More and more banks are introducing jars: the ability to create your own savings deposits in your savings account. Super convenient! It confirms that the system really works (of course, we already knew that). But if you can make jars in your bank app, what do you need Flow for? We explain it!
Using the saving jars in your banking app is a good way to get acquainted with smarter saving. You can create different jars and fill them manually or automatically. That way, you can easily set a savings goal and put money aside. For example, for a new kitchen, a vacation, a car or your retirement.
The disadvantages: no payments from the jars, no actions and triggers
Sounds ideal, but there are a number of flaws. For example, the jars in your banking app are mainly focused on saving and not so much on budgeting. This is because they are always linked to your savings account. You can conveniently put money aside for long-term plans, such as a vacation, but if you want to go away for a weekend in between you will first have to transfer the money to your current account.
This makes it very awkward to budget with categories that you use often, such as groceries, outings, clothing and household items. You can make jars for these in your banking app and save for them, but you have to manually transfer money to your checking account every time you buy or have bought something. And there's another reason why creating saving jars for frequent expenses is inconvenient without Flow: often the banking apps have a limit on the number of saving jars you can create and/or the amount you can save in them.
In addition, automatic saving can still go wrong sometimes. To set up automatic savings in your banking app, you specify an amount and a frequency. Every first of the month, 350 euros goes to the jar for a new car, 500 to groceries and 1250 to fixed costs, for example. This can cause problems if, for example, your salary is later than usual. Your money will then already be deducted from your account, while it has not yet arrived.
The many advantages of Flow
The Flow app adds smart features to your banking app, which immediately solve the flaws just mentioned. Especially if you're connected to Bunq or knab, there are many reasons to choose the combination with our Flow app.
The biggest advantages of the Flow app are the flows you can set up, based on actions and triggers. By setting up these actions and triggers, your money is automatically divided over your jars. For example, a trigger would be 'when money comes in with description pay'. The action, 'send 25% to groceries', only follows when the trigger has been set. This way you know for sure that money is distributed only when it arrives and saving is much more precise, because you can set percentages instead of whole amounts.
The actions and triggers are therefore also very useful for freelancers. You can automatically pay the 21% VAT on all income and put money aside for the tax. This way you create more peace in your finances and have a better overview.
Another advantage of Flow in combination with Bunq or knab is paying from the jars. This way, each jar becomes its own account, and you can easily pay from that jar. This allows you to budget much more conveniently with daily or weekly expenses, such as groceries and household items. And you can make endless jars!
Are you not yet with Bunq or knab, but would you like to? Both banks have a switching tool that makes switching banks super easy!
The best money methods
With Flow, you can also set everything up exactly as it suits your situation. You can define the flows yourself and you can choose from various templates. For example, link Flow to the accounting software of SnelStart and let your bookkeeper look over your shoulder, implement the FI/RE principles in your finances or make your company more profitable by automating Profit First with Flow.
We always collect the best money methods and make sure you can use them automatically in one go. This way you have an overview and insight into your finances, automatically save for all your goals and don't have to worry about them any more.
