Bonus income shows as negative expense

Jonathan Perkins

Hi,

Last month I received a bonus, and it's categorized as an Income category, i.e. Income:Bonus. On my budget report, however, it shows up in the expense part of the budget, effectively as a negative expense. The category itself is definitely an income category.

Need this working right--it's key to understanding our monthly budget. Thanks for any advice.

Quicken_Tyka

Hello!

I wanted to add, that I've seen this if the budgeted amount is 0 or a negative number.



As bonus income may not be something that you plan on receiving, the budgeted amount needs to be at least a $1 to show as income.




Hope this helps!

-Quicken Tyka

Jonathan Perkins

Quicken Tyka's comment resolved this. I changed my budget to $1 bonus expected and suddenly the bonus showed as income.

NotACPA

What tax line did you assign to Income:Bonus?

Jonathan Perkins

I used the Quicken default: W-2, Salary or Wages, Self

NotACPA

OK,  that's right, how did you input the Bonus?

And, are ANY items showing up on  the Income side of the Budget report?

Jonathan Perkins

The transaction is a deposit into my checking account. It's essentially like this:

Transaction Amount: Deposit $5

Split:
Income
Bonus $7

Expenses
Fed Tax $1
FICA $1

NotACPA

OK,  at this point I've gone about as far as I can ... since I use QWin and not QMac.

Hopefully, one  of our QMac SuperUsers will be  along to help you.

Sorry that I couldn't  do more.

Jonathan Perkins

Thanks for trying! As a shortcut I'll try to just categorize it as regular salary--that works on all of my routine transactions.

Jonathan Perkins

For what it's worth, categorizing it as Salary DID work--but it shouldn't be necessary.

jacobs

@Jonathan Perkins If entering it as a split using your regular Salary as the category works correctly, but categorizing it as the bonus category does not, I'd like to ask you to check something you already said is okay, but I want to make sure...

Go to Window > Categories and scroll to the category.  Are both the main category and the subcategory set to Type=Income? It should look something like this:



Yes? 

Next, create a quick report using Reports > New Report. Click Transaction, select Rows=Category, and click Create Report. Click Cusotomize to se the date to This Year, or a period that includes your bonus payment. In the Income section that appears first, is both your regular salary and your bonus showing up, both as positive numbers, as you'd expect?

Jonathan Perkins

Fascinating, thanks for the input. Yes, both salary and bonus are listed as Income categories. And when I view the report created as you described, the bonus shows up as income. However, in the budget, it shows up in the Expenses section--as a negative expense.

NotACPA

Also, @Jonathan Perkins  I notice that you're describing it as INCOME:Bonus, while @Jacobs is describing it as Salary:Income.

Could that be part  of  the issue? 

jacobs

Fascinating indeed! I don't use the budget feature a lot, so I haven't experienced this and I'm now just guessing at possible next steps. Maybe someone who's got more experience with budgets in Quicken Mac will jump in...

If you open your budget, click Edit Budget, and click Select Categories, does the category show up under the Income tab or the Expense tab?

If there any other transaction which has ever been entered for this subcategory which was a negative number?

If you've only used it once. Could you delete the transaction, delete the subcategory, and start over. Add the subcategory, making sure its type is Income. Then, before entering any transaction, go to Budget > Edit > Select Categories and see if the subcategory is available to select in the Income tab. If so, select it and save your budget. Then go back and enter your bonus payment again, and see if it shows as income or flips to an expense in the budget.

I just entered a dummy $100 deposit using the Salary:Bonus subcategory I created above. When I edited my budget and added this subcategory, it does appear right where it should as a subcategory of Salary in the Income seciton of my budget.

This is a silly question for me to ask this far into this, but is the transaction recording the receipt of your bonus in your checking account have a positive value in the Amount column that's green in color in your checking register?


(Or if you use the deparate Payment and Deposit columns instead of Amount, is the payment in the Deposit column?)


Sorry if this seems elementary, but I wanted to make sure we weren't overlooking somethig obvious…

Quicken_Tyka

Hello!

I wanted to add, that I've seen this if the budgeted amount is 0 or a negative number.



As bonus income may not be something that you plan on receiving, the budgeted amount needs to be at least a $1 to show as income.




Hope this helps!

-Quicken Tyka

Jonathan Perkins

Quicken Tyka's comment resolved this. I changed my budget to $1 bonus expected and suddenly the bonus showed as income.