How does 'Planned Spending' Calculate Suggested Amount?

ajbopp

When I create a new Planned Spending item, Quicken Simplifi offers a suggested amount for it based on the Category I've selected.

However, if I go into the Spending Report and look at the last 6 months, I always get an average number that is significantly higher than what was suggested.

In this case, my spending on Groceries over the last 6 months works out to a average of $140 more than was suggested. This would seem to indicate that QS is not actually using the average of the last 6 months of spending, but some other metric.

I'm curious as to what that other metric is.

Coach Jon

Hello @ajbopp,

Thanks for reaching out. After some testing on our side, the calculation appears to be the average of the prior 6 calendar months. We aren't entirely sure that is correct, however, since we did get the numbers to match up in most cases but there were a few cases where they did not align. We got them to match using a custom date range of the last 6 months, the current month excluded (so Oct 1st to March 31st), instead of using the 'Last 6 Months' preset option in the Spending Report.

Thanks,

Coach Jon

ajbopp

Thanks @Coach Jon

Is there a plan to bring these two definitions of "last 6 months" into alignment so the same calculations are used throughout the program?

In my case, I only discovered this discrepancy because the suggested amount seemed pretty inaccurate so I double checked it against the spending report. A 30% difference seems like a discrepancy that should be addressed.

I suppose what I'm asking is if a SMPL-XXXX ticket has been created?

Coach Jon

Hello @ajbopp,

Thanks for the reply. Since this is not a bug, we have not created a ticket. You may create an idea post of course that others can vote for and follow for this topic, however!

Thanks,

Coach Jon

ajbopp

Umm... actually, I am pretty sure it is a bug that two different areas of the application give you different results on the same filter criteria. Please create a ticket. It's not a feature request.

Coach Natalie

@ajbopp, thanks for the feedback!

To clarify, you are referring to two entirely different features in Quicken Simplifi and nothing in the design states that Planned Spending bases its "suggested" amount on the 'Last 6 Month' Date Range option for the Spending Report. With that, we will not be submitting this as a bug. If you'd like to see a change made to this, you'd want to request it via an Idea post.

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/998/creating-and-voting-for-ideas-in-the-community

I hope this helps clarify!

-Coach Natalie

ajbopp

@Coach Natalie AAAGH!

It is not okay that two different features interpret "the last six months" differently. If the design does not state that this should be interpreted consistently throughout the app, it's a bug in the design, and still a bug.

Please...please do the sensible thing and create a ticket.

UrsulaA

I agree with @ajbopp here. Last 6 months should mean the same time range throughout the system, this looks like a design flaw. Users do not expect a different calculation between last 6 months for spending suggestions (using calendar months) and last 6 months as shown in a report.