Transaction Rules for automatically deleting transactions (edited)

RobWilk · March 16

I receive certain transactions that I do not want to track in Quicken for one reason or another, typically these are small regular transactions ($5-20) that I just don't want in the reports because i'm trying to get a bigger picture on spending.

If I could exclude them from reports and they would not appear in reports, then I wouldn't need this option, but for now, I would like to be able to create a rule that 'discards' or 'deletes' a transaction.

However, as-is, if i exclude them from reports they are still in the reports (they are not on the charts, but they are in the reports). Given that Quicken does not need transactions to get a balance, removing these transactions should not affect balances (except for pending ones maybe).

In essence, yes, I really want an exclude from reports option that excludes things from reports, but more basically deleting transactions by rules would accomplish the same thing.

DryHeat · March 17

@RobWilk

I doubt if Simplifi will add a "Delete" function to the rules. Too risky for most people.

But perhaps you could create a rule or rules to give these small transactions a special category, like "To Be Ignored." Then you could either exclude that category from your reports or, if you have to, use that category to do a periodic bulk deletion.

That said, I think deleting transactions that actually happened in the real world is a pretty drastic remedy. If you change your mind about it later it will be hard to recover from.

RobWilk · March 17

To be honest, I'd rather simplifi not keep all my transactions on their servers, especially now that they are or wlil be offering AI features which will review your transactions. I'm the kind of person who, if it were up to me, would delete all transactions older than 3 months old rather than keeping another potential attack vector for pii. I mostly use simplifi to forecast into the future (cash flow forecast), and to keep track of which bills need to get paid on payday, I almost never (ok, i never) search historical transactions, so I'd just as soon no one else have potential access to them.

RobWilk · March 17

In retrospect, on the business side, keeping track of transactions that I could write off on taxes "is" useful, but for my main transactions they're just not interesting.

DryHeat · March 17

@RobWilk

I'm the kind of person who, if it were up to me, would delete all transactions older than 3 months old

Given the way the Transaction Activity registers work, that would be very easy to do.

I look up historical transactions pretty frequently for one reason or another, so I wouldn't do that kind of deletion myself. But to each his own, as they say.

SRC54 · March 17

@RobWilk

You know my local bank sends through two stupid $0.00 transactions each month for "interest change". I always delete those.

DryHeat makes a good suggestion about creating a special category for transactions you want to ignore. Or even if you need one or two categories. I don't like the idea of deleting transactions that add or subtract to your balance.

You know even though Simplifi will ignore cleared transactions in connected accounts when computing the balance, I still do monthly computations to make sure that my transactions add up to the correct balance.

RobWilk · March 17

i hear you both.

Part of the issue in my case is i share my data with others from time to time, usually i just show the reports feature, or maybe spending plan, i suppose i could just not hide these transactions (they are never really unusual) but at least one of the people i share the reports with always comments on these transactions and i would like to bypass that. Sometimes, i just change the date (but note original date inside of it) and move it outside of that report window.

here is an example, lets say a few times a week i go to dunkin or starbucks, sometimes the charge is $5-10 for a single coffee, or if i use a digital gift card, it might reload $25. In some cases, i might get a lecture that this is wasting money with the keurig at home, but sometimes i need a better coffee and i just do not need the lecture. I am okay with the spending, it is within my budget. I understand a goal of mine is to pay off debt, but i am not missing payments, the balances are going down overall, but someone who think they have my best interest will still make me feel guilty for daily life expenses, small pleasures.

SRC54 · March 17

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/67271#Comment_67271

Ah, got you now. My wife doesn't like me to know all her little cash spending so she takes out a hundred or two hundred dollars a month that I just categorize as Spending Money. Besides it is a pain to categorize every small transaction.

So she has mad money to spend on odds and ends; sometimes buying a small gift, etc. Could you do something like this?

It would also make it easier for you to exclude "Spending Money" category from the reports you share if you want to avoid the question, "what was this for"?

Transaction Rules for automatically deleting transactions (edited)

Active · Last Updated March 16

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