Why does adding an asset show as spending?

PaulaMarie
PaulaMarie Member
edited June 24 in Getting Started

I’ve been using Quicken Classic for decades. I decided to try Simplifi because what I really want is to get a better handle on where are my money goes. I’ve been adding accounts and assets over the last couple days. I really hate that it’s showing the assets that I’ve just added as spending. It seems like it’s going to be a month or more before Simplifi is going to have enough good data to give me an accurate picture of my spending.

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  • DannyB
    DannyB Superuser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 19

    @PaulaMarie

    How did you set up your asset account?

    I just set up to test asset accounts and both are showing a positive opening balance based on the amount I input on the account set-up screen.

    Also, if when you added your bank accounts you should have downloaded enough historical data to give you a good start on your monthly income and expenses. I started with 90 days of back data downloaded from my banks for checking, savings, credit cards and had all the data needed to start with a solid idea of my monthly income and expenses.

    Danny
    Simplifi user since 01/22
    Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer
  • Yep. Got a positive balance on assets. But all the data I downloaded for the accounts I set up shows as spending for this month. Over $25,000 in Spending. My Quicken Classic shows less than a tenth of that for this month.

  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin

    @PaulaMarie, welcome to Quicken Simplifi!

    It sounds like you most likely need to go through the last 90 days worth of transactions that were downloaded from your banks (or however many days were provided) and categorize them so they're properly accounted for. Here are some articles to help you get started with Quicken Simplifi:

    https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/4284318-getting-started-in-quicken-simplifi

    https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/3348227-how-to-recategorize-a-transaction

    https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/4378958-managing-categories-and-subcategories

    https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/3348103-managing-transactions-in-quicken-simplifi

    https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/3625912-managing-recurring-transactions

    https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/4212702-using-the-quicken-simplifi-spending-plan

    Let us know if you have any questions along the way!

    -Coach Natalie

    -Coach Natalie

  • I did that. But everything I added or downloaded counted as a transaction and was included in this month’s Spending. When comparing this month’s Spending between Simplifi and Classic (which I’ve been using for years), there was a huge difference.

    I plan to run them both for a while and see how Simplifi actually tracks my bills and spending. Part of my problem with Simplifi is that I’ve been using the mobile app on my iPhone and it’s a bit clunky. (Same with the Classic app.)

  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin

    @PaulaMarie, thanks for the reply!

    I'm a little confused on how your transactions downloaded differently in Quicken Simplifi than in Quicken Classic. Do you not have all of your accounts in Quicken Classic? Or do you not count some of your transactions toward your budget? All transactions that download should be considered spending or income appropriately.

    Let us know how your evaluation goes as you learn Quicken Simplifi!

    -Coach Natalie

    -Coach Natalie

  • Transactions download pretty much the same. It’s that Simplifi and Classic are very different. They don’t track spending the same way. Classic mostly shows what you spent this month while Simplifi shows what you did today. It took a few days of using Simplifi to realize this. When a transaction is added to Simplifi it shows up as what you spent today. Which is why everything looked so wonky the day I set up all my assets, liabilities, and accounts. Classic is great at showing my overall financial picture and helping with debt management but not so good with the day-to-day. I really like Simplifli’s in-your-face iPhone widget that shows my spending. It also works a lot like the Excel spreadsheet that I built for myself.

  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin

    @PaulaMarie, thanks for the reply!

    Ahh, that makes sense! Yes, for net worth tracking and things of that nature, Quicken Simplifi does start tracking the day the account is added versus the date of the transactions. If you want to see your history in the Net Worth Report specifically, we do offer an Account Balance History Import option on the Web App.

    https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/8912157-how-to-import-account-balance-history

    Otherwise, let us know if anything else pops up as you're getting started with the program!

    -Coach Natalie

    -Coach Natalie

  • So far there’s two things I don’t like. Projected cash flow defaults to whatever is at the top of the accounts list. I’d like to see my checking account when I open it instead of scrolling down the list.
    I can’t customize and reorder the Watchlist like I can with the Dashboard.
    Maybe a future update????

  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin

    @PaulaMarie, thanks for the feedback!

    Can you elaborate on the Projected Cash Flow part, please? When I select an account from the Accounts List, the Projected Cash Flow is for that account specifically. This is the same on both the Mobile and Web Apps. Are you saying that you want your checking account to be at the top of your Accounts List like the following Idea post is requesting?

    For the ability to sort Watchlists on the Quicken Simplifi Mobile App, I'd suggest checking out this Idea post and following it for updates:

    I hope this helps!

    -Coach Natalie

    -Coach Natalie

  • PaulaMarie
    PaulaMarie Member
    edited May 23

    This. In the mobile app. When I click it goes to the first account in the list. I have to scroll down to find the one I want.

  • Coach Natalie
    Coach Natalie Administrator, Moderator admin

    @PaulaMarie, ahh I see — you're on the All Transactions page!

    In addition to Danny's recommendation, you can try this flow instead to see if it works better for you when accessing the Projected Cash Flow for a specific account: From the Dashboard, click the Accounts tile > Select the account you want to view Projected Cash Flow for > Click See Projected Cash Flow. It seems to be about the same amount of clicks, but will take you right to the account's cash flow!

    -Coach Natalie

    -Coach Natalie

  • I do know the work arounds. I was throwing out ideas for the code crunchers for future updates. For Watchlist…a “Sort manually” option. For Projected Cash flow…let it default to last account viewed.

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