Overview
With Quicken Simplifi’s Spending Plan, you can track and manage your spending in real time and see exactly how much you have left to spend.
You can access your Spending Plan by hovering over the left panel and clicking Spending Plan.
Things to note:
Deleting a recurring item from the Spending Plan will permanently remove it from Quicken Simplifi.
The Spending Plan starts in the same month your Quicken Simplifi subscription begins and does not apply retroactively.
Your Spending Plan avoids double-counting by placing transactions linked to recurring reminders in the Bills section instead of Planned Spending, even if they use the same category.
For more information on how Quicken Simplifi handles Planned Spend versus Recurring Expenses, click here.
How does it work?
The Spending Plan is a simple budget that accounts for your monthly bills, income, Savings Goal contributions, and other planned expenses, while also tracking additional spending throughout the month.
Note: The Spending Plan focuses on the current month’s transactions and does not include existing account balances.
The Spending Plan divides your monthly spending budget into six parts:
Income: Shows your total expected income for the month based on your recurring income series.
By default, non-recurring income is excluded from the Spending Plan. To include non-recurring income, follow these steps:
Navigate to the Income section of the Spending Plan.
Locate the Excluded This Month section and click the three-dot menu next to it.
In the menu, click Spending Plan (under Exclude From).
The income will now appear in the Included This Month section.
Bills: Displays the total amount for all recurring bill and subscription transactions.
Planned Spend: Covers variable expenses such as gas, groceries, and one-time monthly costs.
Other Spend: Shows the real-time total of your remaining monthly expenses, updated with each financial activity in Quicken Simplifi.
Goals: Displays any Savings Goals included in your Spending Plan.
Left This Month: Shows how much you have left to spend after subtracting your planned spend items, bills, and other expenses.
Note: Each section, except Left This Month, can be expanded to view the included transactions and easily edit any that appear in your Spending Plan.
Income
View all sources of income set as Recurring Income, such as paychecks, along with any additional deposits throughout the month.
You can adjust the income amount by clicking the three-dot icon in the top-right corner and selecting Set Custom Amount.
You can edit a recurring income series directly from your Spending Plan by following these steps:
Click the three-dot icon next to the transaction reminder amount.
Click View Series.
Select Options.
Select Edit Series.
For more information on managing your recurring transactions, click here.
To edit or delete a transaction in a group, click the three-dot menu next to the transaction amount and select the desired option.
Bills
See the total for your recurring monthly bills and subscriptions, such as rent, utilities, memberships, and streaming services.
Credit card payments and transfers are listed in the Excluded This Month section by default. Click here to learn how to add them to your Spending Plan.
You can change the amount for a specific group by clicking the three-dot icon in the top-right corner and selecting Set Custom Amount.
To edit, delete, or link a recurring transaction to another transaction, click the three-dot icon next to the transaction amount and select the appropriate option.
You can edit a recurring expense transaction series within your Spending Plan. You can do this by:
Click the three-dot icon next to the transaction reminder amount.
Click View Series.
Select Options.
Select Edit Series.
To add a new recurring bill reminder, open the Bills section in the Spending Plan and select + Bills on the right side of the screen.
Planned Spend
The Planned Spend section lets you budget for variable monthly expenses, such as gas and groceries, as well as one-time expenses you expect during the month, like birthdays or special events.
Note: Each top-level category can only be added once to the Planned Spending section. If a category or subcategory is already part of a used top-level category, it won’t be available to select again for monthly or one-time planned expenses.
Once you’re done spending in a category for the month, you can return any remaining funds to your available balance by clicking the three-dot menu next to the expense and selecting Release Unspent Funds.
You can also enable Auto-Release from the top three-dot menu in Planned Spending. This automatically returns unused funds from all Planned Spending categories—except those with rollover enabled—on the last day of each month.
For more information on Planned Spend Expenses versus Recurring Expenses, click here.
Other Spend
You can review and manage your remaining spending for the current month in the Other Spending section. This section shows your monthly spending totals for each category.
You can drag and rearrange category bubbles, then click any bubble to expand it and view all transactions in that category.
Note: The Other Spend bubbles show only the top spending categories for the month. Any additional items will appear under the Other bubble.
Goals
This section displays the Savings Goals included in your Spending Plan.
You can create a new Savings Goal by clicking the +Goal button in the upper-right.
For more information on how Savings Goals work with your Spending Plan, click here.
