Ability to add Planned Spending Items to our Projected Cash Flow [edited] (4 Merged Votes)

I agree with several others in that I don't want to budget by account or specifically have to designate a specific account for planned spending. My planned spending items often come from multiple accounts in a random combination (typically from my primary checking account and a credit card that is paid in full every month). I do see value in incorporating planned spending into the overall cash flow though in some way though, as the cash flow is overstated and isn't very useful beyond the current month or so without planned spending incorporated. I do think that "real" spending (reminders/recurring items) should be separate from planned/flexible spending so like the idea I've seen in the past with having two separate cash flow lines. One other thing I would like to be able to do when making large budget decisions is to be able to make "what-if" adjustments to my budget. In my prior system, I could change recurring series starting on any specific future recurrence and then had placeholders for the planned spending so I could see the impact to cash flow with different options. This could be used for budgeting when adding a car or loan payment, income changes, etc.

I agree that everyone needs to plan spending and that the plan should appear in cashflow.

When I began to use simplifi, my experience with planned spending was negative. It didn't cashflow and the history didn't work if I rearranged my categories. When used in cumulative mode it showed deficits per category that meant nothing to me. It is really a reporting function.

I do plan spending. I do it in a way that allocates cash to an account that I can create categorized reminders and use cashflow for. Plans that aren't funded? That doesn't work.

This "escrow" account is for any expense that is not monthly. It is another money market fund inside my cash management account at my brokerage.

My local bank is only a cash terminal. I flow money through it for the sole purpose of analyzing cash flow to remain solvent for current and subsequent months. It tells me if my current income is sufficient or if I will need to use savings.

My cash management account gives me money market rates, constant $1 share price and no penalty terms for using the money. And it only takes a day or two to push the money local.

It even has a debit card (that reimburses fees at Star or Visa terminals) and it has an ACH routing number with an ACH account number.

I push money local once per month because I don't care when my credit card transactions post. I don't flow my cc transactions, just the monthly payment in each account. One due date per cycle, that all that matters to me. My monthly cash transactions are regular and well known.

The monthly "WAG" (based upon actuals as reported over the past year) I set as a reminder for credit card bills is only for my local checking account. I delete the current reminder when I fill in the last statement balances for the reminders that actually transfer to the individual credit cards. I preserve the cashflow integrity of this one local checking account. So this strategy doesn't dictate which card or billing cycle that I choose that month. And I can bypass all the local bank transactions and use the cash management account directly if I choose to.

simplifi knows nothing of my assets or net worth. It is just a tool to that helps me remain solvent. My cash management account balances are manual accounts in simplifi.

My brokerage has functionality to plug in assets and liabilities to calculate net worth.

My top level categories are credit card rewards, summary income, monthly credit, monthly cash, escrow and not regular.

@DryHeat

Your last post made me realize that I may not be thinking about planned spending correctly. I had been thinking of assessing planned spending only as a means of determining how much money I would have if the budget thresholds were successfully maintained.

I think it would take some kind of virtual "payables" account to achieve the requested functionality. Obviously the program knows how to report planned spending across accounts, so that "view" capability is in place (like the "all accounts" transactions view except constrained to the categories in the plan by period). It must use some such criteria to produce the planned spending analysis.

The program would need to generate a forecast and make assumptions about the number of periods to spread future forecast expenses over, but I don't see the forecast needing to know which accounts to use. History will always provide that information from actual transactions. And the planned spending functionality is per category not per account.

This generated forecast would need to be added to this history "view".

Also on the Bills & Income Cashflow page this "payables" account would need to appear.

That and a way to select it and the accounts paying the forecast deficit or receiving the forecast surplus.

Graphing the aggregate of those selected accounts would be the final step.

Would something like that satisfy the request?

I see the current planned spending functionality as a reporting feature that measures success against a budget threshold value that is maintained separately from cashflow reminders. As such it doesn't fit the cashflow per account architecture that uses actuals and reminders.

But I think that generating forecast data for the current cashflow architecture to use could work.

Also, I think I'm done thinking about this … 8>)

And I've found lately that the Cash Flow projection portion has been much more valuable than the Spending Plan! But it seems to vary over time for me. It just underscores what you said that people handle their finances in different ways.