Shared Expenses - A possible solution

inspector_gadget

Shared accounts and expenses are difficult to track in Simplifi. This really destroys its value to me as a customer.

My wife and I keep our banking separate, but share an account for shared expenses (rent, groceries, etc). Simplifi allows me to track our shared account, but offers no additional budget support. This is an oversight, and I know I am not the only person with this problem. And without a better features to manage this type of account, Simplifi looses most of its value.

For example, our rent is payed from our shared account. Within Spending Plan / Bills, 100% of our rent appears as my expense. This is not accurate, and prevents me from keeping an accurate budget. Repeat with every other shared expense.

Currently, I am using a work-around.

1. I hide all transactions from our shared accounts - which makes a tracking service like Simplifi useless.

2. I created an item in Planned Spending that includes the combine cost estimate of all shared expenses in the month.

3. If I want to see how much I have spent on a payee during some period of time, I use Reports, then divide by half (in my head).

I propose a solution:

Allow each transaction to be marked "Shared" and marked with a percentage that should apply to my budget. For example, all expenses in our shared account will show in my transactions list, but each transaction carries a tag "Shared", and the value of that transaction is set at 50% (or other as needed). The 50% is what is used for budget, instead of 100% as it is now.

To me this is the easiest solution both for the users and for the engineers to implement. But without this feature, Simplifi offers no added value, and I will go back to a spreadsheet, which is somehow more useful.

RobWilk

How about the ability to split transactions, say 50% of split each way, with one of the splits being able to be hidden from reports/spending plan? Maybe should be an idea post if is not.

Coach Natalie

Hello @inspector_gadget,

Thanks for sharing your feedback with the Community!

I think your suggestion on how to handle shared expenses in Simplifi would be best suited for our existing Idea post requesting a Spouse/Couple/Roommate mode available here.

Additionally, for @RobWilk‘s suggestion of splitting the transactions, this is personally what I do when I split an expense with someone. I track the entire transaction using the applicable expense category, and then I also categorize the money that's sent back to me using the same expense category. This leaves me with an accurate net total for that expense. It ends up looking something like this:

$100 original transaction - tracked with an expense category
+$50 reimbursement transaction - tracked with the same expense category
= $50 is the net total for that expense

Something like this may be a bit harder to accomplish for transactions that are being linked to Recurring Bills or Income in the Spending Plan, but it works great for Planned Spending and Other Spending. You may also be able to track the reimbursement portion as a separate Recurring Income item in the Spending Plan to offset the Recurring expenses and give you an accurate ‘Available’ total.

We do also have an existing Idea post available here requesting the ability to ignore part of a split transaction from Reports and the Spending Plan that I'd definitely suggest checking out if you think it may be a viable solution for you.

I hope this helps!

-Coach Natalie