Goals Frequently Asked Questions

Using Goals can help you pursue your goals and have fun while progressing towards them! We want to celebrate progress, not perfection so we have compiled some of our most frequently asked questions to help you get a jump start.

For step-by-step instructions on how to link a transaction to a goal, to associate an account with a goal, how to update balances, and how to make a rule with goals please read here. 

• No goals appear when I try to apply a goal to a rule?
  • When applying a goal to a rule, it's important to include an account in the rule criteria in order to have the associated goals populate.
• Why does my planned budget versus goal amounts not match?
  • Transactions attached to goals do not appear in your budget plan, but are reflected in your cash flow.
• How come I can't link a transaction to my goal?
  • If you are trying to link a transaction to a goal, but the specific goal is not appearing in the dropdown list, please ensure that the transaction occurred within the account associated with the goal. You can only mark transactions as part of a goal if the transaction occurred within a goal account. If necessary, you can transfer money out of the account tied to the goal and mark that transfer transaction as an expense for the goal to be counted properly.
• Why can't I see a specific account like my 401K to apply towards a goal?
  • If you are not seeing an account appear as a suggested account to apply towards a goal, it may not have migrated as expected to our new goals system. Goal types decide which accounts to show so please create a new goal such as "retirement" to see accounts like 401Ks populate. 
• Can I assign my credit card to a goal?
  • Credit cards are currently only selectable for the Goals designed to pay their balances off. However, since you can only mark transactions as part of a Goal if the transaction happened inside a goal account you can transfer money out of the savings account tied to the Goal and mark that transfer transaction as an expense for it to be counted properly. 
• Can I have as many goals as I want?
  • There is no limit to how many goals you can create for your account. That being said, you will only be able to create one Retirement goal per household due to the nature of this lifetime goal.
• Do I need to make a separate bank account for each goal?
  • Not at all! You can use multiple accounts for one goal, or you can split one account between many goals.
• Can I mark a transaction as part of a goal if the transaction happened outside of the Goal account?
  • It is recommended you transfer money out of the non-Goals account tied to the Goal account, and mark that transfer transaction as an Goal expense for it to be counted properly.
• Can I apply one transaction to two goals?
  • Yes, you can. To do this, you can split the transaction and then apply each split to a different goal.
• How do transactions impact goal balances in my Goal page?
  • If the account’s “full balance” is mapped to the goal, then everything is good by default, the balance will just reflect the negative transaction automatically. But if you have earmarked a static dollar amount, the act of marking this transaction as part of the goal will debit the earmarked dollar amount by the transaction amount.
• When I move money from my checking account to my savings account where my goal is tied for long term or short term savings, will be reconciled vs a manual journal entry?
  • Yes. It’s recommended to link the transaction in the savings account to the goal so that way it will count as a contribution to the goal. You can set this up to happen automatically with Rules!
• How do I use credit cards for my goals?
  • You can only mark transactions as part of a Goal if the transaction happened inside a goal account. If you also spend using a credit card or other account that is not connected to the goal you can transfer money out of the savings account tied to the Goal and mark that transfer transaction as an expense for it to be counted properly. 
• What happens when I delete a goal?
  • Once a goal is deleted, it will be permanently removed from your household and unable to be restored. The linked accounts will no longer be mapped to the goal and transactions that had been marked as part of the goal will be set to NULL, and all activity and notifications related to the goal will be removed.
• What’s different about this new Goals feature versus the original Goals feature?
  • There are two primary differences with the new goals system. You will be able to assign specific accounts to each goal, instead of the previous approach which summed up all of your goal accounts into one “Available for goals” dollar amount that you then allocate. The second difference is that you will track your goal contributions through your real transactions in these assigned goal accounts. We’ll no longer have the concept of “goal contributions” that exists today, which don’t actually tie out to your real transactions.
• Will I lose my historical goals from your original Goals system?
  • Our existing goal contribution system is going away and you will lose all history associated with it. These contributions are not tied to any transactions, they are simply a log for you to track how your goal balance has changed over time. You’ll be able to easily mark your real transactions within your goal accounts as linked to a goal to recreate your contribution history in just a few minutes.
• What’s the easiest way to recreate my pre-existing goals?
  • The easiest way to recreate your goals would be to take note of all transactions you had been categorizing or budgeting towards your goal. When the new Goals are released, you can recreate your goal and then actually link these transactions to your goal.