Paycheck format for social security or pension/annuities that are similar to a W2 paycheck (4 Votes)

Suny

Has Quicken ever considered creating a paycheck format for certain types of monthly retirement income such as 1099R & SSA-1099 (social security income or pension/annuities) where they are paid similar to a W2 paycheck? The Quicken help section recommends that the “other income” reminder format should be used for all types of other income. Frankly, that format doesn't seem as intuitive in handling social security or IRA annuities which are basically the same as a paycheck. For that reason, I use the W2 paycheck to handle my routine, “other income” retirement income/deductions categories. The paycheck balances net pay nicely and is easier to work with. Unfortunately, the paycheck has a notation that says “W2” and not “other income”. Instead of a paycheck, it could be called something else. It would also be nice if this proposed benefit paycheck had an option to reduce my IRA investments in Quicken by the amount of each annuity or IRA payment. The existing “other income” format could be used for everything else.

Hopefully, I’m not the only retired Quicken user who might appreciate this change!

NotACPA

Why not simply use a split transaction?  The "paycheck" form is nothing other than a fancy screen presentation of a split transaction.

I've used a split transaction for the entire 5 years that I've been receiving Social Security payments.

Unknown

The Paycheck reminder leaves a lot to be desired.

For instance it is not nearly as flexible as a reminder for selecting the the schedulting.
There are missing intervals and it isn't possible to state that when it should end.
Not being able to have it end means that someone like a teacher that doesn't have the same paycheck for the whole year can't use it without it over inflating their income.  Which is a problem in budgets and the tax planner that use this information for predicting the future.

It also has data enter problems like on my wife's paycheck the amount going to her 401K varies on every paycheck, which I just enter through the keyboard, but when I get to entering the part of the 401K payment that the employer puts in, I have to use the mouse to open up a dialog just to enter it, instead of just being able to get to it through the keyboard.  This really slows down the entering of the information.

A note on getting started just using reminders for this function.  Lots of times people don't know what categories Quicken is using for various items like the employer contribution to the 401K.

If you have a paycheck reminder entered into the register you can right click on it and then select Add Reminder.  Then you will be able to tweak that reminder in the ways that the the Paycheck reminder doesn't allow.

Anoniem Persoon

The Paycheck reminder leaves a lot to be desired.

For instance it is not nearly as flexible as a reminder for selecting the the schedulting.
There are missing intervals and it isn't possible to state that when it should end.
Not being able to have it end means that someone like a teacher that doesn't have the same paycheck for the whole year can't use it without it over inflating their income.  Which is a problem in budgets and the tax planner that use this information for predicting the future.

It also has data enter problems like on my wife's paycheck the amount going to her 401K varies on every paycheck, which I just enter through the keyboard, but when I get to entering the part of the 401K payment that the employer puts in, I have to use the mouse to open up a dialog just to enter it, instead of just being able to get to it through the keyboard.  This really slows down the entering of the information.

A note on getting started just using reminders for this function.  Lots of times people don't know what categories Quicken is using for various items like the employer contribution to the 401K.

If you have a paycheck reminder entered into the register you can right click on it and then select Add Reminder.  Then you will be able to tweak that reminder in the ways that the the Paycheck reminder doesn't allow.

Because SS does come monthly and has no scheduled end (and many pensions are likewise),  this does seem straightforward and useful.

Quicken_Natalie

Hello All,

This Idea seems to have fallen stagnant and due to the age of the request and lack of User Votes/Comments, it will be archived within the next 7 business days.

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UKR

Being in the same boat, retired and on Social Security, I think it might be a good idea to have some quick way of creating a standardized Soc Sec paycheck transaction. A wizard using a set of built-in categories with appropriate tax line items would be nice to have. It took me a while to figure out how best to split my transaction, until I settled on this:

I don't know if that's what would work for everyone, but it gets the job done for me.

Let's have the programmers take a look at this.

In the new wizard, there should be special attention paid to the typical payment schedule for Soc Sec payments: Monthly on the 3rd Wednesday, for example. There are many questions in the Community about how set this up properly.

Rocket J Squirrel

I don't know how standard this split really can be. Mine is similar in structure but different in details from yours. Looks like you have Medicare Advantage but I have traditional Medicare. So my Part D premium and Medi-gap premium are debited separately, directly to the insurers. And I have no tax withheld, but I do (un)fortunately have IRMAA deductions. I also use a subcategory and a tag to distinguish my SS from Mrs. Squirrel's future SS.

So the proposed wizard would have to ask a lot of questions.

Chris_QPW

Rocket J Squirrel said:

So the proposed wizard would have to ask a lot of questions.

This sort of reminds me of a discussion about the calculating of the amount for Social Security in the Lifetime Planner.  They had some formula, that was way out of date, and didn't apply to everyone, and was overriding what the user put in.   So when they finally got around to revisiting it and asked people how to calculate it the answer came out to be "You can't, instead you should point the user at the Social Security documentation, and allow them to put in what value they think it should be."

NotACPA

My split transaction looks like @UKR's ... except that I DO have add'l tax withheld.

DKWhite

Related to this: Quicken does not have an SSA-1099 tax form to which you can assign Social Security payments. They show as W-2. This requires separating them from real W-2 items when filing taxes.