"Rolling over" "Left at end of month" to the next month

DannyB

One of the issues I've thought about but haven't done anything with, other than ask what others do, has to do with "Left at end of month". As far as I know, in Simplifi, it simply disappears (pun intended) and there is no way in Simplifi, to keep track of any funds left at the end of a given month. It's always nice to see that I didn't spend all available funds or end the month with a deficit, but beyond that when the 1st of the following month arrives the left at the end of the month just past is nowhere to be seen.

Today I reread this support article - "How Do I Set a Custom Income Amount in the Spending Plan?" - in which @Coach Natalie writes, "There may come a time when you're expecting extra income for the month that isn't accounted for with a Recurring Series, or maybe you have a fixed income, or maybe you want to add your leftovers from last month to the current month…" (emphasis added by me)

Ah ha, so I can create a custom income amount for what's left at the end of one month to include in my income for the following month… OK, not really. What I can do is create a custom income amount that adds what is left over from one month to what is anticipate to be received in the next month. Since May is almost over, I'm going to try using the custom income option to add in what I have left at the end of May into my income for June and see what happens!

• How will Simplifi acknowledge the receipt of the "additional" income if there is no actual inflow into one of my connect accounts for the left at end of month?
• What will I do with this "extra" income in the new month's Spending Plan?
• Will I simply end up with even more "Left at end of month" in June equal to Junes' leftover plus the amount moved over from May?
• Bills & Subscriptions are fairly fixed and won't change more then the variable already built into my Spending Plan and if I increase the amounts for my Planned Spending categories that won't change how much we actually spend as these also already have spending variables built in. So this additional money won't be useful in either of these sections of my Spending Plan.
• Can I somehow move this additional "income" into a savings goal to eliminate it from being left over again?
• Will the sudden onset of the Zombie Apocalypses make all this moot?
• Is there intelligent life elsewhere in the vast universe that surrounds us and if so, what kind of personal finance software apps do they use?

These are the kind of things I want to find out.

Coach Natalie

All great questions, @DannyB - thanks for sharing!

Let us know how it goes with the Custom Income Amount and whether you decide to continue rolling over leftover money each month using this method. Please also let us know if you learn of any extraterrestrial personal finance apps!

-Coach Natalie

ajbopp

I've noticed a lot of posts in several threads from many users (including myself) over the months about what to do with money that is left over.

One thing I don't recall ever being asked or addressed is what to do when that amount is negative (unfortunately it often is for me). It seems like the same problem to me, just the other side of the coin.

May was a particularly rough month for me. I ended up with a net income of -$1,167.53. Now that June has rolled over, all that overflow isn't accounted for anywhere in my spending plan.

If I create a Custom Amount equalling my normal calculated income minus last month's negative net income, it gives me a reasonably accurate picture of what I technically have available in June and that helps guide me in adjusting the Spending Plan to acccommadate it. Sounds great so far.

There comes an issue, though, when I look forward to July. Every future month continues to use the same custom income amount, throwing a lot of my ability to plan more than one month ahead out the window. In this regard, I suffered a bit of confusion with the line…

"There may come a time when you're expecting extra income for the month that isn't accounted for with a Recurring Series…"

because it gave me the impression that this would be useful on a month-to-month basis - I interpreted that I could create a custom amount for a given month, and Simplifi would continue to use the calculated amount for every other month.

In any case, whether your "left over" for a month is positive or negative, trying to account for it with a custom income doesn't seem very useful.

Personally, I'm still of the opinion that, whether you finish above or below zero for the month, the best option is some sort of guided walkthrough (perhaps starting in the Monthly Summary report itself) on how (or whether) to adjust your spending plan to come up with a balance closer to zero. This could be modfied for other periods of time, as well - quarterly, semi-annually, annually.

That is, at the end of a time period, Simplifi could guide the user through modifying the Spending Plan based onaverages of the previous 2, 6, or 12 months as appropriate. (This could also assist with the nagging issue of how to account for infrequent expenses.)

In any case, I often see questions about how to account for excess money after a month. Based on what I've read over the last year, it seems like few people are wondering the same the same thing about excess of expenses.

Flopbot

Interesting post @DannyB! It will be interesting to see the results of this test.

DannyB

@ajbopp, @Flopbot

I haven't tried anything yet. My wife and I are on a month long road trip around the western states so won't be on here too much and won't try this experiment before July. @ajbopp I didn't think about how created a custom income amount for one month would be carried down to all future months. That being the case, like you said, that makes this impractical.

One thing I have to keep reminding myself is that Simplifi’s primary focus is the current month and the core of that focus is the Spending Plan. I don’t say this as a criticism, but as the primary strength of Simplifi in my mind. That being said, as @Coach Natalie would say, Simplifi does include tools to see ahead and behind but these are all extensions of the primary focus on the current month and I’m pretty much OK with that as evidenced by my continued use.

Debbied

i have created custom income amounts to allow for when I have an extra check in the month. I remove That value from the month it comes (if I do not need the income for bills) and I then add that amount to the month I need it in as a custom amount. So if income is 10K that month I will create a custom amount that adds the $2500 I had as extra. I have not found that this rolls over month to month it is the custom amount for that month only. IE I go into that month and adjust that month only. So far I am appreciating that feature IMHO opinion it would be nice to have an actual feature that would say at the end of the month… you have this much leftover do you want to roll into another month or put into savings. Way I look at if you have extra left over (for me anyways) I want it in saving or moved to a month where my bill soya be higher due to timing lower the extra income I have for on the fly purchasing. Hopefully all that makes sense. PS the other thing I will do If I want my EXTRA check to roll into another month say I have a check due on the 29th or 30th but I do not need that income for the current month. I will change the date to 2 days later (next month) and attach it to the recurring series 2 days later than anticipated. I just did that for June into July so I will see how that impacts what I am doing