Can I default my imported transactions to "Add Shares"?

joegood666

My wife's 401(k) is with a company that doesn't support direct connection, so I have to download a QFX file, then import it into Quicken.

As people have mentioned on other threads, the import marks all the transactions as "Buy", and Quicken adds a massive negative cash balance to the total to offset the added shares, so the displayed 401(k) balance is off by thousands.

All I want to do is set all imported transactions to "Add Shares" to avoid the negative cash total, because never again do I want to have to do this manually for 217 individual transactions (which I just finished).

So, is there any way to achieve this?

jacobs

@joegood666 It's you who define the details of the transaction for the paycheck, not your bank or the 401(k) brokerage.

The first step is setting up the paycheck transaction correctly. Let's say the paycheck is directly deposited in your checking account. In your checking account, create a transaction where the amount is the net pay you receive, and the splits mirror what you see on your paycheck stub. The first split would be your gross pay amount, categorized to whatever category you use for your salary. The next split might be federal withholding, followed by Social Security and Medicare, state tax, local tax (if any), unemployment insurance, etc. Then you might have other deductions, for life insurance, medical, etc. And somewhere in there is a deduction for contribution to the 401(k)* -- and that split line should be a Transfer to the 401(k) account.

Now that you've got the paycheck set up correctly, make it a scheduled (recurring) transaction with a frequency that matches your pay -- weekly, every other week, twice a month, or whatever. 

When you download transactions for the account where the paycheck is deposited, it's a simple deposit for the net amount. Quicken will either automatically match the downloaded transaction to your manually-entered transaction and merge them, retaining your splits, or you can manually merge them by dragging your manually-entered transaction over the downloaded one.

So now your checking account is in good shape; what about the 401(k)? Well, the transfer split line in the paycheck transaction is creating cash in your 401(k) account. Now, when the Buy transactions are imported, there is cash there to fund those buys, such that the Buy brings the cash balance back to zero.

*One complication not addressed above is if the employer is making a matching contribution to the 401(k) on each paycheck. If so, you need to generate that cash in your 401(k) account for the subsequent Buy transaction to use up. You could do this a few different ways. One would be to add a split line to the paycheck transaction to Transfer the appropriate amount to the 401(k) account. But this is "extra" money not coming out of your paycheck, so you'd need an offsetting split line to recognize the employer match; you can either leave this uncategorized or create a revenue category if you want to be able to see how much the employe contributed over time. Or if you don't want this in the paycheck transaction, you can create a  scheduled transaction in the 401(k) account to reflect this income to the account.

UKR

No, I'm sorry, I don't think you can do that.
If you're worried about the "massive negative cash balance" ... think about where the money for your 401(k) purchases comes from: your paycheck.
To offset the cost of the Buy transactions, you need to set up the retirement deduction of your paychecks as a transfer into the 401(k). If all your paycheck deductions are properly transferred into the 401(k) and all your Buy transactions are correctly recorded, the cash balance in your 401(k) should zero out.

joegood666

So, what you say is true, but...
...I find no way to tell Quicken, "Oh, by the way, when you notice my wife's paycheck coming in, there's actually an additional $xxxx from her 401(k) contribution, so add it and transfer it to her 401(k)," so it would be another manual process on a per-paycheck basis.

Your method is definitely an improvement, but still involves manual adjustments on every paycheck. I'm hoping to find something to automate to the process beyond, "Tell your wife's 401(k) firm to get on the ball and integrate with Quicken."

My web-based downloads with my investment firm have no such issues.

jacobs

@joegood666 It's you who define the details of the transaction for the paycheck, not your bank or the 401(k) brokerage.

The first step is setting up the paycheck transaction correctly. Let's say the paycheck is directly deposited in your checking account. In your checking account, create a transaction where the amount is the net pay you receive, and the splits mirror what you see on your paycheck stub. The first split would be your gross pay amount, categorized to whatever category you use for your salary. The next split might be federal withholding, followed by Social Security and Medicare, state tax, local tax (if any), unemployment insurance, etc. Then you might have other deductions, for life insurance, medical, etc. And somewhere in there is a deduction for contribution to the 401(k)* -- and that split line should be a Transfer to the 401(k) account.

Now that you've got the paycheck set up correctly, make it a scheduled (recurring) transaction with a frequency that matches your pay -- weekly, every other week, twice a month, or whatever. 

When you download transactions for the account where the paycheck is deposited, it's a simple deposit for the net amount. Quicken will either automatically match the downloaded transaction to your manually-entered transaction and merge them, retaining your splits, or you can manually merge them by dragging your manually-entered transaction over the downloaded one.

So now your checking account is in good shape; what about the 401(k)? Well, the transfer split line in the paycheck transaction is creating cash in your 401(k) account. Now, when the Buy transactions are imported, there is cash there to fund those buys, such that the Buy brings the cash balance back to zero.

*One complication not addressed above is if the employer is making a matching contribution to the 401(k) on each paycheck. If so, you need to generate that cash in your 401(k) account for the subsequent Buy transaction to use up. You could do this a few different ways. One would be to add a split line to the paycheck transaction to Transfer the appropriate amount to the 401(k) account. But this is "extra" money not coming out of your paycheck, so you'd need an offsetting split line to recognize the employer match; you can either leave this uncategorized or create a revenue category if you want to be able to see how much the employe contributed over time. Or if you don't want this in the paycheck transaction, you can create a  scheduled transaction in the 401(k) account to reflect this income to the account.

joegood666

I'll give it a shot.

jacobs

Sure, you need to edit the recurring transaction when there’s any change to your pay, but that takes just a few seconds.

Even if you had no 401(k), this is how you’d record your pay in Quicken, and you’d likely have something change in your deductions over the course of the year that you’d need to edit.