Income, Bills and Mortgage (Q Mac Budget)

Ekalov10

Hi -

I am adding my paycheck, mortgage statement, and some bills into the Bills & Income section. I'd like this information to automatically flow into the the Budget. For instance, if I were to make $X,000.00 in my paycheck, I'd like that to automatically show in the Budget without having to re-key it.

Additionally, I would like certain bills (annual life insurance payments) to show up in the Budget when I add them as Bills (i.e., they are fees certain and I'd like them in the budget).

Finally, I'd like the principal and interest from my mortgage payment to automatically display into the Budget.

Any way to accomplish the above?

Ekalov10

Clarification: This is Quicken for Mac if that makes a difference.

jacobs

When you say you'd like your pay or a bill to show in the budget, do you mean in the ACTUAL columns of the budget, or do you want it to update the BUDGET values? The former should happen automatically; the latter doesn't happen because budgets remain as created unless or until you change them. 

Ekalov10

On Banktivity for example, when I enter l paycheck, that info shows up in my Budget so I don’t need to re-enter it. And, if I change my paycheck, it updates the budget. Same with mortgage and bills. Yes, I want it to show up in the Budget column (not just the Actual column).

jacobs

In my opinion, no budget should automatically update. A budget is an income and/or spending plan or projection. If your income or expenses are higher or lower than you planned, your budget should show you those differences. If your budget automatically updated to your actual income/expenses, your budget would always show your actual income/expenses match the budget. Instead, in cases where you want to update your budget to reflect changes in income/expenses, it should be a conscious action. Again, that's just my opinion; I understand some might disagree.

In any case, to answer you question: no, Quicken Mac doesn't automatically change your budget to match your actual income/expenses. 

Regarding your third question above, you can show your mortgage interest and principal payments in your budget, but it's a little unintuitive. Mortgage interest is easy: just make sure you select that category to include in your budget. The principal payment isn't actually an expense, in an accounting sense, although it feels like one; it's a transfer between an asset and a liability. In your budget, you can show such transfers, selectively, in the Select Categories dialog box, although it's no obvious. Scroll down to find Transfers In and Transfers Out. For your mortgage principal, you'll want to select Transfers Out > TO [your loan account]. It will then show up in your budget, under expenses, alphabetically under "TO". Not perfect placement, but it gets the job done.

Ekalov10

Thank you for the help. Agreed it shouldn't be automatic, but in Banktivity: You can just select the paychecks, bonus, mortgage, etc. and pull it in so it populates the right categories (insurance withholding, fed tax, Soc Sec, etc.) without having to re-key it.

jacobs

@Ekalov10 So is there something you click on in Banktivity to identify which transactions or payees should auto-update your budget?

In any case, there's no such feature in Quicken Mac (nor Quicken Windows, to the best of my knowledge). You could create a new Idea post requesting this functionality, and describe how the feature should ideally work. If it garners votes from other users here, it can get forwarded to the developers for consideration for future development. 

to create an Idea post, go to the Product Ideas - Quicken for Mac > Budgets and Planning Tools page, and click on the big, blue New Idea button on the top right.

garysmith87

I think something is lost in the conversation here.

As with any other personal finance software, you have to set up a budget first.

In Quicken Mac, you need to select the categories from YOUR category list you want to be budgeted...and you'll need to initially set up the monthly amounts in that budget...or quarterly or annually or whatever frequency YOU decide.  If you have an annual insurance payment, you decide whether you want to budget that amount over 12 equal months...or an annual payment.  You decide what works best for YOU.  

Then, once transactions are entered into Quicken Mac, they automatically flow to the budget via the categories assigned to the transactions.

So, long story short...you can budget your mortgage payments...either in total or separately as interest and principal (I've done it either way).  Personally, I now just budget for the total amount as what difference does the breakdown matter...I'm still spending the same amount.  But you could break it down by individual category, if you'd like.  

Also, in my opinion, I'd find it easier to setup your bank accounts first...and then when your comfortable with working within the registers and possibly downloading transactions, move on to creating some simple and then more complex reports.  Finally, then tackle the budgeting aspect.  You'll find the flow easier to understand then.  

I've used the "other" personal finance software for many years, before giving up on it and returning to Quicken Mac.  Personally, since the "other" software became a subscription product at a ridiculous annual fee, Quicken Mac is a much better value for pretty much the same features.

But there is a bit of a learning curve, as with all new software.  There are some subtle nuances to learn, especially regarding budgeting.  That's what this community is for.  Ask away. 

jacobs

garysmith87 said:

I think something is lost in the conversation here.

As with any other personal finance software, you have to set up a budget first.

@garysmith87  The way I read the posts, it seemed that @Ekalov10 has created a budget, but wants to have certain categories -- such as pay and mortgage -- automatically update the budgeted amounts when the actual transaction amounts change. ("If I change my paycheck, it updates the budget. Same with mortgage and bills.") This is what I was explaining is not a feature in Quicken Mac, as it apparently is in the other software.

As I noted above, I don't think budgets should auto-update budgeted amounts, because the purpose of the budget is to show where actual income/expense differs from what you budgeted; the user should have to manually make changes if they want to update their budget.  But because we all use the software differently, I can understand if another user wants certain categories in their budget to update automatically. that's why I suggested creating an Idea post for such a feature.

Boborino

New user here.......
My impression of what the OP was asking (and I've asked).....is that if I've set up all of my future scheduled Bills and Income transactions and THEN create a budget, the budget should be smart enough to know about what is already scheduled. Currently when I go into Edit Budget mode I feel as though I am being asked to go off memory as to what to budget, rather than use information already entered into the app.

Is there a way to see historical spending for a category while editing a budget? At least that would be instructive.