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Income is showing as gross not net in Budget

allgoodnamestaken

I've set up a new paycheck and entered the gross amount as well as all of the deductions, the wizard shows the correct net amount but in Budgets its showing as the gross amount.
If I just enter this check as a split transaction using the gross amount and then negative amounts for the deductions, i get the correct net amount but the gross amount is still what's showing in Budgets. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

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Sherlock

I suspect you are including the Salary category in the budget. To include the net paycheck amount in the Budget, I suggest you include the paycheck: open the budget, select Manage Budget Categories, Paychecks, check the paycheck, and select OK

allgoodnamestaken

I've done just that, but for some reason it's still populating with the gross number. It's crazy because I have set up other paychecks in the past that are correct in the Budget but this new paycheck is showing gross in the Budget, despite showing a correct net number after all deductions. I feel I'm overlooking something obvious but can't figure it out. As I mentioned the same gross number shows up if i set it up as a paycheck or as a split transaction.

Chris_QPW

One thing to look for would be if you are including both the paycheck (net) and one or more of the categories in that paycheck. There is an underlined assumption that you will use one or the other. When you mix them, you can get strange results.

allgoodnamestaken

Not sure if I follow what you are suggesting? If I use the paycheck wizard it's pretty straight forward. I enter the gross at the top and the various deductions. at the bottom Quicken calculates the net, which has, with the other paychecks populated a net figure in the Budget.

Chris_QPW

Example of what I'm talking about.
Budget with just the paycheck.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/at/uinfz6zchiyy.png

Budget including both the paycheck and the salary category.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/d3/yldxvaccbrbp.png

Budget including paycheck, and salary and some of the expense categories in that paycheck.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/u4/d8rvaybpikxe.png

These are the kinds of "strange" results you can get if you mix selecting the paycheck and categories that go in it.

allgoodnamestaken

I only have it listed as a paycheck and then the deductions are broken out. I don't have a salary category listed in Budgets. Does that make sense?

Chris_QPW

allgoodnamestaken said:

I only have it listed as a paycheck and then the deductions are broken out. I don't have a salary category listed in Budgets. Does that make sense?

It isn't just the salary category that matters. If you include ANY of the categories in the paycheck you can run into "strange" results.

Basically if you have the paycheck reminder and one of the categories in that paycheck you are asking Quicken to double count that category, and then the result get "unpredictable". Well actually they "predicable", but maybe not what you expect.

Example, here is the paycheck by itself:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/i1/99cg1w1ft729.png

Notice that it is the "net amount".

Now I add one of the categories that are in that paycheck:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/9g/0f1uvowlrjv1.png

Notice that the Paycheck amount increased by the amount of the Tax:Fed category, it didn't stay at the "net amount". This actually makes sense if you look at the total at the bottom.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/h4/rohqg1fh0ksh.png

Notice that the totals are the same as the original net paycheck amount. So the Tax:Fed was put into the "net paycheck amount" and then subtracted back out to compensate. And as I add in those other categories I basically can change the "net paycheck amount" to the point where it is now the "gross amount".

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/gu/5lv4jeata0g1.png

allgoodnamestaken

I see what you are saying in your examples but I'm not sure how I remedy this issue that is only occurring on this newest paycheck I just set up. I've gone back to look at the other paychecks and I just can't see any difference between the older paychecks that report Net in Budgets and the newest paycheck that is showing gross? This newest paycheck is actually simpler than all the others, it only has one deduction. So I use the gross number for salary, add in the single deduction and the correct net deposit shows in the Net Pay field.

Chris_QPW

I don't know, I'm not confident that the above is the problem, I just suggested it as a possible cause. It could be some kind of "corruption", you might try Validate and Repair.

allgoodnamestaken

So i reviewed my previous paychecks and I was surprised to find that i do not have any of those deductions as line items in my Budget.
Do I need to recategorize the single deduction so it's just not included in Budgets? Is this a Quicken anomaly that they need to address? I'd very much like to capture that single deduction as a Budget category is there anyway to do that?

Chris_QPW

Frankly I sort of find the "paycheck" to be an anomaly. I see why people want it, but but it sort hides a "hidden assumption", that you are only interested in seeing the net amount. If you are interested in seeing other details of your paycheck then you shouldn't include the "paycheck". Instead you should include the categories you are interested in, in the budget. So put in salary, and that one deduction category, and it will all look/total right.

Chris_QPW

P.S. By "look right" I mean you should see the gross amount with deductions, which then total up to the right amount. Trying to see the "net amount" and "some deductions" doesn't make sense.

allgoodnamestaken

I'm not sure why Quicken goes a little wonky over the paycheck and deductions. In my mind I can't figure out why Budgets can't capture net for the paycheck amount as well as calculating any of the categories one might want to show up in the Budget. I appreciate your help and I guess I'll need to recategorize the single deduction so it's not a listed category in my Budget. Thank you again for hanging in there with me.

Chris_QPW

EDITED for typos:

Personally when I look at what it is doing, it seems to me they are trying to keep the accounting correct. It isn't nearly as "wonky" as I thought before I dug into it.

Lets take a very simple case. Gross pay $1000 once a month, with $100 Fed tax.
That means that you have $900 for expense/savings.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/b0/eb9n5g9bxto4.png

With just the paycheck and one expense. All the math is correct.

Now I decide I want to see the Fed tax in this budget.
Well that's $100. If the paycheck number stayed at $900 I would have -$100 for the Fed, and -$100 for the expense giving me a total of $700 which is wrong.

So what they saying is well if you are going to add that -$100 for the Fed tax into the budget I'm going to compensate by adding $100 to the net paycheck to make sure the numbers come out right.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/x2/oi8f4m0sdmni.png

allgoodnamestaken

So in my case where I would like the net paycheck amount and the deduction to show up in Budgets, how would you set up the transaction? The payment comes as a direct deposit so when Quicken downloads the paycheck i just get the net deposit. I may be missing something simple here but its eluding me.

Chris_QPW

The net amount includes this payment. To add it in again is "double counting" and as such the math would never come out right no matter how you try to show it in the budget.

You should either select just the net amount(paycheck) or your should select both the gross amount(salary) and that payment.