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New Cash-Flow reports

admin

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#1

The TIME MACHINE Year reports now have subtotals by expense type (when specified), income type, and account type. You can now get all the years together in a single report. This extensive report, in both today's and future dollars, is now included as new worksheets in the Excel download.

You can view only a selection of the years. That is the same cash-flow report that is included in the REPORT for printing or pdf download.

A new summary cash-flow report is now also available. For every year, it shows the Cash In totals of EXTERNAL INCOME and ACCOUNT WITHDRAWALs by account type. The Cash Out columns show the total spending, total taxes, and ACCOUNT DEPOSITS by account type. The Net-savings are also shown. The cells are coloured with a heat map to help you see exceptionally low and high amounts.

Although these reports are available for older runs including saved runs, those may not show all the subtotals. Also if you've entered a lot of EXPENSE entries, you may want to add an expense type for them if you haven't already. This way you'll see their subtotals in the reports, and it will also make the Sankey diagram in the year report a lot cleaner.

You can get to any of these larger reports from the Views section below any TIME MACHINE Timetable, or from the Year report (click on any year in the Timetable).

Let me know if you have any issues, questions, or suggestions.

Elisabeth

Here's what the summary cash-flow report looks like:

Summary cash-flow

 

SheltieLover

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#2

Wow, I love the new Cash Flow report, Elisabeth!  This provides a very clear way to view income and expenses.  

Thank you!

DigitalTorqueWrench

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#3
I like the new CASH-FLOW Summary.  This is helpful.  Thank you.
 
There is, however, one thing that I think could be improved in the CASH-FLOW Summary and in some of the other charts & tables. It has to do with the way the MoneyReady App treats CPP contributions.  I am attempting to provide honest feedback; I am not suggesting that anybody or everybody has to agree with me!
 
From the documentation:
‘TAXES’ includes CPP/QPP and EI deductions
I am guilty of reading the documentation too fast which caused me to initially miss that statement.  I wish I had paid more attention to this detail because I spent several hours trying to figure out why the MoneyReady App was showing slightly bloated tax values in situations that involved employment income.
 
I think that grouping TAXES, CPP, and EI together and calling them "TAXES" is too much of an oversimplification.
Treating EI contributions as taxes is a bit of a stretch, but there is probably not too much harm in it.
However, I personally do not view CPP contributions as being a tax.  Unfortunately (for me), I know that not everybody out there on the Internet shares my view.
 
I would have preferred it if the Sankey diagrams provided four flows immediately to the right of the vertical centerline into:
  ⇒ TAXES
  ⇒ TO ACCOUNTS (this could potentially be renamed to simply DEPOSITS for consistency with the CASH-FLOW summary).
  ⇒ SPENDING
  ⇒ PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS.
The PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS flow should then be split into two outflows on the far right side of the diagram:
    ⇒ CPP CONTRIBUTIONS
    ⇒ OTHER PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS (or something to that effect)
 
The TAXES bar chart should not include CPP contributions.  CPP could be moved to a new bar chart labelled PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS.
Or, if the TAXES bar chart must continue to include CPP contributions, could the chart be relabeled and could CPP pensions be rendered in a different colour?
 
So now, back to the new CASH-FLOW report. It has two columns named TAXES and SPENDING.  I do not think it is right that the CPP pension contributions get included in the first column but other pension contributions get included in the second column.
I would have preferred to see three columns:
   • TAXES
   • SPENDING
   • PENSION CONT.
I recognize that not everybody has a wide monitor so some people might not like the table becoming wider than it already is.  Also, I don't have loans or mortgages so I cannot comment on how or where such things are supposed to appear.
The existence of separate columns labeled SPENDING and TOTAL SPENDING is confusing.  Based on their names, one would expect the two columns to hold identical values. Therefore the TOTAL SPENDING column could be dropped entirely or renamed to something more meaningful such as TOTAL OUTFLOWS.  For me, the word spending infers the use of money to buy goods or services.  Spending is what I do with my spending money.  I don't use that word when referring to the payment of income tax and/or pension contributions.

admin

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#4

Thanks for the feedback DigitalTorqueWrench.  Yes, I don't want to add additional columns to summary reports because horizontal screen real estate is precious.  We may be able to clarify the terminology in labels for columns and charts, however. We can also give you additional breakdowns of the TAXES in the year reports which are meant to be detailed. Thanks again.

adventurousBittern9

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#5

Merci, Elisabeth! Quels beaux ajouts! Ces tableaux sont vraiment utiles.

admin

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#6

DigitalTorqueWrench wrote:

I like the new CASH-FLOW Summary.  This is helpful.  Thank you.
Glad you like it!
There is, however, one thing that I think could be improved in the CASH-FLOW Summary and in some of the other charts & tables. It has to do with the way the MoneyReady App treats CPP contributions.  I am attempting to provide honest feedback; I am not suggesting that anybody or everybody has to agree with me!
 
From the documentation:
‘TAXES’ includes CPP/QPP and EI deductions
I am guilty of reading the documentation too fast which caused me to initially miss that statement.  I wish I had paid more attention to this detail because I spent several hours trying to figure out why the MoneyReady App was showing slightly bloated tax values in situations that involved employment income.
 
