Planned Spend over/under and alerts

michfromflorida

My November Spending Plan includes 9 categories in Planned Spend for a total of $1,910.

In 3 categories, I'm over by $308 so Planned Spend now says $2,218 ($1910 + $308) with red asterisk alert.

My math says I'm $435 under for the month as I've underspent in 6 categories.

It appears that Planned Spend is just that - it assumes I'm going to spend every category to 100% rather than treat the Planned Spend as a collective goal.

Some areas of a budget are fixed costs like a cell phone bill or Netflix but many areas have variable costs. Would you call the unspent $435 rollover dollars or see the alert as an area of concern? To me, the alert is false and the money rolls over. And further, if one category in the plan continues to go over, it's time to adjust the budgeted amount!

Flopbot

@michfromflorida

While your math might differ, on some level you have to think how Simplifi is/was designed and adjust accordingly. Simplifi is not currently designed to do Rollover Budgeting so it doesn’t take into account what was left over last month. If that’s something you want, follow along with this “Idea Post”.

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/114/rollover-unused-spending-plan-money-edited-10-merged-votes

Regarding the “Would you call the unspent $435 rollover dollars or see the alert as an area of concern?” question. Until Simplifi adds a rollover feature, view it as an area of concern unless you know otherwise. Remember that you can turn off Spending Plan notifications if that makes your life easier.

Coach Natalie

@michfromflorida, have you taken a look at our Spending Plan article, by chance, so you can learn how each section of the Spending Plan is intended to function? It may shed some light for you!

https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/4212702-using-the-quicken-simplifi-spending-plan

-Coach Natalie

michfromflorida

Thank you for your response. It's not the alert or the amount that I'm concerned about. Also realize that Simplifi not designed for rollover month-to-month but it wouldn't take a lot to get there it seems. Any values shown are simple queries not AI.

Any amount in Planned Spend is a target, not a solid number so it should be treated as such.

Flopbot

Not being an employee of Simplifi, I can say they are working on rollover! Unfortunately, I don’t have any better idea as to the timeframe than you do.