New user - issues with Budgeting with Quicken for Mac!!

Boborino

I'm having a bit of a difficulty setting up a budget for the first time and I'm not sure whether it is my lack of understanding or multiple bugs:

1) Could you explain the functionality of the "Budget as of" date and the "Reset Date"?

2) Should I be creating a new budget every year? Do budgets have a life of only 12 months?

3) After I have created a budget, it NEVER shows up on the mobile app.

4) When I'm in Edit Budget mode, is there a way to see actual historical spending so I have some basis for the numbers I enter? I see the dialog asking if I want to use historical data occasionally but it isn't clear why it asks me at times and not at others. Should I just have a report open on the side to view at the same time? It just feels like either I'm missing something or budgeting in the dark.

5) If I have more than one budget, is one primary/displayed first?

6) I have a mortgage and have set it up under Debt. There is a category called "Loan Payment to xxxx(my bank"). Where did that come from and should I be using that or budgeting for each component of my mortgage payment separately (mortgage interest + TO xxxx transfer of premium).

7) Finally, if I have already setup a recurring bill, lets say my annual Homeowner's Insurance in the Bills&Income section, is that automatically picked up/reflected when I'm editing a budget? It seems like double effort to tell the app I have an annual bill in one part but it is not smart enough to recognize it in another.

Thanks for the help!

Boborino

Bueller?????? Should I have posted this in the "Ask a question" section??

Quicken September

Hi, @Boborino

Thank you for reaching out to the Community with your questions! I am sorry for any confusion with the Budgeting features within Quicken, though I will be more than happy to clear some of your questions up for you. I will try to address them similarly to how you asked them for clarity.

The Budget as of Date feature is designed to give you more customizability for your 12-Month budgets. By default, a 12-Month Budget will start in January of the current year and show you through December unless you specified another starting date when you first set up the budget. This is a fairly natural starting point - but let's say you started your budget in January but you are now wanting to track a budget for a fiscal year that does not line up with the Calendar year (like October to September) - or, let's say you're a new user and the budget defaulted to January but you did not start using Quicken until June of a particular year and you don't have previous data for the beginning of the year - the Budget as of Date allows you to set where in the year the 12-month period starts. Pressing Reset Date will reset your budget back to the default January-December configuration or whatever you had originally set as the beginning date of your budget when you first set it up.

Budgets last either one month or twelve months, though if you use the Budget as of Date to look at the next year (Budget as of 01/2022) you may choose to use historical data to create your targets, or you can copy your targets from your current budget and it is considered the same budget - though you can still only view 12 months at a time - you can only move that 12-month window around.


If you have multiple budgets, Quicken will display the most recently opened budget in your data file. To swap between them, navigate to the chevron directly to the right of Budgets and your different options will appear. From here you may select which budget you would like to be in. An example of this is shown below.

    



Similarly to transactions, in order to get your budgets to sync from your application to Mobile & Web, you will need to perform a One-Step Update (or navigate to Accounts > Sync to Mobile) first to update your dataset and then from your Mobile & Web, perform a One-Step Update and your data should be synced from your application to your other device. 

                                                   


Quicken asks you if you would like to use Historical Data if you are moving a budget onto a previously uncounted time period with the Budget as of feature. Let's say you set up a budget for this year and then move the date to next year (planning ahead for 2022). It will ask you if you would like to use historical data or your current budget figures from this year to fill in the targets. The reason it does not give you this option when you first set up a new budget is that when you create a budget, Quicken will automatically scan your existing transactions going back 12 months to automatically create a default budget based on your past income and expense history.
                        

Personally, I would budget it all together under Mortgage, but I suppose this question would be more or less up to you if you wanted to add another category in there if I am understanding it correctly.

Lastly, if you have a recurring bill in your Bills & Income, it will show up in your transactions and as long as that category is not excluded from the budget, it should be reflected in the budget. 

I know this was a little lengthy but I hope it helps! If you have any further questions, please reach back out as we're always happy to help! Thank you!

-Quicken September

Boborino

Hey thanks, that is very very helpful!!!

Just to a couple follow ups-
1) So I started Quicken this month and only have data going back to Sept 2021. When I try to change the Budget as of date to 9/2021 it opens the Edit Budget page and the date is still January. However, I'm completely fine with the Jan-Dec default.

2) Regarding mobile sync, I've done those steps but still do not see any budgets on the iOS app.

3) Regarding Mortgages, is the "Loan Payment to xxx" category I see in the budget a Quicken default I can't change (but can deselect from budgeting) because I set up the mortgage in the Debt account list as well, a mortgage? Where/how is Quicken getting the budgeted amount shown?

4) Finally, new question, I categorize all of the deductions/payments/withdrawals/transfers in each paycheck. So is there an easy way to just budget the net paycheck? How do most people handle their paychecks, gross or net?

Thanks again for the time you've taken to help!

Quicken September

Hello again, @Boborino

Thank you again for reaching out to the Community with your follow-ups! We appreciate your feedback.

