[FEATURE Request] Bill payments

[Lucas]

#3366

I guess I’m flooding somewhat, but when I’m on a roll for ideas it’s best that I get them out of my system, lest I forget it later and never realized how useful the ideas would have been to a community.

Anyway, here are a few things that I can suggest pertaining to a feature that could be called “Bill payment”. I’m already CB to punch in my monthly payments such as my rent, car loan and RRSP payments – these being always on the same day/date and always the same amount… but I feel that a Bill isn’t the same as a monthly payment and should be handled differently.

• When adding a bill, you could indicate the “projected” information such as approximate receive date, approximate amount (planned) which can be ajusted upon reception of the bill.
• Bill are generally payed within a certain amount of time (Grace Period) like Net15, Net30, etc. This should be as a per-bill option
• Upon reception of the bill you could go in the instance of this bill and indicate it’s received, the amount of the bill (and if different, a small note explaining the discrepancy).
• Upon payment of the bill you would again edit the instance and indicate it’s payed, confirming the amount (if different from the actual amount) and confirmation/check number
• More advanced possible option would be to automatically roll over unpaid amounts (with possible interest rates) to the next instance as a projection

Any thoughts?

[Eric Poulin]

#3701

Lucas, before I answer – thanks for all of your suggestions :)  You input helps me “get it right” for the masses, as I assume your thoughts are not singular.

I’m still not sure theres much of a distinction between a bill and regular repeating entry.
Let me address your bullets individually:

• Indicate projected information (this is already what you are doing for repeating entries)
• Bill are generally paid within a certain grace period.  (I thought about this a while ago – what if people entered when bill were due and we remind them to pay them right at the end of the due date period – then they collect more interest on that money.  After doing the math, you end up saving only pennies – and the risk of waiting until the end of the period is not worth the risk.  Most people pay their bills when they can — maybe they have to wait for a paycheck to come in during that grace period, but bills generally do occur on a patterned process that can be covered by the repeat entry parameters.  For planning you put the bill on the date you typically received it, then as the time comes you move it a few days as needed to make sure you hav ethe cash in the bank to pay it.)
• Receiving/Payment of bill (I think a flag indicating paid would handle this)
• Advanced (rolling over unpaid amount – not sure CB should handle this with a mechanism.  There are penalties specific to the bill, interest rates specific to the bill, carry over amounts specific to the bill.  I think the right move would be to have the user make the adjustment)

Maybe your thinking of something different when you say “bills”.  In my mind rent, car loan, RRSP, etc are bills along with other things you may owe.  So far, I think bills and standard repeat entries are functionally one in the same (with the addition of a paid flag).  If you disagree, please explain in more detail — I’m happy to hear your thoughts on this.

[Lucas]

#3702

I think maybe because I’m seeing a bill as something that repeats, but not necessarily always at the same precise date, and with a variable amount (but generally around the same price). Examples would be internet (some providers charge extra for bandwidth), cell phones (minutes and SMSes), home phone, etc. I see it as different than rent and car payments, as those are generally always on the same day (and often pre-authorized) and with the exact same amount. On the other hand, variable amount bills aren’t the same as one-time payments which are entered manually… So it’s kind of an in-between – an amount that recurs but isn’t always the same.

Also, even though I understand that it’s not CB’s job to make sure people pay their bills, having the NetX time of days is something that would help people manage their money as they would know on which paycheck they could make the payment (and I think that’s the whole point, right?). How that visual indication could be done however, I’m not completely sure… Maybe in the bill itself it could be indicated which of the “next” paychecks would be available for the payment and create a reminder for it?

Another thing is, I think I will take on the habit of “making” my payments in CB before I actually do the real payment, as it’s very useful to see that “oops, if I pay this bill now, next week I see a red amount which means a payment won’t have passed”.

[Eric Poulin]

#3703

I’ve just added the “Mark as complete” feature for entries. You can now right click on entries to mark them as paid/complete. Later, I’ll add the ability to automatically have the reconciling assistant to this for you.

[Author]

Posts