Savings Goals amounts inconsistent and incorrect!

tobyN

OK, I already had a dislike of how Savings Goals are done in Simplifi versus how they were done in Quicken, but I have been trying to make them work for me.

But now I am finding inconsistent amounts for my Savings Goals between the "By Goal" screen and the "By Account" screen, so now I have no confidence in the numbers I am seeing and don't even know for sure which, if either, are correct.

3 of my 5 savings goals show different amounts on the By Account screen than the amounts shown on the By Goal screen. With a total difference of $1200.

The "Savings Goal" total amount shown on the Account List matches the total if I add up the goal amounts on the "By Account" screen. But I actually think it is the amounts in the "By Goal" that are the correct amounts.

For the 3 that are wrong, the amount difference for each just happens to be twice the amounts that I contributed to each goal over the last two months. Somehow it seems the last two contributions have been "lost" from the By Amount screen and total Savings Goal line, but are still included in the By Account screen. And I only contribute from one account into the goals.

If they had a register view of the transactions in and out of goals, then maybe I could see what happenned, but for some reason they don't think that is needed, which is a whole separate discussion.

I am including a couple of images that show the difference. The By Account screen shown $1,725 and the By Goal screen showns $1,225. My last 2 contributions to this account were $250 each and I have not withdrawn anything from the goal in that time.

I don't know how to get them synced up, so unless I get some feedback on that, I guess I will just have to delete the goals and recreate them with whatever amounts I think are correct.

Coach Natalie

@tobyN, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

I'd definitely suggest deleting and recreating the Goals in question to see if you can get things to line up. You can use the amount you already have saved up as the "Saved so far" amount, and then make your regular contribution this month to make sure things are accounting properly after doing so.

Please let us know how it goes!

-Coach Natalie

tobyN

Yes, I deleted and recreated the goals. It is just concerning since I now don't know when I can trust the number I am seeing for the goal. It is easy to get confused with the goals, especially since there is not at least a simple "register" that shows the contributions and withdrawals from the goals. That way you don't have to try to remember when you contributed and withdrew, and for what purpose. I miss that part of savings goals (from Quicken Classic).

For anyone interested, I think I know what caused this to happen, so I will try to describe below the sequence that got me there:

1. Since Simplifi does not allow for setting up a Recurring transaction into a savings goal, I setup a placeholder recurring transaction for the 1st of the month that is a "bill" from checking associated with a Placeholder category.
2. When the 1st of the month arrived, I could see the reminder in the upcoming bills section for $250.
3. I go to savings goals and perform a contribute action into the goal in question for $250.
4. I go back to the checking account register, but was surprised to see the upcoming bill reminder was now gone. I wasn't expecting that. I was expecting to have to delete the reminder manually. But I thought (happily) that maybe Simplifi was smart enough to assume that the contribution to the goal satisfied the reminder, so it removed it for me. All good, so I thought.
5. A couple of days later, when I was back in Simplifi in my checking account register, I see that the "past" reminder is back in the upcoming bills section. With no way to associate it with the contribution to savings goal. I deleted the reminder. I am assuming that it was something with this action that somehow caused the problem where the "By Goal" has the correct amount, but the "By Account" somehow had backed out the previous contribution (or something?).

Not sure this is what happened, but wanted to explain the steps I had taken. Hope this helps.

Maybe we will get the ability to have recurring contributions to savings goals and a savings goal register, and then it won't be an issue!