Constantly Indicates "Overspent" When I'm Not

slippinsurlies

My spending plan constantly shows that I'm "overspent," even though I'm not really.

I get paid on the 1st and 15th day of the month. Except that the transaction often shows up in my checking account 1 to 4 days early. When this happens, the entire next month shows "overspent" until the last day or two, when my 1st of the month paycheck arrives a few days early again. Then the cycle starts over with the next month and I'm "overspent."

I don't think I explained this well, so I'll try again, just in case. In February, I expect to be paid on 1 Feb and 15 Feb. In reality, I received my paycheck on 31 Jan and 14 Feb. So, Simplifi thinks I'm not receiving any money to cover my February expenses until 14 Feb. Therefore, I'm "overspent" until I receive a second paycheck in February. Here's how the cycle continues, though… In March, I should get paid on 1 Mar. In reality, I'll probably get paid on 29 Feb.

The downside is that the Spending Plan feature is now completely useless to me. This is unfortunate since that's one of the reasons I started using Simplifi in January.

Surely, someone else has seen and solved this problem. Right?

RobWilk

If your paycheck 'reliably' comes a few days early, did you try scheduling it for that early date? As long as there are two paychecks in a month, your spending plan should work out the same.

slippinsurlies

1. I also thought that as long as I get paid twice in a month it should work out. I just haven't figured out how to make Simplifi see it though.
2. The recurring income series is set to "twice a month." I don't see where I could specify "1st and 15th" or "15th and 30th." That would fix my problem, I think.
3. I tried changing the series' "next date" to 30 Feb instead of 1 Mar. That didn't solve my problem. Simplifi still thinks I'm only getting paid once in Feb, plus now it thinks my first payment next month is 15 Mar.

slippinsurlies

Is this the type of thing that a "Simplifi Tutorial" would be able to help with? I saw that a walkthrough of the web app was available with the subscription. Maybe someone looking at the problem would see the solution?

ajbopp

@slippinsurlies based on what you've described, it sounds like setting up your income series as multiple fixed dates would help

Coach Natalie

@slippinsurlies, thanks for posting!

I think your situation can definitely be resolved for the 'Twice a Month' Recurring Frequency option with a little troubleshooting. At this point, I would suggest contacting our Support Team directly for more advanced assistance so they can engage in a screen-sharing session with you and help get things squared away.

https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/5077917-how-to-contact-support

Feel free to post back with the results in case it helps other users!

-Coach Natalie

slippinsurlies

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/29109#Comment_29109

Hmm. That doesn't seem to be an option for me.

UrsulaA

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/29172#Comment_29172

You bring a good point, the custom frequency feature is only available to Early Access users currently.

Try enabling Early Access first by following the steps below:

Enabling Early Access:

1. Hover over the panel on the left-hand side of the screen and navigate to Settings.
2. Click Settings.
3. Under the General tab, toward the bottom of the screen, navigate to Early Access.
4. Enable Early Access.

More info below

https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/8174820-enabling-early-access#h_7b5ab80dc1

slippinsurlies

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/29173#Comment_29173

Gotcha. I enabled that and then specified 1st and 15th for my recurring income. Thanks for helping me find that feature.

Unfortunately, it didn't solve my problem. I did a bit of tech support chatting (thanks, Marie) and found a sorta solution. If I just go in and edit the individual transaction for my paycheck, I can change the date. In other words, I can manually change my early 31 Jan paycheck to the correct 1 Feb date. That works. It makes my Spending Plan look accurate and provides useful information.

Is that it? Am I going to have to dig in and manually change transaction dates for every 1st of the month paycheck I recieve for the rest of my career? Surely there is a better way. Surely, this isn't how Quicken intended this to work. Surely, I'm not the only person whose 1st of the month paycheck sometimes comes in early.

…Right?

UrsulaA

For next month, the series you set up will map the transactions properly and hopefully manual transaction date changing will not be necessary. Changing the date on past income transactions helps solve your issue for prior months.

If you want, scroll forward through the spending plan in the web or mobile app by using the arrows on the top of the page. The spending plan goes out up to 12 months forward. See how those months look, which will incorporate the new dates on the recurring series.