"Spending-to-date" and "Month-to-month" comparison on the Dashboard

DannyB

There have been a number of requests and discussion about spending-to-date and month-to-month comparison in the forum at different times.

Currently, there are ways to see this information but not on the Dashboard and not as clearly as often desired.

Here is a side-by-side of the current Spending Plan monthly circle graph summary and a monthly spending summary circle graph form another source (some will recognize the graph and the source):

Notes:

• These two graphs are working with the data in two distinct manners and are thus not actually comparable - they simply display different information about the data.
• The QS graph distinctly shows what the Spending plan is built to do - show how much of the current month's expected income is Available after all expected and planned expenses are accounted for.
• The current QS graph is a more or less static view of available funds with adjustments through the month for bills/subscriptions actuals, Planned Spending overages, and Other Spending.
• The graph on the right is presenting a dynamic month-to-date summary of spending compared to expected and planned spending.
• The graph on the right provides a useful and, IMHO, satisfying means to track how the outflow side of the Spending Plan is progressing through the month along with a comparison to the previous month.
• Rather than replacing the current "Available" graph, this could be an additional Dashboard Card that would provide the often-requested day-by-day monthly spending progress report.

Flopbot

Interesting side-by-side comparison @DannyB . Thanks for sharing. I love the simple, clean, uncomplicated approach of Simplifi; it’s one of the things that sold it to me. However, I could see this being a useful addition to the donut chart (some other chart) in some way, I’d just really hope Simplifi would continue to focus on simplicity…maybe by just adding thin perimeter circles in some way. All the watch face markings on the chart on the right make it feel excessively complex. Maybe if I had actually used the app that your screenshot came from, I’d feel differently, but I haven’t.

RockLee

It would be nice if the dashboard showed at least total spent this month. But, in general I like what @DannyB discusses.

Wedo778

Yea this is probably my 2nd biggest pain point with Simplifi (I rank no annual budgeting #1). The best way I have to see what I have actually spent vs my plan right now is either to manually add it all up by drilling into the spending plan, or create watchlists and compare them to the spending plan. Neither gets me the actual answer on a screen, its all my own processing.