Bills vs Planned Spending (edited)

Diver4242

I'm trying to get back into using Simplifi and making it my go-to, also to decide if I'll continue paying for this, bc it's so frustrating.

1. I'd just like to budget spending in each of our normal monthly spending categories, and be able to check in during the month to see how much is remaining in each category. Spending plan does that. Check.

2. However, I also want to see our projected cash flow for our checking account on a forward looking timeline, to be sure we won't overdraw and plan expenses. That only happens if I put some of the expenses, such as rent, streaming services, internet, as bills and subscriptions.

Therein lies the rub. As soon as I do #2 above, I lose #1 - can't see those items in the spending plan, can't see where I'm at for spending in those categories in the moment. If I don't use bills/subscriptions, I lose my projected cash flow. I guess I could add all the transactions manually at the beginning of each month with a guestimate and match them later, ugh.

Why are these mutually exclusive this way? It's frustrating. Plus, our rent also includes gas, trash, sewer, water payments so that's a whole other issue with the repeating split transaction.

DannyB

Hi @Diver4242

As far as I know you won't get what you are asking for from the Spending Plan based on its design.

Have you considered using Watchlists?

As you note so well, the Spending Plan separates monthly recurring fixed expenses (Bills, Subscriptions) from monthly recurring flexible expense (Planned Spending), But the Spending Plan also gives you a way to track unplanned for spending and a bottom line for the month that tells you what you have available for that unplanned for spending.

I use the Watchlist feature to track my spending in the way, or at least somewhat like you are describing. My monthly spending is broken down into 9 main spending categories with associated sub-categories. I have a Watchlist set up for each main category and its associated sub-categories with the monthly Target set for the amount I have budgeted for each main category. I also have a notification set for each category to tell me when I'm approaching the target amount.

Watchlists are pretty flexible and can be used in various ways. For instance, maybe I want to find out how much I spend in a year on one certain item, let's say wine. I can create a "Wine" tag and set up a Watchlist for that particular tag. Then as long as I tag wine purchase (usually this means splitting a grocery expense and tagging the amount spent on wine) I can keep track of how much I'm spending on wine during the month, month to month, average/month and annually… or whatever.

Anyway, maybe using the Watchlist feature will help out.

Of course, this doesn't address your "Cashflow" issue and you're correct that only recurring income, bills and subscriptions are included in projecting cashflow for any given account. I don't find the cashflow projections useful for this same reason and because a lot of our monthly spending is done through credit cards. Each account gets its own cashflow projection but since these are all done exclusively any projections are not helpful.

Another thing I do is keep a 30 day cushion in my main cash account. What I mean by that is that the income I receive this month won't actually be spent until next month. Having this cushion covers those possible missteps when my spending might exceed my income due to the way paychecks may arrive and bills get paid.