Manually Recording a transaction in Checking Account, part of which goes to a liability account

carolperrin1767

I pay independent contractors using the following accounts: Debit Payments to Musicians $700.00, Credit Cash $659.44, Credit Income Tax Withholding $40.56. Is it possible to manually record this particular transaction? I use the online version of Quicken on a Mac.

jacobs

@carolperrin1767 What you want to do is very easy to accomplish. There are two issues involved. First, you need to use a Split in your transaction. You may already know to do this: click the Split icon in the bottom toolbar, or Command-Option-S. This lets you split the total transaction amount among different categories.

Or, in this case, a category and another account. Moving funds between accounts in Quicken is a Transfer. The easiest way to enter and view your Transfers is to make the Transfer column visible in registers: click the Columns icon on the bottom toolbar, and click the checkbox for Transfer. (I prefer to move the Transfer column next to the Category column; you can click on a column heading and drag it left or right to re-arrange columns.) For the split line where you want to transfer part of the money, do NOT select a category; instead, in the Transfer column, pick the account you want from the dropdown menu, or type a letter or two to get the account name. 

(After you select the transfer account, you'll note that it also shows up in the Category column, surrounded by square brackets -- [Account] -- and that is another way you can enter a transfer without the transfer column: in the category column, type a left bracket followed by the account name. Another note: in the Split line, the Transfer field is always available, whether or not you have the Transfer column visible.)

So in your example, the transaction would look like this:

carolperrin1767

Income Tax Withholding is a liability account.

volvogirl

Yes.  Why can't you?  What is the Online version?  Quicken is a Desktop program.  Do you mean QuickBooks?  

Also, I answer tax questions in Turbo Tax.  Are you paying a independent contractor or an employee?  You do not withhold taxes for a independent contractor on a 1099Misc.  And if you are paying employees you give them a W2 and hold out FICA (SS & Medicare) and pay quarterly payroll taxes.

carolperrin1767

I am entering this transaction into the checking account from which it does not appear I can make an offset entry to a liability account. It appears the only accounts I can affect from the checking account are CATEGORIES, not other ACCOUNTS (i.e. Liabilities). What I meant by online version is the subscription version. I am not using Quickbooks. If I were using Quickbooks, which I have in the past, I could just write a journal entry. I don't believe that is possible in Quicken.
I am paying independent contractors. In California we are required to report each person's annual income (over $600) by the state in which the money was earned. (Our independent contractors perform in many states.) Additionally, for out-of-state residents (independent contractors) we are required to withhold 7% of California source income on annual earnings in excess of $1500.

volvogirl

See this whole post for adding the Transfer column in Mac  or type the transfer account in square brackets like [Income Tax Withholding]
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7443382/just-upgraded-from-q07-to-q17-for-mac

jacobs

@carolperrin1767 What you want to do is very easy to accomplish. There are two issues involved. First, you need to use a Split in your transaction. You may already know to do this: click the Split icon in the bottom toolbar, or Command-Option-S. This lets you split the total transaction amount among different categories.

Or, in this case, a category and another account. Moving funds between accounts in Quicken is a Transfer. The easiest way to enter and view your Transfers is to make the Transfer column visible in registers: click the Columns icon on the bottom toolbar, and click the checkbox for Transfer. (I prefer to move the Transfer column next to the Category column; you can click on a column heading and drag it left or right to re-arrange columns.) For the split line where you want to transfer part of the money, do NOT select a category; instead, in the Transfer column, pick the account you want from the dropdown menu, or type a letter or two to get the account name. 

(After you select the transfer account, you'll note that it also shows up in the Category column, surrounded by square brackets -- [Account] -- and that is another way you can enter a transfer without the transfer column: in the category column, type a left bracket followed by the account name. Another note: in the Split line, the Transfer field is always available, whether or not you have the Transfer column visible.)

So in your example, the transaction would look like this: