Ability to add Planned Spending Items to our Projected Cash Flow [edited] (4 Merged Votes)
Comments
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I've thought about that but since I like to update the statement amounts, going with $1 makes it easy to see which reminders still need to be updated. I do see an advantage though the the averages method since you can "sort of" project for further out than just one month. It would probably work better for someone who just has one or two credit cards (I have a few and so each card's monthly average could vary a lot).
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Ahh, yea see I'm the opposite and want to do as little manual updating as possible. I'll leave the current amount alone until such time as the idea to pull statement due balances from the banks get implemented.
And yes on an individual card basis my averages can be wildly off because i spent more on card A instead of card B this month. But the sum total is still relatively accurate for a 3-6 month projection. The only thing that trips it up is unplanned major purchases like a new furnace or roof.
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Got it! For me, the few minutes a month that I spend updating those reminders is well worth it to help me keep stay on top of my upcoming cash flow for my checking account (and transfer funds in and out of savings as needed). I do see the benefits of just taking an average, though, if only there was a way to have the benefits of both ways :).
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It's been over three years. Please add the option to include planned spending in the cash flow projection?
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Commenting to keep this open. The cash flow is otherwise useless to me.
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This has been in review for nearly 3 years. Any updates??
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Quicken you may as well delete "Cash Flow" from your app because without it accounting for Spending Plans it's absolutely worthless and wrong. [Removed - Disruptive]
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This request has 194 upvotes and has been in review for 3 years!!!
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The cash flow is not accurate without the planned spending.
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It is for me. IT deducts specific known expenses at specific dates.
"Planned spending" has no dates, is it before the next paycheck? After it? When would it apply and when would it be "accurate"?
Edit: I was a non-vote, now I'm a NO-vote.
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Rob Wilkens0 -
Rob, someone with $2500 in planned spending on monthly basis will always have a 2500 discrepancy in their cash balance forecast. this is just a fact. There are at least 4 other finance software programs that I'm aware of that incorporate a cash balance forecast similar to simplifi that include budgeted spending… ALL of it, not just specific expenses. Budget for groceries is still spending, correct? It still affects your cash balance. Shouldn't it be incorporated?
To answer your question, it is incorporated in the other programs in a couple ways. One, as a one time expense at a date of your discretion. Another takes the monthly spend and divides it to a daily value and deducts it that manner. As a monthly grocery budget would likely not come out one given day. There are a few ways to do it. The folks on here supporting this are just asking for SOMETHING. And it could certainly be something you can have turned off if you don't want it to be incorporated, as in your case. Adding in a note about voting "against" it now is frankly petty, as this software should be for everyone, and clearly many find the feature useful. You not finding it useful is your own business.
Last point, your no vote won't matter. This has been sitting at "in review" for 3 years. And with no roadmap available for us (another feature that has been "in review" or otherwise, for years), we can't see the future of this software, making it a risky purchase. Other software I'm testing is more actively developed at this point and already includes true cash balance forecasting. I'm finishing out my annual subscription hoping for some change in this, but not expecting to see it.
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I am curious about how this would work. Here's my main question:
My Planned Spending items use funds from different accounts (checking, various credit cards). On which account would the planned spending show up in the Projected Cash Flow? Would I have to designate the source for each item of planned spending?
DryHeat
-Quicken (1990-2020)
-Countabout (2021-2024)1 -
Each account has its own balance forecast. The appropriate way to implement this is as you said, add a drop down menu "source" for each spending item as its added. So the system knows where the planned spending item should be accounted for.
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When you refer to designating a "source" for each "spending item," I understand that to mean that each Expense added under Planned Spending (see image below) should be linked to a particular Account and not just to a category or categories. Let me know if that is not correct.
I use Planned Spending for fairly general categories of spending. Each specific transaction that falls into a Planned Spending Expense bucket may be paid out of a different account.
Using "Auto Expense" as a hypothetical example… auto insurance is paid directly out of my bank account while fuel usually goes on my Costco card and car washes or other service goes on a different card.
If I'm understanding correctly, I would need to separate Planned Spending amounts and create different Expense buckets according to my prediction of which payment method I will be using for that portion of the expense. I'm not sure that's workable for me.
DryHeat
-Quicken (1990-2020)
-Countabout (2021-2024)0 -
This is a fair point. I guess for the purposes of a software meant to support as many different financial scenarios as possible, its not as simple as doing a drop down menu. However, to make the software "simple" as Quicken's vision is for this software, having the planned spending categories be more straightforward with how they are assigned might be the only way to keep things streamlined. So keeping a single source per category. Starts getting too complex if they dive deeper in that.
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It comes down to this for me: a budget is different than a cash flow forecast. I can put in planned spending that i plan to spend $200 on gas this month, just to hold that money aside for the budget. I might not spend $200, i might spend less, i might spend more, budgetting is just to get an idea: is my spending and savings goals in reality reachable, or do i need to adjust it. That has nothing to do with how cash will actually flow, though. If I knew I was going to spend exactly $200 on gas, and wanted to hold it aside starting on a particular date, right now i could create a recurring (even one-time) transaction that deducts that money from the cash flow starting on that date, and if i don't match it to a transaction, I believe the date on that moves forward on the cash flow chart such that it keeps deducting that amount until it is matched. Budgets and cash flows are different beasts.
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Rob Wilkens0 -
@jflores11 "So keeping a single source per category."
I can see how that might work for people who have a more granular approach to Planned Spending. I tend toward just a few fairly large Planned Spending buckets myself, each concerning itself with a general area of spending that I have some control over. So it would be hard for me.
My view on this is probably colored by the fact that, like @RobWilk, I treat the Spending Plan more like a "spending control mechanism" to help me visualize whether I am slowly going up or going under in the long run — and to temper my behavior if going under is winning out. Conversely, I treat Cash Flow more like a "current resource monitor" to help me make sure that I have the needed funds on hand in the near term.
Those two separate viewpoints make me less interested in trying to make the two parts work together. But there are scores of comments in this community showing that many people see it the way you do.
DryHeat
-Quicken (1990-2020)
-Countabout (2021-2024)1
