Watchlist monthly average should not include the current month (edited)

jasondmcgee

Unless I’m viewing it wrong, the spending watchlist 3-month average accounts for the current month and previous 2 months. It seems to me it *should* use the previous 3 months. Otherwise, it gives a false average. Ex: If I usually spend $800/mo on groceries, and in the current month I’ve only spent $250 (because its early in the month), the average will include that $250 and show a “lower” average than the real average that I usually spend on groceries. Let me know if I’m looking at this incorrectly. Thx.

mike128

In my watchlist, the "monthly average" is always very low at the beginning of a new month, because Simplifi includes the new month in the average, even though it's only a few days into that month. I don't think an incomplete month should be included in the average, because all categories will show low spending until the very end of the month. For example, since it's September 3rd today, Simplifi should only use the months up to August to calculate the monthly averages.

Coach Natalie

Hello @Mike128,

Thank you for posting this request here! I have gone ahead and merged your post with an existing Idea thread for this same request.

Please be sure to add your vote!

-Coach Natalie

MishaM

Bump!

In the example below, the request would force the "12 month" average to be Nov '24 - Nov '25.

SRC54

I upvoted this after I saw Coach Natalie's post that current month is no longer included in Planned Spending. I hope this can be done in Spending and Income Reports as well (for Recent 3 months, Recent 6 months and Recent 12 months).

DryHeat

This issue ("6 months" = 5 full months and 1 partial month) occurs in several places in Simplifi.

I thought that if they fixed the logic in one place they would fix it for all of them, but that's not the case. As pointed out in this thread, it happens in Watchlists.

But it also happens in the Reports Date Range date picker. If you choose Last month, Last quarter, or Last year you get a full month, quarter, or year. If you choose Recent 6 months, though, you still get 5 months plus whatever days in the current month have come to pass. Like this:

I think it used to read "Last 6 months" and they changed it to "Recent 6 months." But it's the "6 months" that is the problem. Because 5 months and 4 days does not equal 6 months

RobWilk

For reports, i would prefer if it includes the current partial month. The problem addressed was primarily that the average monghly spending was calculated using the partial month, which would have biased lower than it should be.

DryHeat

@RobWilk

The problem addressed was primarily that the average monghly spending was calculated using the partial month

For Watchlists, that is the problem. But in Reports there are different problems. For example, when I dosix-month Income & Expense report looking for trends and outliers, the sixth column is virtually useless most of the month as it contains only a few days worth of data. Thus not at all comparable to the other five columns. So I would prefer the last 6 full months.

Also, it just seems wrong to get a "Last 3 months" report that only has data for 65 days.

You can see a discussion of this issue here:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/12932/why-do-the-date-filters-for-last-3-months-and-last-6-months-return-values-to-date

RobWilk

I think your idea might have to be a separate idea post. I like seeing recent spending. How else would i see current spending spending or see how i am doing this month versus previous periods.

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/60902#Comment_60902

DryHeat

@RobWilk

How else would i see current spending spending or see how i am doing this month versus previous periods.

You can click on Month to date, Quarter to date, or Year to date.

I think your idea might have to be a separate idea post.

There was a post about this but it got closed (see below). Perhaps I should repost it as an Idea post. Here I was just pointing out that this issue is not limited to Watchlists.

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/12932/why-do-the-date-filters-for-last-3-months-and-last-6-months-return-values-to-date

RobWilk

Year to date, for example, is useless for historical spend purposes especially at the beginning of the year. I would use recent twelve months including current spending more often.

RobWilk

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/60913#Comment_60913

Also the idea post you mentioned is about spending plans, not reports.

DryHeat

@RobWilk

Also the idea post you mentioned is about spending plans, not reports.

Yeah, I linked the wrong one and didn't edit quickly enough to fix it before you started writing. Also, I thought it was an idea post but it wasn't (and it has been closed). So I took your advice and made a new one here:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/14855/date-filters-for-last-3-months-and-last-6-months-should-include-full-months-only

And I get it that you really like the "5 months plus X days" style of reporting. I on the other hand prefer seeing full-month data so that I can compare apples to apples. Either is ok.

I was just responding to your "How else would I see current spending?" question. There are multiple ways, and actually either of us can modify the date in the date picker to see anything we want. It's just a matter of convenience and (for me) the idea that "6 months" should mean 6 months.

RobWilk

@DryHeat I think you did the right thing creating an idea post. I like it the way it is, but others may prefer it the way you suggest. Ultimataly, the majority should decide, and if more people like it your way, I could always manually edit dates.

I personally would like a "Recent 7 days" (including today) to see my spending over the prior week, but I think other issues may be more important so I'm not prepared yet to make an idea post on that.