Left This Month
The amount shown under Available at the bottom left of the Spending Plan is the total amount you have left to spend for the month. It also includes a daily average and real-time updates.
Projected Spend
Quicken Simplifi allows you to manage your Spending Plan up to 12 months in advance, including recurring income, bills, subscriptions, transfers, savings goals, and planned spending, with the option to add new items as needed.
When projecting Other Spend for future months, you can choose from three options: Don’t Project, Use a Custom Amount, or Use My Average Spending from the Last ‘X’ Completed Months.
If you choose to use your average spending, you can decide how many previous months Quicken Simplifi should look at—up to 12 months—and add extra room to your budget if needed.
Note: New users may not have enough past data for Quicken Simplifi to create accurate future projections and may need to use the app for a few months first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Learn the answers to frequently asked questions for this topic!
Why am I not seeing a transaction in Planned Spend?
Why am I not seeing a transaction in Planned Spend?
If a transaction is missing from Planned Spend, check whether it’s linked to a recurring reminder.
To avoid double-counting, Quicken Simplifi places transactions linked to recurring reminders in the Bills or Income sections rather than counting them in Planned Spend under the same category. Learn more here.
Can I customize columns in my Spending Plan transaction activity?
Can I customize columns in my Spending Plan transaction activity?
Yes, you can customize the columns in the Transaction Activity register of the Spending Plan, but only in the web version. You can change the order and width of most columns by clicking and dragging their borders. However, the “Reviewed” column cannot be modified at this time.
How do I exclude transactions from the Spending Plan?
How do I exclude transactions from the Spending Plan?
Excluding transactions from the Spending Plan is simple. You can do it directly or from any screen that shows transactions. Quicken Simplifi also automatically detects and excludes transfers, helping you save time. Learn more here.
How do I exclude an account from the Spending Plan?
How do I exclude an account from the Spending Plan?
You can quickly exclude a whole account from the Spending Plan, and all transactions in that account will be excluded as a result. You can find more details here.
Why do I see excluded transactions in the Spending Plan?
Why do I see excluded transactions in the Spending Plan?
Excluded transactions are not included in Spending Plan calculations, but they will still appear in the transaction activity. Quicken Simplifi marks these transactions with the Excluded icon (a gray eyeball with a line through it) next to the amount, making it easy to include or exclude them as needed.
Why are some of my Recurring Transactions grayed out?
Why are some of my Recurring Transactions grayed out?
If recurring bill, subscription, transfer, or income transactions appear grayed out in the Spending Plan, it means they are excluded from the Spending Plan calculations.
For example, if you exclude a recurring credit card payment from the Spending Plan, it will still appear on the list but be grayed out to indicate it isn’t included in the calculations.
How are credit card payments and transfers handled in the Spending Plan?
How are credit card payments and transfers handled in the Spending Plan?
Because credit card payments and transfers move money between accounts rather than count as income or expenses, Quicken Simplifi excludes them from the Spending Plan by default. However, you can still include them in your Spending Plan by following the steps here.
How are Savings Goal Contributions and Withdrawals handled in the Spending Plan?
How are Savings Goal Contributions and Withdrawals handled in the Spending Plan?
When you include a Savings Goal in the Spending Plan, Quicken Simplifi automatically uses the goal’s monthly contribution amount. If you contribute more than the monthly amount, the extra contribution will also be included in the plan.
Withdrawals used for the Savings Goal won’t affect the Spending Plan because those funds were already set aside. However, withdrawals made for another purpose will reduce the plan's goal amount, up to the standard monthly contribution amount. Learn more here.
If Early Access is enabled on your account, you can also contribute to Savings Goals in previous closed months.
How do I link or delete 'past' scheduled payments in the Spending Plan?
How do I link or delete 'past' scheduled payments in the Spending Plan?
When resolving outstanding items in the Spending Plan, you may be asked to link or delete past scheduled payments.
This happens when a recurring reminder was not connected to a transaction for that month, so it appears as overdue in the Spending Plan. See this Support Article for more details.
How do I release unused Planned Spend funds?
How do I release unused Planned Spend funds?
When resolving outstanding items in the Spending Plan, you may need to release unused Planned Spending funds. This means there is leftover money in a Planned Spending category that can be returned to your available funds for the month. See this Support Article for the steps.
To learn about using the Spending Plan on the Quicken Simplifi Mobile App, please click here.
If you have any questions about Quicken Simplifi, our support team is here to help.