Various bugs since day 1 - false negative balance notifications being the most severe

davidnuzik

Hello,

I want to love Simplifi but I've encountered various issues since day one; I've reported some of these issues in the past via the chat, but with no resolution. One of the biggest issues for me is getting "low bank account balance" notifications (emails) stating negative balances when that never was at any point in time the case. Also oddly these values have four digits like -$166.4500

I've encountered other various issues as well such as my goals not counting contributions that are automatic like savings goals and the savings balance increasing due to my direct deposit increasing them — I'll still get notifications that I haven't contributed and am behind on my goals when that is entirely false and I cannot fathom how the software would make such a determination. I get prompts to essentially add money to them now but there shouldn't be a need as I am meeting or exceeding my goals (unless I'm missing something?). Regardless the notifications that I have not contributed are surely wrong.

Other issues have been more minor but annoying. For example still seeing an odd pending negative $650.00 and pending positive $650.00 entry from Feb 2024 on my recent statements / transactions list.

I still feel as though the product was rushed to be frank and honest and have a hard time considering Simplifi longer term for my needs. I would be willing to cooperate in providing any information to potentially solve one or more of these bugs but haven't seen much serious interest when contacting support and offering this. I know this may come across as harsh but I'm honestly getting pretty frustrated with my experience so far and have reduced how often I use the app and the extent to which I do due to this. I will say it has potential and is pretty neat when it works correctly.

If there are any tips or suggestions at least regarding me getting my negative bank account balance notifications fixed I would greatly appreciate any help and appreciate the team's time and commitment to improving the product. Thank you!

RobWilk

The pending charges that never cleared need to and can easily be deleted. Pending transactions always download if the bank supports that, which creates transactions, but if they never clear, Simplifi doesn't know and just leaves the transactions there. Yes, there's some manual work involved here. I personally do most things manually; I prefer to actively track rather than wait for a sync.

davidnuzik

Thanks for reaching out. This particular transaction actually did clear without issue; I just double checked my credit card statement and bank account (it was a credit card payment) and each cleared. I edited each transaction and saw the option to manually adjust the Transaction status and set it to Cleared and this resolved that particular issue. I'll keep it in mind if I encounter a similar issue again going forward.

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On a separate note, my negative balance notifications are perplexing. At first I thought it may be due to the default setting to use the "Balance with pending" balance type but this isn't the case as I switched it to just "Bank balance" some time ago and I still encounter these strange notifications periodically stating I am negative. What is interesting is that it seems to happen once I log in after not having done so for at least a day or more (during the time when Simplifi updates each account) and I tend to get that email/notification I am negative while it is in the middle of that process, then when it is done syncing/updating all my accounts (typically takes seconds) everything appears nominal. It's almost as though the system may have determined for a split second my account / or sum of all my cash accounts to be negative somehow but then upon completing the sync/update process it corrects that / realizes that is not true with all the information / updates it has at that point. However, the notification is emailed instantly prior to the sync being done (or so it seems) and hence the false negative balance notification. This is my theory anyway. I have at least once noticed while it was updating/syncing showing my bank balance as negative in the app briefly then correcting when the sync is done.

It may also be worth noting as well I never get anywhere near close to a zero or negative bank balance. I don't even tend to get within 500$ or less in my bank checking or savings accounts. I'm not certain what might cause the software/system to think for a brief moment that my bank balance is negative — perhaps it could have been those pending transactions (if so then only with time will I know if that issue is resolved as it doesn't always happen).

RobWilk

Well, an incorrect pending transaction (which you corrected) could explain the negative balance issues. Simplifi starts with the bank balance (downloaded from the bank) and applies any manual/pending transactions on top of the bank balance to get the balance it gives you. The other possibility, might be recurring transactions, it may be calculating any past-due (not matched) recurring transactions to today's balance to figure out what your balance would be if you paid your due-up-to-today recurring transactions.

As per the 4-digit decimal number, this has been reported to them (by myself and others) but doesn't seem to be a priority for them. EDIT: It's small things like this which may not seem important, probably take a few minutes to fix, and never get addressed which really would make the software much better because it would look more 'polished' and less 'sloppy'.