Monthly credit card bills...

Spartansue

A monthly credit card bill is a different amount every month yet it enters it as if it is the same amount every month. Is there a way to note it is a monthly bill but the amount is different each month?

DannyB

Hi @Spartansue

This support article will give you insight into how Simplifi is set up to handle credit card payments by default.

From your question it sounds like you have your credit card payments set up as recurring payments in the Bills section of the Spending Plan: Income after bills & savings.

Recurring payments will show up in the Spending Plan bills or subscriptions sections showing whatever amount you assigned them when you first created the recurring expense. I.e. when your first credit card payment appeared in Simplifi perhaps you created a recurring bill using that initial payment. Simplifi has now populated all future month's Spending Plans with the amount of the first payment or whatever amount you set up for that cc recurring payment. But as you point out, a credit card balance changes and so will the amount due whether it is the minimum due amount or the actual balance for any given billing cycle.

If you pay off your credit card every cycle, not carrying any balance forward and you want to include your cc payment in your spending plan, then you will need to update the payment amount each month when you receive your statement. There are a number of users who do just that. At this time, it doesn't seem many credit card issuers, if any, provide balance due info via the bill connect service Simplifi uses - thus the manual update monthly.

Personally, I go with the default set up described in the "How Credit Card Payments and Transfers are Handled in the Spending Plan" support article. The advantage of including the cc payment as a recurring bill is that it will then be accounted for in your cash flow projection for the account you pay out of. I don't put a lot of weight on the cash flow projections so there is not real advantage for me to do this.

On the other hand, ALL my credit card spending is already accounted for in my Spending Plan and the cc payment is simply and only a transfer of funds between my spending accounts.

Sorry for the long answer, and hope this helps

https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/5142302-how-credit-card-payments-and-transfers-are-handled-in-the-spending-plan

UrsulaA

If you have a lot of credit card statement balances to update in reminders before payment, you can tag each recurring payment that needs updating. In the screenshot below, I am using the tag Check-Stat.

When going to Bills & Payments>All recurring, I search with check-stat. Then, I get the list of cards I have to update, for me a total of 6.

EL1234

I follow the system that was recommended somewhere on these forums where I have recurring transactions of $1 for each credit card. Every few days or whenever I look at my cash flow, I scroll to the end of the month and if I see any $1 amounts listed, I log in to that credit card's account and check the amount due for that statement (and any other CCs in that login) and adjust it accordingly (or delete the reminder if there's no balance that month). It's a little bit tedious but I got used to it and it enables me to more reliably trust my cash flow projections, which I find very useful.

DannyB

@EL1234

Yes, that system was proposed by @Flopbot couple of years ago or so. If you pay off your balance every cycle, but want to keep track of cash flow through out the month, instead of logging in to your credit card accounts, you could use the balance reported in Simplifi account list on any given day until your statement is available.

UrsulaA

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/27700#Comment_27700

Agreed, that is what I do. I update to the statement balance for each transfer to credit card when I get the notification from each bank that the statement is published. Usually the balance in Simplifi is close to the statement balance.