Track spending plan from tags rather than categories?

dereckmezquita

Could I create a budget/spending plan and have it track transactions based on tags rather than a category?

I have categories there but also have allowances in my family for myself or other members to spend as they wish. These transactions can fall into different categories: restaurant, electronics, etc.The way I track these is for example as such: category - electronics, tag - dereck.

However I find it's not possible to track spending in the spending plan based on a tag. I don't want to create a whole new category with then subcategories for individuals.

DannyB

Interesting question, Dereck. Is this money that is free to be spent as desired or is this money necessary for routine cost of living expenses?

The way I do this for money to be spent as desired is to use a "Fun Money" category. You could call it anything you wish, perhaps for you "Allowance." But I don't bother tracking how this money is spent in detail. We budget $xxx.xx per month for this category and it is tracked in the Spending Plan through a Planned spending category. We usually pull this money out as cash from the bank and spend it (or not) as we wish.

Coach Natalie

Hello @dereckmezquita,

Thanks for posting your inquiry to the Community!

To clarify, are you looking for the ability to track Planned Spending expenses specifically based on Tags, or would you like to see the Tag ability spread across the entire Spending Plan? Based on your description and the comments in this existing Idea post, it sounds like you're looking for the Tag ability with Planned Spending specifically:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/1688/add-option-to-create-planned-spending-expenses-based-on-tags-2-merged-votes

If so, please be sure to add your vote and feedback!

-Coach Natalie

dereckmezquita

Hi @Danny1625 thank you for the comment! 

Indeed this is money that should be spent freely. However, I'd still like to be able to understand on what we are spending this money. For example if I were to give money to myself or my wife as an allowance, I would like to be able to set the category to whatever the transaction was on - music, videos games, electronics, etc but be able to then track that spending for an individual based on a tag.

This would allow me to track our spending and not exceed the monthly discretionary spending but also have that insight and granualarity as to what we spent the money on.

I could indeed create a category with my name on it, another with my wifes name on it. But then I would have to re-create all of the other categories within if I wanted to track what we are spending our money on individually.

I'm interested in tracking my spending and my household spending as granularly as possible so having the ability to track spending based on a tag would allow me to continue using all of the normal categories!

I took more time to dig into the app and get familiarised with it, I think what I am asking for is more of a feature request unfortunately!