How to set up paycheck with split lines on Mac

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: mac 2018 not memorized.

jacobs

@martianewell My understanding is that Windows has a Paycheck Wizard which makes people thing there's some magic to a paycheck. Actually, a paycheck is really a regular transaction with many split lines. The way to do it is to create the transaction once, using your paycheck stub. Let's walk through it…

• Start a new transaction
• Enter a Payee name like "My Paycheck" or "Deposit (Paycheck)" or "Companyname Pay" or whatever appears on your bank statement if your checks are received via Direct Deposit.
• Enter the amount of your net pay as the Amount or Deposit value. (If you show the Amount column, make sure Quicken make this a positive value; if you instead use the Payment and Deposit columns, enter the amount in the Deposit column.)
• Open Splits (Shortcut: Command-Option-S)
• For the first split, enter the category you use for your Income. If you're using Quicken's default categories, this would be Personal Income:Paycheck. Or any other category/subcategory you create. (The Amount here is a positive number.)
• Tab to jump to the second split line, where you want to start recording your deductions. (I recommend entering the deductions in whatever order they appear on your paycheck stub, so you'll always be able to quickly make changes in Quicken when comparing to your stub.) So select Taxes:Federal Tax, for instance, and enter that amount. (It should automatically be a negative number; you don't need to type the minus sign.) 
• Tab again, and Quicken will open a third split line. Enter the next deduction category, such as Taxes:Soc Sec, Tab to Amount, enter the deduction amount.
• Tab again to open the next split line. Continue entering deductions like this until you are done and you have no remainder amount.
• Save the transaction.

That's it. Now, here's the beauty of it. To enter your next paycheck, simply create a new transaction, enter the same Payee name, and Quicken will use the previous transaction to fill in the amount and all the splits. Boom you're done, in 5 seconds.

I should note that some payroll providers keep the amounts the same and only make changes once a quarter or at the end of the year for rounding; some payroll providers may have 1¢ or 2¢ variations from check to check, so you may have to change the net pay and one or more splits to match the paycheck. 15 seconds instead of 5.

Post back if any of this doesn't make sense.

smayer97

And you can even schedule that transaction. So in the end, though there is currently no wizard dialogue box to do this, it is no harder to do it yourself manually, so it should not be a barrier to moving over. That said, there are many other true obstacles for QWin users migrating to QMac, but this is not one of them.

That said, you You can add your VOTE to Add a Paycheck Wizard.

First, click on the underlined link above to go there, then click the little grey triangle under the VOTE count at the top of page 1 in the blue banner, so your vote will count for THIS feature and increase its visibility to the developers by seeking to have the features you need or desire end up in the latest version (it may take a few seconds for your vote to register).

While you are at it, you may want to add your VOTE to related IDEAS found on the 
List of Requests for Bill Reminders (aka Scheduled Transactions) and Graph Features (aka Cash Flow Forecast or Projected Balance). Click on the underlined link, then follow the instructions to add your vote to more related ideas. 

Your VOTES matter!

martianewell

Can someone point me to how to set up a paycheck on Quicken for Mac? Right now it's the only obstacle to my converting from the windows to the mac version. Thanks.

jacobs

@martianewell My understanding is that Windows has a Paycheck Wizard which makes people thing there's some magic to a paycheck. Actually, a paycheck is really a regular transaction with many split lines. The way to do it is to create the transaction once, using your paycheck stub. Let's walk through it…

• Start a new transaction
• Enter a Payee name like "My Paycheck" or "Deposit (Paycheck)" or "Companyname Pay" or whatever appears on your bank statement if your checks are received via Direct Deposit.
• Enter the amount of your net pay as the Amount or Deposit value. (If you show the Amount column, make sure Quicken make this a positive value; if you instead use the Payment and Deposit columns, enter the amount in the Deposit column.)
• Open Splits (Shortcut: Command-Option-S)
• For the first split, enter the category you use for your Income. If you're using Quicken's default categories, this would be Personal Income:Paycheck. Or any other category/subcategory you create. (The Amount here is a positive number.)
• Tab to jump to the second split line, where you want to start recording your deductions. (I recommend entering the deductions in whatever order they appear on your paycheck stub, so you'll always be able to quickly make changes in Quicken when comparing to your stub.) So select Taxes:Federal Tax, for instance, and enter that amount. (It should automatically be a negative number; you don't need to type the minus sign.) 
• Tab again, and Quicken will open a third split line. Enter the next deduction category, such as Taxes:Soc Sec, Tab to Amount, enter the deduction amount.
• Tab again to open the next split line. Continue entering deductions like this until you are done and you have no remainder amount.
• Save the transaction.

That's it. Now, here's the beauty of it. To enter your next paycheck, simply create a new transaction, enter the same Payee name, and Quicken will use the previous transaction to fill in the amount and all the splits. Boom you're done, in 5 seconds.

I should note that some payroll providers keep the amounts the same and only make changes once a quarter or at the end of the year for rounding; some payroll providers may have 1¢ or 2¢ variations from check to check, so you may have to change the net pay and one or more splits to match the paycheck. 15 seconds instead of 5.

Post back if any of this doesn't make sense.

smayer97

And you can even schedule that transaction. So in the end, though there is currently no wizard dialogue box to do this, it is no harder to do it yourself manually, so it should not be a barrier to moving over. That said, there are many other true obstacles for QWin users migrating to QMac, but this is not one of them.

That said, you You can add your VOTE to Add a Paycheck Wizard.

First, click on the underlined link above to go there, then click the little grey triangle under the VOTE count at the top of page 1 in the blue banner, so your vote will count for THIS feature and increase its visibility to the developers by seeking to have the features you need or desire end up in the latest version (it may take a few seconds for your vote to register).

While you are at it, you may want to add your VOTE to related IDEAS found on the 
List of Requests for Bill Reminders (aka Scheduled Transactions) and Graph Features (aka Cash Flow Forecast or Projected Balance). Click on the underlined link, then follow the instructions to add your vote to more related ideas. 

Your VOTES matter!