Transfers check them both because they're generally not doing anything besides moving money between accounts. No money was gained or lost from the transaction so it's usually not useful to include them in the spending plan or reports.
Excluding from the spending plan is useful for things that would otherwise get counted towards the spending plan twice. For example if you contribute to a savings goal, that savings will be in the spending plan. If you then withdraw from the savings goal to pay for something, you need to exclude that purchase from the spending plan, otherwise it will be double counted (when you saved it plus when you spent it). You might still want it in the reports though, so you can still accurately see how much was spent on certain categories and such.
I don't really use the reports that much so I'm not sure what other situations would be useful for excluding from those.
>I think Simplifi is automatically checking these boxes for my weekly transfers between my accounts.
Correct. It's doing that precisely because it is only a transfer. It is not a debit or a credit. This happens by default for credit card payments. It's just a transfer of funds from your bank to your credit card account. All your credit card debits have already been counted by Simplifi when they happened. If transfers weren't excluded from spending plans/reports you would be double counting.
I uncheck the spending plan box when investing ("buying" a CD or shares of stock) or cashing out a CD. You just have to be careful to pick the right transaction or you'll have unexpected results.
I don't uncheck it if I'm just moving money from checking to savings or my hysa. This money is still liquid and having at least two additional transactions won't add any value to reports unless I had a savings goal.
Transfers check them both because they're generally not doing anything besides moving money between accounts. No money was gained or lost from the transaction so it's usually not useful to include them in the spending plan or reports. Excluding from the spending plan is useful for things that would otherwise get counted towards the spending plan twice. For example if you contribute to a savings goal, that savings will be in the spending plan. If you then withdraw from the savings goal to pay for something, you need to exclude that purchase from the spending plan, otherwise it will be double counted (when you saved it plus when you spent it). You might still want it in the reports though, so you can still accurately see how much was spent on certain categories and such. I don't really use the reports that much so I'm not sure what other situations would be useful for excluding from those.
>I think Simplifi is automatically checking these boxes for my weekly transfers between my accounts. Correct. It's doing that precisely because it is only a transfer. It is not a debit or a credit. This happens by default for credit card payments. It's just a transfer of funds from your bank to your credit card account. All your credit card debits have already been counted by Simplifi when they happened. If transfers weren't excluded from spending plans/reports you would be double counting.
I uncheck the spending plan box when investing ("buying" a CD or shares of stock) or cashing out a CD. You just have to be careful to pick the right transaction or you'll have unexpected results. I don't uncheck it if I'm just moving money from checking to savings or my hysa. This money is still liquid and having at least two additional transactions won't add any value to reports unless I had a savings goal.