Comment 5 for bug 1818450

In my last comment I was thinking that the saving pots concept would be within each account, and that they would hook into transactions somehow. I think I was looking at this the wrong way.

Watching the progress and screenshots on the budget revamp for 5.3 however, I think the saving pots needs to be a separate workflow that overlays onto your account data, similar to how (I think) the budget is. (Not having actually worked with the budget, I'm not speaking with confidence here, but my understanding it that the budget isn't part of the account transaction data, but compares against it).

Similarly, the saving pots can work with your account balances without changing the actual account information. In this separate workflow, you can assign individual "dollars/euros/etc" in your account into saving pots; it's like categories for your currency. As draxil alluded to, this is called "savings goals" by some. I found a YNAB demo showing its workflow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5w-tSAt8Qo), which shows the idea of categorizing the money you have. (Note, YNAB combines pots, budget, and transaction categories all together here, which I'm not suggesting we adopt, but just pointing to as an example)

It could even then be possible to have multiple real accounts contribute to a savings pot, which would be useful if money for a goal is spread across multiple accounts. For example, I keep a minimum balance in my main chequing account to avoid bank fees, which I consider part of my "emergency funds". However, I also have "emergency funds" in other accounts to collect interest on it. If I had an "emergency fund" savings pot, I would want it to combine and show the aggregate funds from my two (or more!) accounts. If you'd like a visual representation of this, check out this: https://youtu.be/fqbWuTtpYi8?t=23