,

Thanks for reaching out!

If you navigate to the very first post in this thread, you'll see that the status of this request is "In Progress". Although we don't have an ETA to provide as to when we can expect to see this ability in Simplifi, our Product Team has confirmed that it will be coming, and it is my understanding that it should be available fairly soon. 

In the meantime, I'd definitely suggest following this post for future updates, as we will update it accordingly as soon as any new information becomes available. Our FAQ here has more details on following Community posts. 

I hope this helps!

-Coach Natalie

Coach Natalie

Hello everyone!

The "Transfers" bucket in the Spending Plan is expected to be released sometime in June, and should become available on both Web and Mobile at the same time. I'll be sure to let everyone know if there are any changes. 🙂

-Coach Natalie

Coach Natalie

Hello All,

Great news! The 'Transfers & Credit Card Payments' bucket is live for both Mobile and Web. You can now include just one side of a Recurring Linked Transfer in the Spending Plan, and Recurring Transactions with the Category of just "Transfer" can now also be included. 🥳

Please stay tuned for a more thorough announcement in our Updates From the Product Team category for more details!

-Coach Natalie