I think that grouping TAXES, CPP, and EI together and calling them "TAXES" is too much of an oversimplification.
Treating EI contributions as taxes is a bit of a stretch, but there is probably not too much harm in it.
However, I personally do not view CPP contributions as being a tax.  Unfortunately (for me), I know that not everybody out there on the Internet shares my view.
Before running the TIME MACHINE we need to know what taxes and deductions have already been paid this year so that they don’t get paid/deducted twice. We ask:
Taxes and deductions paid year-to-date (at source taxes, CPP/QPP and EI contributions, tax installments)
 
It’s just one number to enter, not three, it’s that simple. We ask for no more information than necessary to get accurate calculations. That’s why CPP and EI contributions got into taxes, not opinions from the Internet (or even mine). I'm just trying to keep it as simple as possible.
I would have preferred it if the Sankey diagrams provided four flows immediately to the right of the vertical centerline into:
  ⇒ TAXES
  ⇒ TO ACCOUNTS (this could potentially be renamed to simply DEPOSITS for consistency with the CASH-FLOW summary).
 I’ll leave the TO/FROM account in the diagram and DEPOSITS/WITHDRAWALS in the summary. These are both short forms of DEPOSITS TO ACCOUNTS and WITHDRAWALS FROM ACCOUNTS. Maybe it should be more consistent, but the app and docs use these terms interchangeably.
  ⇒ SPENDING
  ⇒ PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS.
I like it! Pensions for short.
The PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS flow should then be split into two outflows on the far right side of the diagram:
    ⇒ CPP CONTRIBUTIONS
Done! New runs only. CPP CONTRIBUTIONS now flow to Pensions
    ⇒ OTHER PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS (or something to that effect)
The OTHERs would be DB Contributions (employee contributions to Defined Benefit pension plans), and employer and employee contributions to Defined Contribution plans:  GRSP, DCPP, PRPP, DPSP, GRSP, and equivalents. All will flow from Income to Pensions, and the DC contributions then flow into the account (as they did before from To Accounts). I’m not sure that people with DC plans will like that, but they probably would like it even less if we had a Pensions category that did not include DC pensions.
 
You haven’t asked for this but someone else did, so I also split up the TAXES in the diagram to indicate what’s in them so it’s clearer. It’s split up into Federal, Provincial, EI contributions, and tax penalties (in MRA the tax penalties only apply to some RESP and RDSP withdrawals). The TAXES breakdown table now also shows this for each spouse. The CPP contributions are left in taxes there, I do think it’s clearer that way.
The TAXES bar chart should not include CPP contributions.  CPP could be moved to a new bar chart labelled PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS.
Or, if the TAXES bar chart must continue to include CPP contributions, could the chart be relabeled and could CPP pensions be rendered in a different colour?
I think it would be very confusing to remove the CPP contributions from the taxes in the chart and the tables at this point. People like to compare new runs and old runs and that would break that comparison. Users who have been using MRA for a while are used to it that way. As you say, people think of EI and CPP as a tax because it reduces take-home pay.
I’ve changed the title of the graph to indicate it includes CPP & EI contributions so that it's clearer at least.
I will consider adding a graph of pension contributions that would include CPP contributions, Defined Benefit plan employee contributions, and Defined Contribution plans employee and employer contributions. 
So now, back to the new CASH-FLOW report. It has two columns named TAXES and SPENDING.  I do not think it is right that the CPP pension contributions get included in the first column but other pension contributions get included in the second column.
I would have preferred to see three columns:
   • TAXES
   • SPENDING
   • PENSION CONT.
I seriously considered this. I created in the CASH-FLOW report a new  column that shows  CPP contributions plus Defined Benefit plan contributions (CPP&DB CONT.). I didn't want to call it PENSION CONT because DC plan contributions are not included, since they are already in the account DEPOSITS. TAXES would now exclude CPP contributions here only, since those are in the new column. So for people without a DB pension plan, it would just show CPP cont.
 
I find this just confuses things rather than adds clarity because the TAXES shown will be different than in other tables shown in the app.
So in the end, I left CPP in TAXES, and a new column shows DB CONT when applicable so that they are no longer included in SPENDING. This will apply to new runs only.
I recognize that not everybody has a wide monitor so some people might not like the table becoming wider than it already is.  Also, I don't have loans or mortgages so I cannot comment on how or where such things are supposed to appear.
LOANS are treated just as a different type of account. Deposits are payments and withdrawals are borrowing. They add a column, possibly two if you borrow in the future. You are seeing the effects of us not asking questions or showing you stuff that is irrelevant to your plan. I’ve already added a scroll function on all the big tables. If it does get too big for your screen the row and column headers are fixed so you can scroll and still know where you are.
The existence of separate columns labeled SPENDING and TOTAL SPENDING is confusing.  Based on their names, one would expect the two columns to hold identical values. Therefore the TOTAL SPENDING column could be dropped entirely or renamed to something more meaningful such as TOTAL OUTFLOWS.  For me, the word spending infers the use of money to buy goods or services.  Spending is what I do with my spending money.  I don't use that word when referring to the payment of income tax and/or pension contributions.
Got it! TOTAL SPENDING is gone in the new runs.  I’m not sure what to call TAXES+DB CONT.+SPENDING. TOTAL OUTFLOWS would include the DEPOSITS I think (and be equal to TOTAL INCOME, the TIME MACHINE assures that). So I'll just call it Total. I think it's clear enough that it's the sum of the columns just previous to it.
 
Thanks again for your suggestions, I appreciate the feedback.

 

DigitalTorqueWrench

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#7

admin

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#8

How about ALL GONE 🤪

I used EXPENDITURES as suggested.

I'm glad you like the changes.

Thanks again!