Ability to automatically contribute to Savings Goals [edited] (5 Merged Votes)

pwhitt

For me personally I think that savings goals should be tied directly to a Savings Account or multiple accounts. Just set your goal amount and everything is automatic without having to do manual transactions. To me I feel that the purpose for a money management application is for the automation and ease of management with minimal manual input.

Bgz

I feel it is important to show a transaction registry or history of all my goal contributions and withdrawal. I hope this is added as well.

KDC1996

I just saw there was the discussion with the product team that Natalie posted on March 26th. How did that discussion go?

This seems like a rather simple request. I have a transfer from my checking to saving account for a home savings goal. This seems like I should be able to tell Simplifi that this re-occurring transfer should be applied t my savings goal automatically.

llamafilm

Please add this feature! Manual entry is way too much work for something so simple.

JJ&PJ

ls there an update on this enhancement request?

jtb36

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/33176#Comment_33176

This would be very helpful. Being able to set a recurring "custom" saving amount in the spending plan and then just have the account balance be tracked against the goal would be much more straightforward than the current version.

Me000000

Its so weird that this most basic piece of functionality is still missing from this software.

Flopbot

I really, really want this feature too! However, while we wait, I've found that creating individual SAV accounts for your most critical Savings Goals is a reasonable work around. It completely bypasses the need for Savings Goals altogether. Each SAV account pertains to just one (1) topic - Health, Christmas, B-Days, Emergency, etc. - and any money that finds itself in one of these SAV accounts automatically is designated for that specific purpose. Then, I can create scheduled transfers at the bank and a corresponding Recurring Series in Simplifi. Added bonus, I can use projected balance to see how much will be in the account come Christmas!

I still have a few Savings Goals, just for more mundane things like computers and small appliances.

RobWilk

I'm curious of anyone volunteered for those video sessions when they were inquiring about "how this would work". It's clear people want this (I haven't voted one way or the other, because i don't understand how it would work - but it 'sounds like a good idea'). If they did, and it wasn't confidential, did they learn anything from the video interviews about how it might work that might be worth sharing here (i.e. give me a reason to vote for or against a particular implementation).

DannyB

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/42512#Comment_42512

Fascinating! I'm pretty sure you have mentioned this before elsewhere, but reading your comment here caused me to wonder a little.

I have 3 savings accounts I use to save for non-monthly and irregular expenses, and I have an SG set up for each of these accounts. Now I'm wondering if I need the SGs or if I've just created a bit of extra work and complexity.

Are your corresponding Recurring Series in Simplifi visible in your Spending Plan under Transfers & Credit Card Payments? I'm thinking yes, these recurring transfers are visible reducing your "Income after bills & saving" reflects these transfers.

The SAV accounts you mention appear to be for recurring flexible expenses, Health, Christmas, B-Days, etc. Do you have SAV accounts for your fixed annual/non-monthly expenses like Property Tax, annual/semi-annual insurance premiums, auto license & registration tags, etc.?

If so, do you have these expenses set up as recurring series in your Spending Plan assigned to the account they are paid out of?

When it comes time to spend these funds, i.e. you start buying Christmas presents, how do you manage these expenses as they are paid? if the purchase is made via a credit card to you pay the balance out of the corresponding SAV account directly or move the funds back into checking to cover the charge(s)?

WB1742

I have automatic transfers from my checking account going to different accounts on a monthly basis and would love simplifi to have a feature that allows me to create a rule or ability to have these transfers categorized as a contribution to my savings goals.

If I try to manually contribute to my savings goal after the transfer has cleared, the savings goal asks me what account I want to take the $ to contribute to the goal. If I choose my checking account, this will result in my checking accounts balance to be inaccurate (the automatic transfer has already deducted the amount from my checking account and the manually contribution will then deduct the amount again resulting my checking account balance within simplifi to not be accurate.).

