Overview
The Spending Plan is a real-time budget that starts with your income, subtracts your bills, savings, and spending, and shows exactly how much money you have left for the rest of the month.
Note: The Spending Plan also accounts for your monthly reminders for recurring bills or income.
If you see outstanding items in your Spending Plan, it means there are planned entries that haven’t yet been matched to actual transactions. This article explains what outstanding items are and how to resolve them to keep your Spending Plan accurate.
Why do Outstanding Items occur?
They usually appear when a planned entry doesn't line up with an actual transaction. These items remain “outstanding” because Quicken Simplifi is waiting for confirmation of whether the planned amount was fully spent, overspent, received, or should be removed from your Spending Plan.
For example:
You create a Planned Spend item for Groceries and budgeted $300.
The month ends, and you only spent $250 for groceries.
The remaining $50 becomes an outstanding item because Quicken Simplifi identifies budgeted funds that weren't fully used.
Think of outstanding items as Quicken Simplifi asking: "What should I do with this budgeted money that’s still unresolved?”.
How to Resolve Outstanding Items
Now the Spending Plan wants you to decide how the planned money should be handled. Depending on the situation, you can:
Release unspent funds.
Edit and adjust the planned amount.
Link the transaction to a Reminder.
Dismiss a Reminder.
Click the section below to expand it and view more information.
Unsure which approach to take to resolve an outstanding item?
Unsure which approach to take to resolve an outstanding item?
Let’s review a few common situations and the best way to handle each one.
Suppose you have a recurring electric bill of $100 and set up a monthly Reminder to track it in your Spending Plan. The month ends, and this bill appears as an outstanding item.
Situation | Approach to take |
If you planned to spend $100 but only needed $50, and you plan to use the remaining amount on other areas. | Release unspent funds ($50) |
If you originally planned $100 but later realized the bill was for $175, and you want to clear the ‘Overspent’ item. | Edit and adjust the planned amount ($175) |
If the $100 payment transaction was downloaded from your bank into Quicken Simplifi. | Link the transaction to a Reminder |
If the bill wasn't charged this month. | Dismiss the Reminder |
Below, you’ll find step-by-step instructions for each way of resolving outstanding items.
Release Unspent Funds
Release unspent funds when the original amount was correct, but you didn't use all of it. This allows you to allocate those unused funds to other areas of your Spending Plan.
Instructions for the Web app
Hover over the left panel and click Spending Plan.
Use the arrows at the top to navigate to the month with outstanding items to resolve.
Select Planned Spend.
Locate the expense that has funds to release and click the three-dot menu in the upper right of it.
Select Release unspent funds.
Note: If the Rollover feature is enabled, you won't be able to release funds from a Planned Spend item.
Edit and Adjust the Planned Amount
Adjust the planned amount when the original amount is inaccurate or no longer reflects what you expected to spend. This allows you to clear overspent items.
Hover over the left panel and click Spending Plan.
Use the arrows at the top to navigate to the month with overspent items to resolve.
Select Planned Spend.
Locate the overspent item and click the three-dot menu in the upper right of it.
Click Edit this month’s expense.
Adjust the target amount for that month.
Click Update to save the changes.
Link Transaction to a Reminder
If the bill or income transaction has already been downloaded into Quicken Simplifi but the Reminder still appears as an outstanding Item, you can resolve it by linking the transaction to the Reminder. Linking tells Quicken Simplifi that the transaction and the Reminder represent the same activity, allowing the Reminder to be marked as accounted for in your Spending Plan.
Hover over the left panel and click Spending Plan.
Use the arrows at the top to navigate to the month with outstanding items to resolve.
Select the Income or the Bills section, as applicable.
Locate the recurring bill/income reminder and click the three-dot menu on its far right.
Click Link to transaction.
Select the downloaded transaction, and then click Link.
Dismiss a Reminder
If a recurring bill or income did not occur during the month, you can resolve the Outstanding Item by dismissing the Reminder. Dismissing a Reminder tells Quicken Simplifi that the expected bill or income should not be included in the current month's Spending Plan.
Hover over the left panel and click Spending Plan.
Use the arrows at the top to navigate to the month with outstanding items to resolve.
Select the Income or the Bills section, as applicable.
Locate the item and click the three-dot menu on its far right.
Click Edit reminder, and then click Dismiss reminder.
Click Dismiss Reminder to confirm.
To learn more about recurring transaction series or bills and income reminders, please refer to our article on Link Transactions to Reminders.
Instructions for the Mobile app
Release Unspent Funds
Tap the Menu (three-line icon).
Tap Spending Plan.
Use the arrows at the top to navigate to the month with outstanding items to resolve.
Tap Planned Spend.
Locate the item with funds to release, then tap the three-dot menu at the upper right of it.
Tap Release unspent funds.
Edit and Adjust the Planned Amount
Tap the Menu (three-line icon).
Tap Spending Plan.
Use the arrows at the top to navigate to the month with outstanding items to resolve.
Tap Planned Spend.
Locate the overspent item, then tap the three-dot menu at the upper right of it.
Select Edit this month’s expense.
Adjust the target amount for this month.
Tap Update.
Link Transaction to a Reminder
Tap the Menu (three-line icon).
Tap Spending Plan.
Use the arrows at the top to navigate to the month with outstanding items to resolve.
Select the Income or the Bills section, as applicable.
Locate the item and tap on it.
Tap Link to Transaction, then select the downloaded transaction.
Tap Apply.
Dismiss a Reminder
Tap the Menu (three-line icon).
Tap Spending Plan.
Use the arrows at the top to navigate to the month with outstanding items to resolve.
Select the Income or the Bills section, as applicable.
Locate the item and tap on it.
Tap Link to Transaction, then select the downloaded transaction.
Tap Apply.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make changes to my transactions while reviewing the Spending Plan?
Can I make changes to my transactions while reviewing the Spending Plan?
Yes, you can edit transactions within your Spending Plan. Within the Income and Bills tabs, you will see recurring reminders, as well as additional income transactions. To edit a reminder or transaction here, click the three-dot menu on the right, then select Edit Transaction or Edit Reminder to make your changes.
In the Planned Spend and Other Spend tabs, you can edit transactions just as you would in your regular account, including bulk edits.
Can Quicken Simplifi automatically release unspent funds?
Can Quicken Simplifi automatically release unspent funds?
Yes! If you want Quicken Simplifi to automatically release unspent funds on the last day of each month, follow these steps:
Hover over the left panel and click Spending Plan.
Select Planned Spend.
Click the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner.
Select Turn on auto-release.
Click Confirm.
To learn more about using the Spending Plan, please refer to our article on Understanding Your Spending Plan.
If you need any assistance resolving outstanding items in the Spending Plan, please don't hesitate to contact our support team!