Spending plan categories occasionally do not populate with transactions

Chrobrego

I have an Auto category with four sub categories including one called 'Car Wash.'   I have two car wash expenses for this month.  I setup a 'Car Wash' planned spend of $30.  I see the $30 in my register correctly categorized for 'car wash.'  The problem is that my spending plan does not see the transaction and still says that I have $30 left.   

I'm new to Simplifi, but I'm getting frustrated in my first month.  This keeps feeling like beta software to me, and the endless pile of people posting problems with zero feedback doesn't build confidence.  

Flopbot

@Chrobrego,

The first thing I'd double-check is that your Planned Spending card is tied to the correct Category; the exact same one you categorize your transactions as.  You can most easily check that by clicking Simplifi > Spending Plan > Planned Spending > Three Dots > Edit Series. 



This is the structure of my Categories, and I know that they work with Planned Spending.  If I spend money on a car wash - my car wouldn't know what to do with itself - then it would show up on the Spending Plan.



You said "and the endless pile of people posting problems with zero feedback doesn't build confidence."

Just to ease your mind, it may seem that way right now, but rest assured that Simplifi ( @Coach Natalie ) does a very good job of monitoring this forum and actively responding.  The number of forum posts that have zero replies is consistently kept at zero).  Sure, Simplifi does have it's oddities and annoyances here and there, but ultimately, it is really good program as you get used to it - which I'm still doing too.

Chrobrego

Thanks for your help. The problem turned out to be that the car wash gets charged every month so Simplifi had it listed as a subscription. Anyway, I'm finding that I'm liking Simplifi less simply because it isn't that simple at times and often doesn't make sense to me; for example, why should I have to 'release' money at the end of the month?   Weird....

Flopbot

@Chrobrego,

Thanks for following up with the outcome, glad you at least got that one taken care of.  

Sorry that you’re having a rough go off it acclimatizing to Simplifi; I can reassure you that it does get easier with time.

I’m exceedingly happy with my decision to switch to Simplifi after evaluating some 17 personal accounting alternatives and around 20 business accounting softwares.  Yes there are issues/bugs that are annoying, features that I wish it had, and things I still don’t understand about how it works, but my finances are in a much better place because of Simplifi.

One way of thinking about the releasing money at months-end is that you are ‘closing the books’ on the prior month.  Once I started viewing it that way, I really came to like it.

SRC54

Hi @Chrobrego

I am just now seeing this and glad you figured it out.  The Spending Plan has been something I've struggled with as well and at first I had the same concern about the Spending Categories.  Yep, you either have to do Recurring or you can do Planned Spending.  It was disconcerting but I got used to it.  You can always see the full category numbers in Reports or on the Dashboard's Categories card.

I've slowly come around to doing things Simplifi's way.  But as you say it isn't obvious at first.  They could move recurring expenses to Planned Spending and make a note that they are kept separate from the Spending bars.

I finally realized that the category limits set up in Planned Spending take the place of budgeting.  So you only set up the categories you want to keep an eye on.  Think of Recurring Items then as expense which you have to buy and aren't budgeted.  I set up an amount for gasoline (Auto:Gasoline) but not for Auto:Insurance as I have a recurring for that.  Since my utilities are recurring, I don't bother doing a budget bar for Utilities, but I do one for home:supplies.  But if I want to see my totals for Home and Auto, I go to Reports or back to the Dashboard's Spending Card.

Yep Simplifi isn't as simple as it seems.  I've tried to think of a way for them to make this simpler with new labels.

Income (including Recurring):

Recurring Bills & Subscriptions:

Budgeted Categories (excluding Bills & Subscriptions):

Miscellaneous Spending (Spending that is neither recurring nor budgeted):