Where do I start?

rallysport096

I'm sure this has been and probably will continued to be asked, but when it comes to planning and budgeting, my wife and I have multiple savings accounts that we use for different things and are wondering how to work with that in Quicken using the planning tools. We have automatic transfers for things like vacations, kids' college, other kids' things, etc. I don't have the full grasp of Quicken quite yet and was hoping someone could help me on this issue and point me in a good direction for training on this program so i can learn the ins and outs properly.

Thank you so much for your help!

Sherlock

I suggest you set Quicken up to as much as possible mimic the real world.  If you have multiple savings accounts, add multiple savings accounts to your Quicken file.  If you have automatic transfers, add automatic transfers to your Quicken file (aka auto entry transfer reminders).

Regarding training:

Save frequent backups: press Ctrl + B

The most reliable way to undo any change you make to your Quicken file is to restore a backup saved before you made the change.

Review the built-in help: press F1

Learning Quicken's terminology will help you find answers

Review the community FAQs.  

A good starting point is: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7166077/faq-quicken-windows-faq-list

Regarding planning and budgeting specifically, there are a number of approaches that may be used depending on the requirements.  For example, we may use multiple reminders, projected balances, budgets, and saving goals.

Sherlock

I suggest you set Quicken up to as much as possible mimic the real world.  If you have multiple savings accounts, add multiple savings accounts to your Quicken file.  If you have automatic transfers, add automatic transfers to your Quicken file (aka auto entry transfer reminders).

Regarding training:

Save frequent backups: press Ctrl + B

The most reliable way to undo any change you make to your Quicken file is to restore a backup saved before you made the change.

Review the built-in help: press F1

Learning Quicken's terminology will help you find answers

Review the community FAQs.  

A good starting point is: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7166077/faq-quicken-windows-faq-list

Regarding planning and budgeting specifically, there are a number of approaches that may be used depending on the requirements.  For example, we may use multiple reminders, projected balances, budgets, and saving goals.

rallysport096

So I did add the savings accounts as you mentioned, but the problem I'm having is understanding the budgeting/planning part. I am missing how to (for the lack of better terms) tie transactions/transfers to a savings goal (or planning goal), or when running a report, seeing how we are doing financially after all the savings goals are in place.

The other issue is just wanting to put "x" amount per bi-weekly paycheck away rather than a finite goal within "y" amount of months/years.

Thanks, btw. I appreciate the help so far! I'm going to check out the FAQ list now.

UKR

As far as budgeting is concerned, add your savings accounts to the budget.

Using Manage Budget Categories, add the accounts using both Transfers In and Transfers Out. This enables you to see, in Transfers In, how much you're contributing to your Vacation budget and, in Transfers Out, how much you're withdrawing when you pay for your Vacation expenses (by transferring money from Vacation savings to Checking)

OTOH, since I don't use separate savings accounts to actually squirrel money away, I just have a Vacation budget category. I also don't use the Savings Goal function of Quicken. Too lazy ...
Every month I budget, e.g., $200 for Vacation expenses. The category is defined to roll over unused amounts to the next month(s), even across year boundaries. So, over time, a good amount of unused budget becomes available.
When I finally do get to go on Vacation, all expense transactions are recorded with Category = Vacation, reducing the available rollover amount.

rallysport096

Why are the FAQ's leading to a "Page not found" page?

Sherlock

rallysport096 said:

Why are the FAQ's leading to a "Page not found" page?

That tends to happen when a moderator moves or archives a post.