How to show net income only in report?

Diver42420

Hi, I'm trying to do a simple budget report for a month in QW 2020 27.28 that shows *net* income (i.e. what actually got deposited into checking from pay, etc and then my expenses. How do I show the net income? When I customize the report, I see "Net Salary" and "Net Salary Spouse" and have those checked in the categories, but it doesn't show up in the report.

Boatnmaniac

Hi, @Diver42420 - In order to show net income in the budget using the "Net Salary" categories you need to also be using those categories for your actual paycheck deposits to and income reminders for your checking account.  Unfortunately, that means you will then not be able to track your actual paycheck and Reminder details for gross income and deductions for taxes, insurance, 401K contributions, etc., in the budget, reports and tax planner...only your net salaries will show up there, too.

To do what you want to do you will want to have Paycheck Reminders set up via the Paycheck Wizard (under Income Reminders set up).  Once you have these set up:

• Click on "Budget Actions" to the top right of the budget screen.
• Click on "Select Categories to Budget".
• Click on "Paychecks" on the left side of the popup menu and select the Employer paychecks you want to include in the budget.  This will provide the net salary picture in the budget you are looking for.
• Click on "Income" and uncheck all categories related to your paychecks that you don't want included in your budget.  Make sure other non-paycheck income categories that you want included in your budget are checked...uncheck everything else.
  
• Click on "Expenses" and uncheck all categories related to your paychecks that you do not want included in your budget.  Make sure non-paycheck expense categories that you want included are checked...uncheck everything else.

Let me know if this gives you the budget view you are looking for or if you have any additional questions.

Diver42420

Ok thanks, those suggestions really helped. I added the paychecks to the budget. But for example, when I go into the budget and click on that check, I see the two paychecks listed (the net amount, good!) but below that there's a line that says "items budgeted elsewhere" and a number that gets added to the total of the two checks. What's that and how do I get rid of it?

Update: I see that it was caused because I put in a budget number next to that line in the budget, for example if there's two paychecks per month totaling $4,000 net, I edited the allocated budget number to say $4,000, meaning that's what I'm expecting, and it made the above thing happen. I guess you don't do that for expected budgeted income? Maybe because the paycheck entries are already entered in the bank register for the month, ahead of time due to income reminders?

Boatnmaniac

@Diver42420 - I wish I could answer your question.  I can't picture in my head what you described so I can't determine how to test for it.  I'm not a Quicken Budget expert since I don't use that tool for myself (I do budget at a very high level but not by using Quicken Budget).  For the most part I only play around with it in a test file that I keep. 

If you would attach a picture file of what you described I could take a look at it and could then maybe give you a good answer.  You can attach a picture file by clicking on the Attach File icon (circled in red) at the top of the post entry field.  Once you acquire 50 points in Community you can Attach an image (circled in blue) so they show up like this.

Or, maybe someone else with more Budget expertise than I have will weigh in here and blow us both away! 

Chris_QPW

Unfortunately between the Budget Graph View, the Budget Annual view, and the Budget Report there are several inconstancies.

"Everything Else" only appears on the Budget Graph View.  And unfortunately there isn't any option to turn it off.

Basically what it is any category what you didn't put in your budget that has "actual amounts" in it.  I'm sure the idea here is that it is suppose to be for the "Oops I forgot to add that category, and if Quicken didn't warn me about it existing I might have gone over my budget without realizing it!", kind of thing.

Or maybe you might think of it like "lump all the rest of my categories together and I will just budget them with one amount".

Here is an example which I didn't budget for Medical:Medicine


Personally when do look at my budget, I use the Annual view that doesn't have the Everything Else.

Chris_QPW

Actually I take this one back:
"Or maybe you might think of it like "lump all the rest of my categories together and I will just budget them with one amount"."

I thought you could put in one number at the Everything Else level.  You can't, so to budget them you would still have to put individual budget numbers on each category.