how do I view my ACTUAL balance?

sunflowermom

I just started using Simplifi after decades of using Quicken. Classic. I am still trying to figure out how to do the things I'm used to doing in Quicken. One thing that I seriously relied upon was that in Quicken I had all my expenses set to post to my register ahead of when they were due. So they would count against my balance and I knew not to spend that money…or I could see when that money would be coming out and maybe I knew I had money coming in before that bill would be deducted so that gave me time to replenish that money beforehand. So basically it gave me a very accurate current balance, after upcoming expenses. HOW do I do this in Simplifi? Help?

RobWilk

The closest way I know to accomplish that in Quicken Simplifi is to create recurring reminders, and/or enter future dated transactions… They will not show in the register, but they will show in the Cash Flow Forecast (in the future balances) in the graph above each account, and you can get the balance on each future day (up to 6 months) by hovering over the circles on that chart where there are transactions.

So you'll see your accurate balances up until some future date using the cash flow forecast chart (at least on the web, mobile app may have issues last I heard, I don't know if they fixed that yet).

UrsulaA

The mobile app cash flow forecast chart is working properly for me. I prefer to use the web app though.

ajbopp

If forecasting your balance accurately is a priority for you, you should avoid using Planned Spending and Savings Goals, as they are not reflected in the Cash Flow graph.

UrsulaA

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/30393#Comment_30393

This is accurate. I use my credit card for most expenses. Expenses that come out of the checking account are noted as bills or subscriptions and included in cash flow. Then, when I add the credit card statement payment as a recurring transfer from checking to credit card (also included in cash flow). Result: an accurate checking account balance. I do not use a debit card for expenses so I can use planned spending as my expenses for those items are in the credit card.

sunflowermom

I'm super new…where's the cash flow graph?

EDITED: Ohhhh I see it now, I think…I hadn't clicked on the right thing yet.

You mean this:

sunflowermom

This is SUCH a different way of doing things…I am still in my first 30 days and trying to decide if I'm going to cancel my Quicken Classic…

So would I use the spending plan much as I do the budget in Quicken Classic? I use it specifically to calculate what I need to be earning in order to pay all my bills. My income is extremely variable month to month and I need to know if I have clocked enough hours or if I need more…I have been using the budget in Quicken Classic to help me see how I'm spending across all the categories I chose to track and see when I go over. So I THINK that with Simplifi that this is what I would do in the spending plan? Is that correct?

RobWilk

The Spending Plan is good if you want to get a per-month view of planned/unplanned spending versus your income (planned/received). However, it won't necessarily tell you what balances are on an account at any particular time, it's more of a whole-calendar-month view. It sounds like it "might" do what you need, but take a look at it and see if it fits your particular needs & ask questions if needed.

RobWilk

With the spending plan, it's worth noting nothing is repeated (counted in two places) in there… So recurring bills are under income after bills, whereas that same spending won't show up in planned spending (categorized reserves).

sunflowermom

I'm trying to wrap my head around this…I appreciate your patience and taking the time to try to help me.

I don't think I understand this. Why wouldn't recurring bills be shown in your spending plan?

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/30407#Comment_30407

EDITED: OK, I've poked around some more and think I understand this more. I do see what you mean that the bills are up there right under income…and that there is a separate area for planned spending. I am going to need to watch some videos to see how others use these because I can't think what I'd put there manually…

sunflowermom

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/30406#Comment_30406

Yes, this is like the budget in Quicken Classic, I think. I don't need it to monitor balances, just to plan and track our spending.

RobWilk

Recurring spending -is- in the spending plan. But spending plan has a planned spending section where you enter by category amount of monies to reserve for those categories -

Recurring bill are in the first section

Planned spending is a differrent section.

If you have recurring bill of $100 for utilities - but then have planned spending for utilities, it won't show up in planned spending under utilities, it will show up under bills.

DannyB

Hi @sunflowermom

Welcome to Simplifi.

Right off I'll say, yes, the Spending Plan is where you will find what you need for income to cover your monthly expenses, but…

Quicken Simplifi, as you are discovering, works differently from Quicken Classic. I switched from Q Classic to Q Simplifi a couple of years ago and haven't looked back but, again, it's a different animal that often throws new users for a bit of a loop since it works so much differently than a typical budgeting and tracking app.

For me the Spending Plan is the crown jewel of Q Simplifi and in my experience is a great tool for financial planning a management.

As @RobWilk points out, finding and setting up all your recurring expenses (i.e. income, bills and subscriptions) is key. Next you will want to set up your Planned spending categories and decide how much you plan to spend for each category. This will give you a sense of what you need for the month right in the Spending Plan. You can also add in any routine, recurring savings you have in place or want to add into your monthly spending plan if desired.

The cash flow charts for your various accounts, as you point out in your post above, can be helpful, but as @ajbopp points out, these projections don't include your Planned spending. However, the Spending plan, when set up fully, WILL tell you how much you can expect to spend in a given month and you can adjust your work hours accordingly to make sure your income covers your Spending plan.

I'm curious, are you paid on a set schedule no matter how many hours you work per pay period or are you paid at random intervals?

Q Simplifi will look for recurring income, but you also have the option to create custom income amounts for each month that may work better in your instance.

sunflowermom

I have set paydays but my hours and days are all over the place across 2 half-time jobs. Which means my paycheck amounts are very unpredictable.

RobWilk

Well, one thing you can do, is when you get close to each paycheck if you know how 'different' it is from predicted, you can 'edit reminder' (as opposed to edit series) (which you do by selecting the option from the reminder -under- the cash flow chart) and change that one reminder to be closer to what you're expecting that paycheck.

I totally get that you cannot predict a part time paycheck, unfortunately, neither can Quicken Simplifi :-)

RobWilk

BTW - I know I and one or two others have been answering your questions tonight, but I will sign off for the evening. It's after 10 pm here, and I'm just about to sleep. Just know, questions are welcome here, we (at least some of us) love to help out, makes us feel useful for something. Others will probably still answer. I get that this service/software may be very different from what you're used to despite the similar name. I will say that I prefer this particular service over the quicken classic or any other service I tried (so far), but your experience may differ — and this software is still relatively young and just went through a bunch of changes in the last month (it's being actively enhanced/developed). There are areas you might find need improvement, but support listens here (I'm not support; I'm just another user who has been here long enough to earn a 'superuser' status).

sunflowermom

I appreciate your help…sorry it took so long to respond…I have been up to my eyeballs in planning for a major public event at one of my jobs and then I got really sick. Figures. So I'm just now getting back to poking around in here again. And of course because I hadn't yet gotten a grasp of things previously, and it's been so much time…I am basically starting from scratch again and having to try to relearn what I had started to learn…and I'm still very much lost and confused.

But I wanted to let you know that I really appreciate your patience and help! I have started a new thread to start specifically figuring out how to transition to Simplifi without being entirely confused…I'd love more help over there as well. :)

sunflowermom

Oh and one last thing here…I have recently discovered a whole lot of issues in Quicken Classic and it's been doing some really weird stuff…not downloading all my online transactions…missing connecting more and more of my downloaded transactions with existing ones in my register…and lately I seem to KEEP having to edit scheduled transfers that I have set up in my register that happen weekly but it keeps changing to the wrong account and the wrong day…so I'm really perplexed about all this and it's making me want to just get Simplifi figured out so that I can ditch Classic completely.

It never gave me problems like this for all these years but it seems like lately it's just a mess (Classic), so I'm very motivated to just ditch it and not even bother figuring out the issues…since I have discovered Simplifi, this seems to be the way to go. But I definitely need help figuring out how to use Simplifi as it's just so extremely different!