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Quicken Course

Paddy

I have been a Quicken user since the beginning but I am finding that some of the concepts regarding Transfer elude me. I am retiring and what to make sure that my transactions are accounted for and not double-counted, etc.

Can anyone recommend a class that would cover this type of learning online?

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Tom Young

Maybe you could provide some detail or examples for your "some of the concepts regarding Transfer elude me" statement?

I ask because the definition of a "transfer" in and of itself is dirt-simple: Any movement of money between Quicken Accounts - moving cash from checking to savings, moving cash from checking to your credit card Account, etc. - is a transfer. If money moves from an Account to one of your Categories, that's not a transfer. A transfer is not an income or expense event, it's simply moving money from one pocket to a different pocket.

There are however two aspects of transfers that people sometimes stumble over.

The first stumbling block has to do with the difference between the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) treatment of transfers (as above) and the "statutory" (i.e., income taxes) treatment of some transfers. An example here is moving money from a deferred tax Account (e.g., IRA) to your checking Account. Under GAAP accounting that transfer is not considered an "income event" but it is an income event for taxes.

The other common stumbling block is that even though a transfer isn't an income or expense event from a GAAP standpoint, sometimes you want to see a transfer treated as such in some customized Spending Report.

Is it one or the other of these stumbling blocks that's puzzling, or something else?

Paddy

Thanks for the help. What are some of the issues related to paying a credit card every off every month? It looks like a big expense when the items that it represents are already accounted for it the credit card register. I pay the CC from a checking account every month around the 22nd so I don't want that to be counted as an expense.

volvogirl

The credit card payment will not be an expense. It is just a Transfer to the Credit Card account. When you enter the payment in your checking account you put the credit card account name in for the category using square brackets around the name to indicate it is a transfer...like this… [credit card] or newer Mac versions have a separate Transfer column.

Sounds like you are entering the credit card charges right directly into the credit card account. How are you entering the payment in your Checking Account? You don't split out the payment from the checking account. It's just a transfer to the credit card account.

Paddy

The individual charges come into my CC account which is what I am spending it on. I categorize those. I pay the bill monthly from the bank account. Is that what you are saying?

volvogirl

Yes. That's all you need to do.

Rocket J Squirrel

Best practice is to reconcile the credit card account monthly against the statement, just like you would a checking account. At the completion of the reconcile, Quicken will ask whether you want to pay the bill and from what account. Following this path causes the transfer to be created automatically.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/1u/19jtp5ijtvn2.png

Tom Young

"I pay the CC from a checking account every month around the 22nd so I don't want that to be counted as an expense."

If you pay your credit card out of your checking Account and indicate it's a "transfer" by putting the name of the credit card Account in the Category box surrounded by square brackets, "[Name of Credit Card Account]", then that transfer should not show up, by default, in the "Expenses" section of a Spending Report.

NotACPA

Paddy said:

The individual charges come into my CC account which is what I am spending it on. I categorize those. I pay the bill monthly from the bank account. Is that what you are saying?

Not all money that comes out of your checking account is an expense. A Payment to your credit card is a transfer ... NOT an expense. An expense makes you poorer (your net worth is reduced). An income makes you richer (your net worth is increased).

A Transfer makes you neither richer nor poorer because the expenses have already been recorded in your card account. Just like moving your wallet from one pocket to another (i.e., "transferring it") makes you neither richer nor poorer.

Paddy

> @Rocket J Squirrel said:
> Best practice is to reconcile the credit card account monthly against the statement, just like you would a checking account. At the completion of the reconcile, Quicken will ask whether you want to pay the bill and from what account. Following this path causes the transfer to be created automatically.

Where do you get to that screen?

NotACPA

One gets to the Reconcile screen by clicking CTRL-R while in the pertinent account. The dialog will give you a choice of reconciling to paper or online.

GeoffG

The simplest method to access reconcile for any account is to ensure you have Classic view selected and the add Reconcile to the toolbar. If you are not familiar with adding toolbar items, right mouse click on the toolbar.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/ic/r7mj9aejo0cs.jpg

Rocket J Squirrel

Paddy said:

> @Rocket J Squirrel said:
> Best practice is to reconcile the credit card account monthly against the statement, just like you would a checking account. At the completion of the reconcile, Quicken will ask whether you want to pay the bill and from what account. Following this path causes the transfer to be created automatically.

Where do you get to that screen?

It appears as the last step of reconciling a credit card account.

Paddy

My company over paid me and I have to pay them back. I do not want it to look like an expense. How do I deal with that? The category the Net Salary.

Chris_QPW

Paddy said:

My company over paid me and I have to pay them back. I do not want it to look like an expense. How do I deal with that? The category the Net Salary.

No matter if you are dealing with an expense or an income category the general rule is just enter a transaction that is for the reverse amount in the same category that was used for the first transaction.

With an income category that is going to be shown in Quicken reports in the Income section as a negative amount.

One note, be sure that you really mean "Net Salary". There is two ways to track paychecks. One is Gross amount with all the details, and if that is used then the category would be Salary. The second is if you don't track the details and only categorize the final amount that is put into your checking account with a category of Net Salary.