Financier Forums

Financier App => Feedback => Topic started by: Alex on October 28, 2016, 10:03:43 PM

Title: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: Alex on October 28, 2016, 10:03:43 PM
Hi everyone


I'm going to be starting a series on the various aspects of Financier.


I have just made the first tutorial on credit cards. It's currently 'hidden' and only accessible by this link:


https://medium.com/@aeharding/using-credit-cards-with-financier-bde17449d207


Please provide feedback! Thanks!
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: Doomspark on October 28, 2016, 10:45:30 PM
Suggestion:  Explain the "red arrow to the right" - or note that it's explained in another tutorial.
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: Bruce on October 29, 2016, 12:44:11 PM
Quote from: Doomspark on October 28, 2016, 10:45:30 PM
Suggestion:  Explain the "red arrow to the right" - or note that it's explained in another tutorial.

I agree.



Also, I think I see a type-o. "Make sure that is (should be it I believe) is a “credit card” account type in the dropdown!


I'm sure it's obvious, but I don't understand this: "and needs to have money assigned to covering that debt for a credit card payment".



Regarding:

"Q: What about interest?
Simply make a new transaction on your credit card assigned to the pre-financier debt category for the credit card. This will increase your red pre-financier debt amount on your budget".

Shouldn't the user have an interest category?


Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: Alex on October 30, 2016, 07:29:58 PM
Yeah, an interest category is definitely an option. I can mention that.

I'll also make sure to touch on the red right arrow more.

Thanks again for looking over it guys!
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: Joel on October 30, 2016, 07:33:38 PM
For PIF credit cards, the first thing I do is change the starting balance to income and delete the previous debt category.

It might be worth mentioning that trick for PIF users.
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: jeremiahsvow on October 30, 2016, 07:39:20 PM
Quote from: Joel on October 30, 2016, 07:33:38 PM
For PIF credit cards, the first thing I do is change the starting balance to income and delete the previous debt category.

It might be worth mentioning that trick for PIF users.

Hey @Joel,

I've read this 5 times and I am not sure I understand what this means. It may be simple, but I am not getting it.
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: Alex on October 30, 2016, 07:40:29 PM
I'm not familiar with PIF cards Joel. What country are they used in?
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: jeremiahsvow on October 30, 2016, 07:52:40 PM
Quote from: Alex on October 30, 2016, 07:40:29 PM
I'm not familiar with PIF cards Joel. What country are they used in?

"Paid in Full." I'm assuming the question is serious. Can't decipher sarcasm in text form. Lol

We may need a forum glossary for acronyms.
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: Alex on October 30, 2016, 07:56:51 PM
Ah OK. In that case, why change it to income? :) I think I'm also missing something.

@jeremiahsvow feel free to start a glossary if you want to! Could be useful 👍
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: jeremiahsvow on October 30, 2016, 08:00:04 PM
Quote from: Alex on October 30, 2016, 07:56:51 PM
Ah OK. In that case, why change it to income? :) I think I'm also missing something.

@jeremiahsvow feel free to start a glossary if you want to! Could be useful 👍

@Alex, I may not be the best person for that. Lol. I'll see if I can find one to link to or borrow from.
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: Joel on October 30, 2016, 08:08:16 PM
@Alex @jeremiahsvow

By switching the starting balance to income instead of the debt category, that money is immediately deducted from the available to budget. It also allows you to delete the debt category as it's not needed. Ultimately, I don't want 8 different credit card categories that would each only be used once.
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: Alex on October 30, 2016, 08:10:55 PM
I see @Joel that's interesting, I've never done that before.

I may mention it, but ultimately the hidden categories feature should make the budget not cluttered.

Thanks for explaining
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: Joel on October 30, 2016, 08:13:08 PM
Quote from: Alex on October 30, 2016, 08:10:55 PM
I see @Joel that's interesting, I've never done that before.

I may mention it, but ultimately the hidden categories feature should make the budget not cluttered.

Thanks for explaining

If I remember correctly, before YNAB had "pre-YNAB debt" categories, that is how the starting balance was categorized. Users of the software ultimately created debt-type categories to serve their needs, which eventually led to adoption by YNAB. (When I started using YNAB there was only one account register)
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: asromzek on October 30, 2016, 08:13:25 PM
I set up my PIF credit card account as a "checking" account with a negative starting balance, which skips the debt category creation altogether.
Title: Re: Looking for feedback on tutorials
Post by: isildo on November 04, 2016, 08:35:11 AM
QuoteAll debt accumulated before using Financier is “pre-financier debt” and needs to have money assigned to covering that debt for a credit card payment.
"All debt accumulated before using Financier is reflected in the budget as "pre-financier debt." Assigning money to this category makes it available to pay the credit card statement."


Quote
Essentially, this means that I can afford a $467.90 payment to my Discover card.
Keep doing this every month with your remaining “Available to budget” until the amount reaches zero.
When you make a payment, just make a transfer from your checking account to your credit card in the amount of $467.90.
This explanation doesn't address continued spending on the card. If people only pay the amount they budget to the card and not the amount they've recently incurred, they'll get into trouble.

How much to pay?
How do you calculate the amount to pay when the credit card statement comes? If you're carrying debt, you can only pay off the amount you've budgeted, which should include all your new spending, all the interest, and part of the pre-financier debt. There's no need to track these separately because the part you can't pay right now, the pre-financier debt, is easily visible in your budget. So the amount you can pay at any time is the balance of the credit card minus the balance of the pre-financier debt category. If this amount is less than your minimum payment, you will need to budget more to pre-financier debt in order to make the category less negative and increase your available payment amount. When you calculate your payment, be sure that you have $0 Available to Budget and have no overspending in your budget. Both of these artificially inflate your category balances and will make the payment calculation inaccurate.