Is Simplifi right for me?

Jimf2

Hi,

I'm looking to Simplify my tracking of income and expenses with the simplifi application. My total income is deposited into a single back account and all expenses are on one credit card with very few cash transactions. Pretty simple Eh? So, will Simplifi import bank transactions (CSV or PDF) and import Credit card transactions? I assume I can enter any cash transactions manually. From the budget perspective, can I set a budget limit for various categories and see how it is trending?

I've used the desktop version in past for financial tracking and found some irritating problems with trying to balance my actual balance with Quickens. Sometimes because of delays in computer response I've downloaded and imported a series of monthly transactions twice and it was such a pain to try to back them all out.

I've read some of the simplifi posts and I realize that many have a different goal in using Simplfi.

Any help appreciated.

Thank you.

DannyB

Hi @Jimf2

First a disclaimer - I have been a Simplifi user for over 2 years and in my book it's one of, if not the best, personal finance apps.

Next I want to clarify that Quicken Simplifi is a completely different app from Quicken Classic. From your description, I'm guessing you used Quicken Classic before since you mention that you did account balancing (reconciliation?).

Finally, I think Quicken Simplifi can meet your needs rather well especially with your situation - one checking account and one credit card for most all your transactions. Q-Simplifi connects to thousands of banks and financial institutions through aggregator services so once you connect Quicken Simplifi to your bank and credit card company (if separate from your bank) Quicken will keep your bank data up to date with daily downloads.

Quicken Simplifi is unique in the way it helps you set up and manage your finances. Instead of the traditional budgeting for every single category and subcategory, you will discover the Spending Plan which, in my opinion, is superior to traditional budgeting. The Spending Plan is presented in three sections: Income after bills and savings; Planned Spending; Other Spending. The first and second sections are where you plan and track for all your income and spending for the month. Other Spending is a catch all for any spending you do beyond your normal expected spending.

All recurring income, recurring bills and subscriptions, recurring transfers (transfers are handled differently from regular exspenses but can be tracked in the spending plan), and any monthly savings you plan to do, are set up and tracked in the Income after bills and savings section. The "Income after" is the key here. Once you have accounted for all your recurring expenses, etc, Simplifi will show you what is available for your Planned Spending. These are those monthly necessary expenses that are flexible over the month like groceries, gas for the cars, eating out, recreation, whatever you choose to and plan to spending on.

Now your plan is in place and Quicken Simplifi will let you know what your monthly cushion is - that is how much you have left that is available to spend or save for the month.

I think you would benefit from Quicken Simplifi, but that is a subjective opinion and you will need to try it out for yourself to decide for yourself.

Jimf2

Hi @DannyB ,

Thanks for the comments. I don't mind the change of how to track expenses and income. I just need an indicator of where the expense leak is and what I need to plug to keep the ship afloat. With regards to 'needs' and 'wants', I suspect the 'wants' are the area to focus on.

Thanks.

DannyB

I think Q-Simplifi will work great for that purpose.

Flopbot

@Jimf2

Just now seeing your post. It sounds like you were a Quicken user in the past. Since you specifically mentioned problems with "Reconciliation", Simplifi doesn't offer a true bank reconciliation process yet.  There's an existing idea post (click here) that you can add your vote to if this is something you'd find useful. In the meantime, I think I found a workable work-around.

Each month, when I receive my bank/savings/credit card statement, I - on desktop - use the green “Reviewed” circles to do a reconciliation of sorts.  I check off each transaction on my statement with pen and then mark it as reviewed in Simplifi.  Once an entire month has been turned green, I minimize that month by hiding all the individual transactions.

This process HAS found errors which - in my mind - is one of the main reasons for doing a reconciliation. Yes, it’s a workaround, but honestly, it doesn't feel like one now; it's just Simplifi's simple and fast way, which I love!

This isn't going to answer your questions exactly, but as a long-term user of Quicken, you might find this helpful in your consideration. Below are my musings from a prior post on the difference between the two software offerings.

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Awhile ago, I replied to a user who was asking which was better for them; Simplifi or Quicken.  Here's part of that discussion...


While Quicken Desktop certainly has more features than Simplifi, I am soooooo happy that I made the switch!  I put a decent amount of time and effort into my search for a Quicken replacement and must have tried somewhere in the neighborhood of eight other budgeting software solutions. I am confident saying that Simplifi is one of the best options out there for the way I think

I feel that Quicken Desktop would be a fine solution for someone with lots of accounts/investments, an accounting background, or lots and lots of time on their hands.  It might be a good fit for a retiree who has the time to fiddle around fixing things and tracking down problems - weekly - while setting at a desktop computer/laptop. Quicken has a super steep learning curve and it’s very easy to make a mistake that takes hours to track down and fix. Many times, I would put in four hours simply to find that I had accidentally deleted a transaction somewhere along the lines.  Quicken Desktop might be a good solution if you don’t mind, or even enjoy, database administration.

For me, I’m more than happy to give up some bells and whistle’s in order to save myself time on data entry. Are there things that I miss, sure, but I’m really pleased to be saving hours of my time simply keeping a database happy.   Being cloud-based, I really love the ease with which I can manage Simplifi. I interchangeably go from an iPad to an iPhone to a laptop and everything stays pretty well synced wherever I am. This part of Simplifi is my favorite!

Finally, I’m quite happy with the responsiveness of Simplifi’s support (the coaches are great) and the speed with which they release bug fixes, updates, and new features.  I have no doubt that one day Simplifi will overtake Quicken Desktop to become Quicken’s flagship solution; I look forward to that day!

Feel free to ask any questions you might have about either software.

Good luck!

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And here is an Apple App Store review I did...

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Hope something here helps.