Closing a goal?

#1

Hi there,

I’ve achieved a goal that I had set and the event has passed. I’d like to remove it from my ‘Goals’ to clean things up. How do I do that, without affected the transactional history and total amounts?

What’s the use of the ‘Due date’ of the goal when it doesn’t go away once the date has passed?

#2

You can delete that envelope. All the transactions will still be there, they will just show up as DELETED when you run a search or report.

I believe the due date is there just to keep the end goal in the forefront. Someone may be not want it automatically removed, for whatever reason, once the due date has arrived.

Others here on this forum may have a better answer than I do.

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#3

thanks for that - yeah I deleted that envelope, the transactions are still there but the money all went back to ‘Unallocated’! So the total balance from the various accounts were messed up and I had to readjust the amounts again as if I never had the envelope in the first place, which was frustrating. So, I was wondering if setting a ‘Goal’ would be useful in the first place if I like to ‘clear’ the goals once achieved.

#4

The idea of a goal envelope seems to be based more on saving up for something in a finite timeframe, rather than just saving at a certain rate. When you deleted the envelope, you “told” Goodbudget that you weren’t saving that money anymore so it assumed you had it available to spend now (thus the transfer to Unallocated). If for example your goal was to build up a $5,000 safety net, you’ll still need an envelope to allocate it to—maybe a Savings or Rainy Day Fund. If you haven’t spent them, the dollars still need a “job” so they need to be allocated somewhere.
Hope that helps!

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#5

I see, thanks Tiffany for explaining that.

Yes, I did set up a ‘Goal’ for something (a large present) for which I had achieved, and bought the present. So, now that the event is over, the ‘goal’ is still there on my list, even when the due date had passed.

I like to keep my accounting clean so I was hoping that that ‘goal’, once achieved, would disappear from my list (if not, this list of past goals will just keep growing forever!).

How can I make it disappear from my list, but still keep the transactions and all still recorded?

#6

Since you’ve already bought the present, just change that transaction so it comes from the Goal envelope instead of whichever envelope you charged it to. That will reduce the balance of the goal envelope by the cost of the gift. (If you pulled it from another envelope, you essentially budgeted for it twice!) You could also do an Envelope Transfer to replace the money in whichever envelope you did use, by refilling it from the money you set aside in the Goal. And if you never recorded the purchase of the gift at all, just do a transaction from the goal envelope and Voila! Problem solved.
I hope that makes sense. It doesn’t sound as clear as I’d like it to but maybe you get the gist?

#7

I did make the transaction from the Goal envelope - so the goal is now back down to zero. But the Goal is still there. Why?

(Sorry if I’ve been quite troublesome with my questions! Thanks for your patience thus far!)

#8

Sorry, just to clarify because I’m a little confused here; if you’ve deleted the Envelope, what are you referring to when you say the “Goal is still there”?

#9

Hey Alex,

Ah I tried two things:

  1. I achieved the goal (‘Filled’) and then I spent it all on the event (went back down to zero) on a transaction. The due date has also passed - but the ‘Goal’ is still visible/there on my list of envelopes.

  2. So then I deleted the Goal envelope altogether - Goal is no longer there. BUT, the transaction is also cancelled and the money went back to ‘Unallocated’ as if the event never happened.

My question was basically how to remove that completed-goal envelope out of my list. Like, to check off something and clear it from a to-do list, if you know what I mean?

#10

I tried to replicate your experience but mine acted as I, and apparently you, would have expected. I took these steps:

  1. I created a “Goal” envelope with a goal of $10, due today
  2. I filled the envelope with $10, giving me the “Hooray, you did it!” message
  3. I spent the money, from my real “cash” account and charged to my “Goal” envelope. This did not change the Unallocated balance (because that money was already accounted for) but it did take the envelope balance back down to $0
  4. I deleted the now-empty envelope. My Unallocated balance did not change, and both the fill (to a now-deleted envelope) and the transaction where I spent the money remained in my “view all” transaction list.
    It sounds like this is what you want it to do, and it seems like that’s how it’s designed. At this point I hope that @Alex and the team can take a look at your specific account on the back end to see if there’s a simple oversight or indeed a glitch in your account.
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#11

Oh I see! So that’s how it’s supposed to look like!

Thanks for the clarification, Tiffany!

#12

What Tiffany’s saying above is indeed how it’s supposed to work. To respond to your clarification, deleting an Envelope shouldn’t have any effect on your transaction history, and if the Envelope had no balance, it shouldn’t change any of your other numbers either (deleting an Envelope with a balance will move that balance to Unallocated).

If you’re seeing something different in your household, can you shoot us an email at support@goodbudget.com with the email address on your household so we can take a closer look?

(on the other hand, if everything’s all set now … great!)