A guide to setting up your Spending Plan
Think of the Spending Plan as your monthly financial control panel. It shows what’s coming in, what’s already committed, and what’s left. This lets you make smart, flexible choices about the rest. Unlike a traditional budget, the Spending Plan adjusts in real time as your financial life changes.
We’ll follow Ashley, a new user, as she walks through the setup.
1. Open the Spending Plan
When you open the Spending Plan for the first time, Simplifi walks you through a quick setup. This allows the app to build a plan based on what’s actually happening in your accounts. You won’t need to do any manual entry or math.
Ashley selects Spending Plan from the left-hand menu. A welcome screen appears, explaining that this plan will help her avoid overspending. She clicks Get Started to begin.
2. Learn how your plan is built
Before creating anything, Simplifi shows you how the Spending Plan works. This helps you understand what will be included and how the plan will be calculated.
Ashley sees that the plan is based on three main components:
Income, which is money she expects to receive
Bills & Subscriptions, which include fixed or recurring obligations
Other Spending, which covers everything else that isn’t already planned
A ring chart preview shows how these categories will be tracked. After reviewing the overview, Ashley clicks Let’s Go.
3. Let Simplifi build it for you
Now Simplifi gets to work. It reviews linked accounts and recent activity to automatically detect income, bills, and spending categories.
Ashley watches as Simplifi confirms the setup:
Income sources have been found
Bills and subscriptions are identified
Other spending is being prepared
The setup takes only a few seconds. After that, Ashley is taken directly to her personalized plan for the current month.
4. Review your financial snapshot
Now it’s time to see what’s already committed and what’s available to spend. This overview becomes the foundation for the rest of the plan.
Here’s Ashley’s initial breakdown:
Income: $7,000
Bills: $4,025
Subscriptions: $16.25
Savings Goals: $1,222.23
Income after bills & saving: $1,736.52
Simplifi subtracts fixed obligations first. What’s left is the amount you can safely spend.
Tip: What goes where?
Bills & Subscriptions include rent, insurance, utilities, or any other recurring charges
Planned Spending includes groceries, gas, or child care. These are flexible but expected
Other Spending includes parking, gifts, and one-time purchases. Anything not already planned ends up here
5. Set aside money for everyday spending
Once Ashley sees what’s left, she decides how much to budget for regular categories that are flexible but predictable.
Ashley selects Planned spending and adds:
Groceries: $250 with rollover enabled
Coffee: $25 for the month
These amounts are subtracted from the available balance, which now shows $1,451.52. The Spending Plan updates automatically to reflect these changes.
You don’t need to get everything perfect right away. You can adjust or remove planned expenses anytime.
6. Let Simplifi handle the rest
Not everything has to be planned ahead of time. Simplifi automatically adds any untracked transactions to the Other spending section.
In Ashley’s case, a $10 parking charge from July 1 appears here. It’s categorized as Auto & Transport, but since it wasn’t included in a planned expense, it shows up separately.
You don’t need to categorize these manually. Simplifi tracks them for you as you go.
7. Make changes as life changes
Your Spending Plan updates continuously, so it’s easy to keep it accurate. You can review it daily, weekly, or whenever something in your finances changes.
As July continues, Ashley might:
Add another planned expense like gas or child care
Adjust bill amounts or dates
Increase or pause savings goal contributions
Check the daily available amount, which is currently $46.82
The goal isn’t to be perfect. It’s to stay aware and flexible so you can make better choices.
Where Ashley stands now
By the end of setup, Ashley can see the full picture for the month:
Income after bills & saving: $1,736.52
Planned spending: –$275.00
Other spending: –$10.00
Available: $1,451.52
Daily budget: $46.82 per day
How it works:
Income minus bills, subscriptions, savings, and planned spending equals what’s safe to spend.
Final thoughts
The Spending Plan isn’t just a budget. It’s a live, personalized system that updates automatically to reflect your real financial life.
Start with just a few categories and build from there. Let Simplifi handle the math and make changes when you need to.