How to add expenses to a client plan - US

You can enter expenses as either an expense or a goal. A goal is essentially a trackable expense. If you don't need to track progress in meeting a particular expense, you should add it as an expense rather than a goal.

How to add an expense

1. Open the existing client record, if it is not already open. 

2. Click/tap the plus button in the bottom right of the Dashboard screen.

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3. Click/tap Expenses in the Finances and Accounts section of the menu which appears:

 

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4. In the next screen click/tap the relevant option. 

 

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  • Multi-Year Expense should be used for essential expenditure such as mortgage/rent and utility bills. These expenses will show in the blue need line, click here to read more about the need line.
  • Single-Year Expenses should be used for one time expenses that will not recur over time. Such as a "kitchen remodel". 
  • Legacy Expense is a special category of expense for gifts to individuals or charity. Use this category to enable the software to apply the correct tax treatment according to your jurisdiction e.g. tax credits on charitable donations, inheritance.

5. Complete the data entry fields which appear in the Basics screen (those marked with an asterisk are mandatory fields).

  • Change the owner dropdown to whoever the expense belongs to (default is joint).
  • In the name field enter a description of the expense. This is what will show on reports. 
  • In the amount box input the amount of the expense and select the frequency. 
  • Tax deductible is an optional setting which can be set to Yes for tax deductible expenses such as maintenance costs on rental properties.

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Note - The inflation rate will be automatically set to match what is in your Plan Settings. To edit the inflation solely within this expense go to the details section. 

 

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6. Optionally, you can use the Details screen to input the amount of the expense as a percentage of income or an itemized list. 

Note that this sets the initial level of the expense. Future increases in the expense use the Inflation Rate set in this screen. Therefore, if you want the expense to rise in line with the income, ensure you set the Inflation Rate here to match the rate used to escalate the income.

 If you want to enter an itemized list of expenses which the software sums for you, click Details and then click Itemized Expenses. Input the details of the first item in the list (name, amount and frequency), then click Add Expense to input the next item in the list. Repeat until all items have been entered. You should see the amount increase as each item is entered. You can input the items with different frequencies and the software will calculate the overall annual total.

 

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7. By default recurring Expense items usually to start at the start event for the plan and end at the owner of the income's mortality event (last mortality for joint expenses).  graduation.

If you would like to amend the timeframe for the expense, click/tap Timing on the left hand side of the screen to edit the start and end event for the income.

You can edit the start and end events by dragging and dropping different events into the item's Starts and Ends boxes.

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Note - For Single-Year expenses you will only need a start event. 

 

8. Optional step for recurring expensesbe default recurring expenses will recur every year, however, it is possible to get the expense to recur at a less frequent interval e.g. every 5 years for a car purchase.

This is done in the Timing screen. Set the start and end events for the expense as above, then scroll down, below the timeline, where you will find an Expense Frequency setting.  Enter in the Expense Frequency field the interval (the number of years) at which the expense will recur. 

 

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9. Optional step for recurring expenses: if the recurring expense will increase/decrease in future (other than inflationary rises), you can click Steps on the left hand menu and schedule a future change to the amount of the recurring expense.  For  example, General Living expenses which rise and fall throughout working and retirement years. 

 

Click here for full instruction on adding steps