Average and total when viewing a series shouldn't include current month
Hi
When I click the "View Series" button, it appears the 6-month average and total include the current month, as well as the expected amount if no transactions have been assigned to the series in the current month.
For example, I was viewing my electric-bill series before the bill for the current month came in. It showed an average of $280 and total of $1,682, and I could see the current month in the bar plot. Then I edited the series to increase the monthly expected bill which caused the average to change to $301 and the total to $1,807.
I expect those statistics to be based on only historical transactions that have actually occurred. I don't see the utility in having the average and total be a mixture of historical amounts and the expected amounts for the current month. Showing the statistics for the last 6 months, not including the current month, would give a summary of how things went in the past so I can decide whether/how to change my behavior going forward.
To be clear, I really like the feature, so I don't have to manually configure a report to see a quick summary of the series. I just think the calculation needs to be tweaked to provide the information I'd expect most people want in this situation.
Note that this change also wouldn't prevent me from being able to get this information. I could configure a report to show the average and/or total up to even the current day, and I could even incorporate expected amounts by adding to the total from the report and dividing by the appropriate number of months.
Happy to discuss.
Comments
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Hello @strwrsdbz,
Thank you for coming to the Community to share your feedback! Since it sounds like you're wanting to see a change to the way Quicken Simplifi currently works, I recommend creating an Idea post to request this change. Ideas that get enough votes may be implemented in the future! For information about creating an Idea post, click here.
There is one existing idea that is somewhat similar to what you're asking for, but it's referring exclusively to variable bills. You may want to take a look, and add your vote + a comment if it's something you'd like to see implemented:
I hope this helps!
-Coach Kristina
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Hi Kristina
Sorry if I posted in the wrong category. While I am asking for a change, it's to an existing feature that I believe is not implemented correctly. But maybe I'm missing something obvious. Can you help me understand how the current calculation is useful?
If the correct avenue is to create an Idea post, I can do that.
Also, the other post is not very relevant. While they're asking for the same calculation I am, they want it used for the next expected bill amount instead of having to manually enter a value. Here, I'm asking for the quick-look statistics and bar plot to not include future expected payments when you view a series.
Thanks
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Hello @strwrsdbz,
Thanks for the reply. We are not aware of design intentions here in the community specifically, but if you would like to request a change to the current design, an Idea post would definitely be the way to go, as they are reviewed by our product team, and other users could also contribute their own thoughts and feedback as well.
-Coach Jon
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The problem of the current (partial) month being included in calculations shows up in various parts of Simplifi.
Users have requested a change in the "Last 6 Months" calculation in Spending Plan and in the 3-month average in Watchlists.
I haven't seen a post about the average in "View Series" so it would be a good idea to create one.
FWIW, I think the inclusion of a partial month is very misleading when calculating averages. I can't imagine why it would be done that way.
DryHeat
-Quicken Classic (1990-2020), CountAbout (2021-2024), Simplifi (2025-…)0
