Entering Future transactions when paying bills
New to Simplifi, but not to Quicken.
Currently while paying my bills I have run into an annoying behavior. I go to pay a credit card bill that is due in 5 days. I schedule the payment for the due date on teh Credit Card website. I should note that in Simplifi I have a recurring reminder for this credit card linked to the bank so the due date and balance are updated. I try to manually enter this transaction with the correct date that it should impact my bank account and record a confirmation number.
This does not show as a pending transaction in my transaction activity and does not impact on the available bank balance, which I have set to include pending transactions. Instead it shows as an unlinked NEW reminder. There are several issues I have with this.
1) I cannot easlily see the remaining balance I have available to pay other bills. The projected balance is good for a macro view, but not sufficient for my needs.
2) This does not automatically link to the reminder even though it would meet the criteria if it was downloaded from the bank. I have to manually link this to the reminder which is tedious and unnecessary.
3) there should be a way to Create the transaction from the Reminder. This will save having to input the payee and amount at least. Possibly the date too.
What I would like to see is that the transaction history show this transaction with a future date and as pending. This way I not only have a clear view of the transactions pending, I also get a balance I can use to determine what else I can pay at this time.
Comments
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I would say that many here feel your pain. Simplifi's main focus is in downloading transactions and matching them so that users don't have to do much. They don't really take into account people like us who are more proactive.
For what it's worth this is what I do. When I schedule a payment, I go to the reminder and update that instance to the date that it will likely happen in my bank. Usually that is the next day, so it moves the reminder for that month up. It also avoids my having to create a transaction, link it to a reminder, and possibly having to dismiss the reminder coming up if it is so far out that Simplifi doesn't recognize it as the same payment.
My method works well if your bank downloads pending. Not so well with those that don't, so sometimes I do end up creating a transaction and linking it.
It would be easier if I could just turn the reminder into a transaction and give it the date it will happen. I think this would also suit your needs.
Take a look at this feature request, and please vote for it.
Steve
Quicken Simplifi (Safari & iOS) Since 2021
Quicken Classic (MacOS) Since 2009
MS Money (1991-2009) and Dollars & Sense (1987-1991)0 -
I agree with what's written above.
But here's a suggestion: If you want to consider the amount as subtracted from your available balance right now, you could create a pending transaction with today's date. Once the transaction actually hits it should merge with the manual one you created and update to the date it actually occurred.
I don't bother with this usually since I usually check the upcoming cash flow for the next few days on a regular basis, so I'll make sure that any dips aren't dipping too far :). Also since most of the bills that are paid from my checking account are recurring so they're already accounted for in the projection. If I know I have a big expense coming up and I want to make sure I can cover it, I'll create a pending transaction for it on the future date when it should occur. Then the real transaction will merge automatically, and if not, I'll delete the pending one or merge them manually.
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I guess I will have to work off the projected balance chart to see "what I can pay". This leaves me wondering if all this does is show me what my bank's website would show me is it really worth it. I am not expecting this to replicate every feature and behavior of Quick Desktop, which I have used for over 20 years. There is also alot I like about Simplifi. However at the end of the day I want to know my financial status at any given point in time and this would include transactions I have made that have not hit my bank yet.
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It doesn't only show you what's on your bank website if you use scheduled/recurring transactions. I've got recurring reminders set up for my income and all regular expenses that come out of my checking account, including credit card payments. It's very useful to see what my balance should look like over the next few weeks.
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