Is there a way to set the category amount to $0 for an individual category?

jnjeffers

Is there a way to set the category amount to $0 for an individual category? When I try to set a category amount to $0, the "update" button fades and I cannot select it.

For instance, I have a category called "Family Vacation." I will not be assigning a monthly amount to that category, so I want to set the category amount to $0. When I have extra money in a particular month, I will assign it to the "Family Vacation" category.

DannyB

@jnjeffers

I'm going to take it that you are referring to a Planned Spending category in the Spending Plan. Planned Spending Categories are "active" from month to month and are not meant as a place to park our hold funds. Keep in mind that the Spending Plan is a monthly planning and tracking tool.

Here are a few suggestions concerning your "Family Vacation" category if you want to track and see an accumulation of that "extra money" in Simplifi.

1. Set up your "Family Vacation" Planned Spending category as a roll over category and set the monthly goal to an amount 1/12 of what you think you will spend on your annual family vacation. This will allow you to see an "accumulation of funds" over time but if you aren't actually setting aside the monthly target amount even if it's only when "extra money" shows up, there won't really be any funds available for spending when the time comes to spend that money.
2. Create a Savings Goal for your Family Vacation.
   1. You can either set a goal date or not depending on when you want to take your vacation. In your situation, probably don't set a goal date since you will be contributing to this goal randomly over time.
   2. When you come to the screen to either set aside or not set aside:
      1. Choose "No, don't set aside". Now whenever you have some extra money, you can make a contribution to this goal to keep track of the now designated family vacation money and see which account it is held in.
      2. Choose "Yes, set aside." if you want to make monthly contributions that are included in your monthly Spending Plan. From what you said, you won't be making regular monthly contributions so the "No, don't set aside" seems the better option for what you seem to have in mind.
   3. When it comes time for vacation, you can use these funds and mark the vacation related expenses to "Ignore in Spending Plan" since this is extra funds NOT included in the monthly Spending Plan for the month you take your vacation.
   4. Again, unless you actually set these Savings Goal contributions aside in your cash accounts, the money won't be there no matter what your Quicken Simplifi SG says is there.

When I first started using QS I created a Savings Goal our annual vacation expenses and made monthly contributions since I do actually transfer a set amount monthly into this travel fund. A have a certain credit card that I use exclusively for all vacation expenses which makes it easy to keep track of how much we are spending on vacation and makes it easy to know how much to withdraw from the SG when we have vacation expenses.

I have now switched to using a Planned Spending category with roll over enabled to handle our vacation expenses. This way I don't have to worry about marking these expenses to be ignored and I don't have to make the monthly contribution to the SG nor do I have to worry about making the withdrawal from the SG when these funds are spent. The one drawback is no longer having a way to see that these funds are designated and not available to spend in my accounts list. But sine these funds are all held in a high yield savings account at the same bank as the "vacation" credit card, this isn't a big deal.

Coach Jon

Hello @jnjeffers,

Thanks for reaching out! There is no way to currently do that in Quicken Simplifi, but we do have a great idea post you can vote for and follow here that aligns with what you are wanting!

Planned Spending Expense Series - Allow $0.00 Amount

molehill6804

Jun 13, 2024

In a recent application update [removed - accuracy], the Spending Plan Planned Spending had a new constraint added to the Expense Category Amount to require an amount greater than $0.00. This constraint was not previously in place, and I was able to create expense categories with a $0.00 planned amount.

Given the way that my wife and I like to track our spending with Planned Spending along with Watchlists, this works quite well for us, and we were happy with the functionality.

Given this recent update, we are no longer able to use Simplifi in this manner, and we're required to put $0.01 or greater for each expense category that we wish to track.

I would like to request that this constraint be reverted to the previous functionality / feature to once again allow for $0.00 Expense Category amounts.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6031920/uploads/AIAFGOLE3KUX/example-240-00.png

https://us.v-cdn.net/6031920/uploads/G6FSDE5XU294/example-240-01.png

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Thanks,

Coach Jon

jnjeffers

Danny, thanks for the very detailed and informed response. For my purposes, being able to set category amounts to $0 is a much simpler and straight-forward approach for my particular budgeting strategy. I appreciate you giving me a possible option if I decide to stay with Quicken Simplifi.