How to Add Flows to your Plan

When you build your plans, you can allocate where you want your money to go by adding a Flow. Want to build an emergency fund, invest extra income, contribute more to retirement accounts, or set up your own allocation? Flows let you do just that.

Add Priorities to a Flow

You can add Flows when building a new plan or go back and edit an existing one later.

If you add Flows while building a plan, the Flows step will appear directly after the Income step. Click Add Flow, then choose From Existing Account or Add Account.

For example, to build on your existing cash reserves in a savings account:

1. Click Existing Accounts > Cash > Savings (or whatever you have named your savings account).
2. Click Goal. The Goal section has three parts:
   • Strategy: choose “Build up to target balance” or “Contribute indefinitely.”
   • Target: choose the dollar amount you want to reach and maintain (for example, $20,000).
   • Contribution: choose how to fund this goal:
     • Maximize Contribution: builds and maintains your target balance before addressing any lower-priority flows.
     • % of Remaining Income: after addressing higher-priority flows, dedicates a percentage of leftover income to this goal. Enter a value from 0-100%.
     • Specific Amount: contributes a fixed amount each period. Choose a frequency (Monthly, Quarterly, Annually, etc.) and the contribution amount per period.

You can also choose to Save anything left over (addresses your high-priority flows, then adds the remainder to cash) or Spend anything left over (this will address your high priority flows and then any expenses listed under ‘Discretionary Spend’).

Example: Setting Up Multiple Flows

Here’s how three flows might work together for a couple, Ashley and Jordan.

Flow 1: Build an emergency fund. They already have $10,000 in a Cash account named Emergency Fund. Click Existing Accounts > Cash > Emergency Fund, then set the Goal:

• Strategy: Build up to target balance
• Target: $20,000
• Contribution: Maximize Contribution, so this goal is fully funded before any lower-priority flows are addressed

Click Add.

Flow 2: Contribute to Ashley’s 401(k). Click Existing Accounts > Employer Retirement Accounts > 401k - Ashley. Set the Goal source to Ashley’s Salary, the contribution to 5%, and the employer contribution to 3%. Leave the yearly contribution capped at the IRS limit, then click Add.

Flow 3: Pay extra toward their mortgage. Click Existing Accounts > Financed Assets, then select their house payment (you can apply this to any financed asset, including a car payment). Set the Contribution to Specific Amount, choose a frequency – in this case Monthly – and enter the extra amount to contribute, for example an extra $1,000. Click Add.

Flows are addressed in the order you add them, so the order above matters: Ashley and Jordan’s income first tops off their emergency fund, then funds Ashley’s 401(k), then puts any extra toward the mortgage. Once all three flows are set, they choose Save anything left over so any remaining income after these priorities still builds their cash balance.

Transfer Flows

To transfer money from one account to another, go to Existing Accounts > Transfer. You will need to choose:

• Frequency of the transfer
• Which account the funds are coming from
• Which account the funds are going to
• Transfer details: the dollar amount, timing (now or a future month), and Tax Handling

For Tax Handling, choose Auto, Taxable, or Tax-Exempt. Auto will automatically determine how to handle taxes based on the account types and amount you have chosen.

Cash Flow Tab

Want to see the impact of your different cash flows? Within your Plan go to the top tab labeled Cash Flow and click.

You will see inflows like salary and other income, and outflows like tax withholding, expenses, and debt. Want to see how this changes over time? Use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to click through different years at the end of your plan.

Now you know how to set up and manage cash flow priorities. Still have questions? Join the Discord Community where you can get support 7 days a week.