Budgeting visualization is lacking core function

KeithK

I am a former mint user and there is a lot to Simplifi that got me to select it over many competitors, but have run into one killer missing function. It is a place to be able to simply visualize my budget and visualize how much is left. Mint had this and I see it in a competitor called CoPilot (see below pic).

I understand Spending Plans are meant to be a visual of a budget, however I am not finding it to be very visual considering it is more a “wall of text”. The information is generally there, but i have a lot of items on my budget and I have to read it all to determine what items I am under budget rather than a quick glance. If there is another issue that has really troubled me is also the waiting for a fix for Sallie mae loans. That has been ongoing over a year and therefore have no really expectation that this will ever be resolved.

[edited image to reduce size]

BR HHI

I agree! I too am a recent Mint user and easily seeing how I am doing against my budgeted spending categories seems challenging. The spending view shows Income, Bills, Subs, Transfers and Savings. Being able to see at an aggregated level how I am doing across all budgeted areas, ie: travel, auto, dining out, etc… seems like basic budgeting stuff? What am I doing wrong or how can I use the functionality better? Thanks in advance.

UrsulaA

For the budget visualization above, I am using watchlists. I set one up with all budgeted spending including planned spending items, bills, and subscriptions with a target. I also created another watchlist for other spending with no target.

Watchlists are neat because they have charts and averages.

There is an idea post open to show something more about the lines of your screenshot.

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/2087/spending-plan-show-totals-for-paid-spent-vs-upcoming-left-with-a-progress-bar-edited

Flopbot

@UrsulaA

Odd question, does the “0 - ____” in your watchlist’s name do anything? Make it show up in a certain order in Desktop or Mobile?

UrsulaA

Yes, the 0 puts it first when I sort the list in Alphabetical order on the web app. I am using numbers to watchlists I want to see first.

Biscotti

Not a bad way to approach it with what they offer. Thanks for sharing the tip.

@Intuit, I really hope you kept the Mint product/development team and now have them prioritized on getting Simplify up to where Mint was.

UrsulaA

Hi @Biscotti - Quicken is separate from Intuit since 2016. I am glad to share the tip. It helps me track quickly if I am within the number I thought I was going to spend in the month.

I do like the available to spend too.

KeithK

@Ursula, Thanks for your suggestion and use of spending plans. It got me to think about my understanding of spending plans, bills and payments, and watchlists. I guess I did not have a good understanding of each of these and how they work together which generated confusion. I think I understand now and my use of these things is much better. I have reserved bills and payments for my fixed expenses (mortgage, car payment, internet) and created spending plans for variable expenses (food, fuel, and water), then created a watch list for all my spend like you have and separate watchlists for each item that I want to watch/meter/forecast closely like food. Thanks again for your helpful comment.

UrsulaA

@KeithK - check out the comment below I posted from simplifiDev, a Simplifi developer who helps moderate the Reddit Simplifi Money. It helped me understand the spending plan purpose better.

I have separate watchlists for food and shopping with their own limits. The limits I added for these matched the planned spending limits.

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/25871#Comment_25871

UrsulaA

The planned spending summary, a recently added feature, should help budget visualization.

I still use my watchlist as I like seeing the cash flow, which is influenced by the bills.