Has anyone used PRC for detailed (monthly) cash flow planning? I'm managing my elderly mother's finances, as well as ours in retirement. Both situations have some regular monthly income plus withdrawals and expenses are reasonably consistent or can be planned. I haven't found a decent tool - quicken is not detailed enough, nor do any of the other products (Mint, Personal Capital, etc.) Seems so redundant to use a spreadsheet when I have all the transactions in Quicken.
I've looked at and used a bunch of them. I'm a long-time Quicken user and primarily budget there because it has all my history and I'm familiar with it. But I've had my clients try YNAB (which has a cult-like following and is pretty good), and Every Dollar (14-day trial but you can just use the free version after that if you want to keep receipts and just enter your own transactions rather than connect it to your bank).
I'm a fan of focusing on one month at a time, for ease and simplicity, and putting as much on auto-pilot as possible (bill payments, etc). Set up automatic sinking funds. For example, we pay our own property taxes since we don't have a mortgage. The annual total is $5,736 but it's awkward because they're only due in four payments in Sept, Nov, Jan, March. That is an irregular and large budget item, which I don't like. So I divide that by 12 and have an automated transfer of $478 a month to our "Taxes" bucket at our Ally savings account. Then an automated transfer back to checking at the start of Sept, Nov, Jan, March and an automatic bill pay to pay it when due.
This way, our budget is the same every month. We do the same for annual vacation expenses, holidays, "next" car, etc. Also, to avoid timing issues (bills come due early in the month, don't get paid until later in the month) ask to have your payment dates moved toward the end of the month. For inflexible ones like rent/mortgage, just start paying a week earlier instead of the first of every month.
Bill
(Zombie thread alert) New to Pralana Online and surprised to not see the word "budget" in the help system. OK, I see "Expenses, Miscellaneous Expenses" where I can plug in a number that encompasses everything. And I see I can do expenses for major assets and I do have spreadsheets that model these with some fidelity. But I have to say I am a little chagrined that we (married 20 years, both in our 60s) have never had a budget. We use "joint checking account" as kind of a stormwater retention pond for money - everything flows through that. In the old days I used MS Money, I do have Quicken (and used that for small business expense tracking previously), and I have to start doing that again for a STR side-hustle I started this year - but I am curious if anyone has suggestions on how to "wire up" Quicken (15 accounts), Empower, (47 accounts tracked there), and Pralana into one semi-comprehensive system.
Thoughts?