WB1742

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/32621#Comment_32621

Hi Natalie,

Thank you for being involved with engaging with us to make this software more user friendly. I'm a little late to the party here as I recently joined simplify, but am curious how this meeting went. Are talks with the software team still going on to have this feature added? If so, any estimated release date?

Thank you.

DannyB

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/48351#Comment_48351

@WB1742

I just saw your question. Actually, what you will do is select the savings account that the transferred funds went into as the account you are contributing from.

I transfer funds from my checking to my "Travel" savings account monthly.

When the transfer transaction is completed on both sides of the transfer I make my contribution to my Travel Savings Goal.

Since the funds for this Savings Goal are held in my Travel Savings account, that is the account I select to Contribute from, not my checking account.

As you will notice, the Balance available to contribute for the Cap 1 Travel Savings is currently $0.00 since all funds in this account are currently designated (contributed to) the Savings Goal.

Craig D

AT LEAST provide the ability to contribute the Target amount to ALL goals with one button click instead of having to contribute to each one individually. PLEASE!!

Matt_L

Is a software update planned to automatically contribute monthly to savings goals? If so, when is the release expected?

Coach Kristina

Hello @Matt_L,

To answer your question, the idea is still being reviewed, and our teams have not yet decided if they intend to add this in the future or not.

I recommend bookmarking the idea to track the status, since any updates, once available, will be posted here.

Thank you!

Matt_L

Thanks. I just ran into another issue with Savings Goals. I had to erase all my saving's goals to point them to another account (another issue!). When I did this, the "Initial Amount" assigned to a new saving goal disappears when a contribution is made.

It appears that "Saving's Goals" are being ignored. Saving's Goals are a "grass roots" function of budgeting software. If they are not fully automated and easy to use, it removes a huge part of the appeal of Simplifi.

I hope the developers are re-assigned to maintain and update that functionality. It is making me take a second look at [removed].

MikeZ

I would very much like to meet with someone about this feature.

I've written up some specs and principles.

SavingsGoalsDef.txt

HappyNorml

Old thread but not sure the issue of automated saving goal contribution has been resolved despite what looks like enthusiastic requests. Wanted to put my 5 cents and propose one possible solution for some use cases.

I use an envelope saving strategy with scheduled transfers to various saving accounts. I played with SG’s but (like many commenters) have stopped using them because of the need to manually contribute to them.

Instead, to capture my automated saving in the spending plan, I’ve added many of these transfers to savings accounts as either (1) straightforward “recurring transfers” or (2) as “bills” (after intentionally breaking the transfer link by assigning other specific categories so I can see this saving activity in relation to other expenses in various reports). In both cases (as recurring bills or transfers) the automated saving is accounted for in the spending plan under the bills section with the transactions being linked automatically and the funds are taken away from my available spend.

One proposal for automating SG’s is to allow linking of a recurring series (transfers or bills) with savings goal. The spending plan is already tracking and linking transactions into these recurring series. The only difference would be that they would be “pulled out” of the “bills” section/bucket and instead would to totaled and tracked under the “savings goals” section with the SG they are assigned to.

This wouldn’t change functionality for people who are using the SG feature manually to virtually set aside funds in a single large account or pot of money, but it would satisfy the ask of many above who (like me) are using actual transactions to route funds into various savings accounts. And as a bonus for the spending plan, would nicely allow one to see at a glance the total planned automated/scheduled saving for the month.

DryHeat

@HappyNorml

Here's something to consider about linking recurring series/transactions to Savings Goals…

Right now, when you delete a completed (fully funded and then spent) Savings Goal, all records of the contributions to that Goal are deleted as well. So when you look back on your Spending Plans for prior months, it's as if the Savings Goal never existed. The only way to preserve the true state of those Spending Plans is to never, ever delete a Savings Goal.

I don't like that because I don't want to have screen after screen of defunct Savings Goals. I'd like it even less if it disturbed prior linked transactions. The problem could probably be solved with some way of hiding expired Savings Goals, but we don't have that.