Rolling budget - feature suggestion

I would like to be able to save up for shopping.
But shopping is not one specific item for me usually, more of a continuous and uneven stream of stuff I “need” to buy. So what I need instead of a fixed sum goal is to rather spread out my shopping so that the monthly (or weekly or whatever) average is the one that stays below a certain limit.
Meaning that if in one month I spend below the set limit, I should be able to use whatever I didn’t spend (“saved”) in subsequent months. Conversely, if I overspend one month, I’d like the budget to be reduced in subsequent months, curtailing my excessive shopping behaviour.
This would be a healthy incentive I believe. Rigid budgets that get reset every month become easy to ignore over time. But knowing that they accrue, as a reward for my prudent and thrifty behaviour helps me wait a bit. Waiting a bit is the best antidote for impulse buying. Furthermore, once I develop the habit of sticking to this new carry over budget, I will have a piece of mind knowing, that the average is protected and I will worry less about buying stuff.
I imagine whenever I set up a budget on a category, I’d like the option to make it either rolling or non-rolling. When I modify the budget, I’d like the option to keep or wipe the balance.
I would buy the Plus subscription for such a feature.

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Thanks @gabor.biro - I’ve shared your feedback with our team.

We’ve had other people mention they would find annual or rolling budgets helpful, so it’s certainly something we will think about in future as we plan out further enhancements.

Paul

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@paul_k any update on this feature? I am currently testing out a number of budgeting apps and this is a requirement for me. It’s the only thing I want that Snoop doesn’t yet do :frowning:

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Hi @sphinx - sorry this isn’t something we are working on right now and therefore won’t be something that gets introduced in the near future.

Certainly it’s on our longer list of features for the future but I can’t give any timeline on that I’m afraid.

Paul

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This feature is the biggest thing missing for me. I would certainly pay for premium if this feature was included. At present I have a lot of predictable costs that happen annually (insurances or vehicle servicing for example) and there’s no way to accrue for this in Snoop, presently I either have to exclude them from being analysed or just accept than on those months my budget will be exceeded. Please think about working on this feature, I think many people would find it very useful!

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Hi @Padowan,

Thank you for sharing your personal experience and feedback on the rolling budget feature request. Currently, we do not have a timeframe for this, but I have shared your feedback directly with our development team.

All the best,
Sarah

I’ve recently found the rolling budget feature in the Emma app. It’s only in their pay for version so I’ll be keeping an eye on that when my subscription with snoop is up.later this year.

Either a rolling budget or annual budget feature would be the biggest benefit for me in any app. Neither of which seems to be a focus for snoop to develop.

Is there a way for us users to see what snoop is focusing on? This might be the best way for me to make an informed decision come renewal time.

Many thanks!

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Hi @Kc4tea,

We don’t publish a roadmap specifically, but we do let our customers know regularly when new features are on the way. So as soon as new features are coming we will always make you aware via email. For example we recently emailed everyone about our big new feature that will be launched soon - tracking your credit score in Snoop’.

Please note all feedback/suggestions shared on the forum or with the customer support agents are passed onto the development team. We greatly appreciate all feedback and try to include as many customers suggestions to the app as we can.

All the best,
Sarah

Not being able to roll a budget over is such a fundamental feature, I’d argue that it’s NOT budgeting without it.
Providing this would also be an (almost) unique selling point, as all bar one of the other apps I tried before Snoop couldn’t do it either. And the one that could was horrifically over complicated.
I’ll be checking out Emma, however.

But seriously, whatever else your developers are working on can’t possibly be more vital than such a fundamental capability.

My guess is that:

  • either nobody has seriously considered the implications of just adding last month’s +/- total to the new month.
  • or they have, and it’s actually more complex than a lay person might imagine.
    (I’m an IT consultant, so I know how seemingly simple requirements can become super complex.)

The fact that almost none of these apps offer this suggests the latter.

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Now we can download data, i am finding budgeting much easier.

Once in excel I have all by future spending allowances set for the next 12 months. Then easier to see how much is left. To be able to set lump sum future spend in the APP woupd be good. An example is I have a final payment on a new bed to pay. Its not due for 3 months, but dont need to be told I am overspending on my budget, when it is budgeted for.

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Hi,

I wanted to add weight to the request to have the previous periods deficit/surplus to then be added to the next period.

I agree this a must to allow for accurate budget planning. I know not everyone may want this so I can see the need to have it selectable.

I also wanted to add a request around future budgeting. The app would benefit from a forecast facility where you could manually add known bills which are due in the current or future periods.

I like the look ahead feature, but this doesn’t fully provide the whole financial picture as you can not add upcoming commitments manually. This request is a must I believe.

I would also like to the ability to add the credit card ballance as a commitment which then would allow for a more accurate budget forecast the next period. I realise this is a bigger piece of Dev, and not everyone would clear all the current spend, so the ability to show all the previous CC spend as a liability with the option to clear all or some of the balance which would come from the balance of a current account, is a huge benefit for the app.

Thanks Andy

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Hi,

I wanted to add weight to the request to have the previous periods deficit/surplus to then be added to the next period.

I agree this a must to allow for accurate budget planning. I know not everyone may want this so I can see the need to have it selectable.

I also wanted to add a request around future budgeting. The app would benefit from a forecast facility where you could manually add known bills which are due in the current or future periods.

I like the look ahead feature, but this doesn’t fully provide the whole financial picture as you can not add upcoming commitments manually. This request is a must I believe.

I would also like to the ability to add the credit card ballance as a commitment which then would allow for a more accurate budget forecast the next period. I realise this is a bigger piece of Dev, and not everyone would clear all the current spend, so the ability to show all the previous CC spend as a liability with the option to clear all or some of the balance which would come from the balance of a current account, is a huge benefit for the app.

Thanks Andy

2 Likes

Hi @Quiddity. Thank you so much for your feedback on wanting to be able to roll over budgets. I have shared this with the team with the points you have raised.

All the best,
Keren

Hello @Mike1! Thanks so much for the feedback on one sum future spends. I have popped this over to our development team for you. I am glad that now you are able to download your data you are finding budgeting much easier.

All the best,
Keren

Hi @AndyMac! Thank you so much for the feedback on these topics, we really appreciate it and it allows us to see where the demand is for certain featured. I have passed this along to our development team.

All the best,
Keren

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But if budgets for custom period could be set in app… Boom?

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Any update on rolling budgets? Is it being worked on?

No update to share yet I’m afraid @Kieran

Paul

Hi Paul. I’m adding to the pleas above. I regularly monitor budgets as part of my day to day work. My accountancy software generates a ‘progress against budget’ report. Basically a cumulative total of actual spend vs budgeted spend for a) the month in question and b) the period since the start of the financial year.
The same report shows the total annual budget for each category for reference.
A report like this in Snoop would make it truly useful in being able to effectively manage expenditure to stay on budget. The only way I can do this currently is to export / extract the monthly figures to excel and aggregate the data there. Be really great to keep it all under one-roof within the app.

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@gabor.biro Very nicely described. I hadn’t thought of this approach before. I definitely support this.
I had only considered managing this type of problem using annual budgets and savings pots; neither of which are features of Snoop quite yet.
Still… Snoop is a pretty awesome app that, after time spent setting it up properly, has helped me coral my finances.

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