Based on what you described regarding the budget date, the program does not have targets set for 2022 so it will not move your budget into 2022. When the Edit Budget page pops up, please navigate to Budget Year and press the arrow up to select 2022. The program will then ask you where you would like to get your target values for 2022. You can either start them from scratch (Zero values), start from Historical data, or based on your Current budget. Once you make a selection and press Save, it will create targets for 2022 allowing you to move your 12-month window into 2022. This way you can start from 09/2021.

Regarding Mobile & Web sync, could you please try logging into the webapp to see if the budgets come across there? This way we can test to see if it is just the iOS app that is not showing your budgets or if we are running into some sort of sync error. Also, could you please navigate to Quicken > Preferences > Mobile, Web & Alerts to verify Sync is turned on? Do you see transactions syncing between the two?

The "Loan Payment to xxx" is a Quicken default, however, you can change it. In the Edit Budget window, you may select the categories you would like to track, and then the program will include those categories - and all transactions labeled with those categories. If you wanted to change your mortgage category to something custom, you would simply create a new category for the mortgage, mark all of your mortgage payments under that category and then make sure that category is selected to be a part of your budget. You may also create the category to be a subcategory of a broader category if you would like it to be categorized among similar/related things. For example, you could have a category called Household Expenses and have things like Mortgage Payment and Home Repairs... etc as subcategories so that in the budget your mortgage payments and other various household expenses are counted separately but still linked together under the broader umbrella of Household Expenses. Quicken budgets based on the targets you have set and the transactions in your accounts (sorted by category.) 

As far as your question on paychecks, most people tend to budget for net pay, as this is the money that they will take home and spend - money that is automatically deducted before it reaches your bank account will not show up in Quicken unless you add it in manually as Quicken reflects your bank balances and transactions. If your paychecks are the same, you may use that amount as your total amount available to spend and then set your targets to fall under that. For example, let's say your net paycheck is $2000 a month and you select $500 for car payments and insurance, you now have $1500 to distribute to your other categories. If your paychecks vary, you may need to adjust your numbers to keep them consistent with your paycheck (or you can just pick a general/average and apply it across the board. This is what I do, personally.) I hope I am understanding your questions correctly.

If you have any further questions or require any further assistance, please reach out so that we may assist you further. I hope this helps! Thank you!

-Quicken September

Boborino

> @Quicken September said:
> Regarding Mobile & Web sync, could you please try logging into the webapp to see if the budgets come across there? This way we can test to see if it is just the iOS app that is not showing your budgets or if we are running into some sort of sync error. Also, could you please navigate to Quicken > Preferences > Mobile, Web & Alerts to verify Sync is turned on? Do you see transactions syncing between the two?
>

> -Quicken September

Yes, I see both budgets in the Web App. On the iOS app I can see all of my data EXCEPT any budgets. Mobile sync is on.

jacobs

Quicken September said:

As far as your question on paychecks, most people tend to budget for net pay, as this is the money that they will take home and spend - money that is automatically deducted before it reaches your bank account will not show up in Quicken unless you add it in manually as Quicken reflects your bank balances and transactions.

@""Quicken September" I agree that people would like to include their net pay in their budget -- but unless I'm missing something, Quicken Mac doesn't provide any way to do so. Unless, as you mention, one only records the net pay deposit transaction and does not track taxes, retirement contributions and other things which are part of one's pay. Most people record their paycheck as a group of splits with a first split of gross pay followed by splits for various tax, healthcare, retirement, etc. deductions. And when you do that, there is no way to get your net pay in the budget. The only way to do it is to show both gross pay and all the tax and other deductions in the budget, so that the bottom line reflects the reality of net pay minus expenses.

So a user has a choice: keep overly-simplified records in Quicken by recording only net pay as salary income, without capturing any tax or retirement contribution data, or record the complete pay breakdown to accurately track those things -- at the expenses of making the budget more complicated because it must includes all those taxes, expenses and transfers.

Quicken September

Hi, @Boborino

Thank you for your response here in the Community, though I apologize that this is an issue for you.

In the iOS app, do you have the Budgets tab as an option in the menu? If so, what do you see when you click on Budgets? If you don't mind, could you please provide a screenshot? If needed, please refer to this Community FAQ for instructions on how to attach a screenshot. Alternatively, you can also drag and drop screenshots to your response if you are not given the option to add attachments.

FAQ: How do I post a screenshot in the Community from Windows?

FAQ: How do I post a screenshot in the Community from a Mac?

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words... When posting here in the Community, it is very helpful to include screenshots of what you are seeing, to help others help you. 

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7867159/faq-how-do-i-post-a-screenshot-in-the-community-from-windows#latest

Thank you for your patience. Once you have this information, please reach back out so that we may continue assisting you. 

-Quicken September

Boborino

No budget data, the tab is selected to be viewed in settings. I am signed in and all of the other transaction data syncs.

Quicken September

Hi again, @Boborino

Thank you for this additional information and for the screenshot! I am sorry that you are experiencing this. It is very strange, indeed. If you swipe your finger down from the center of your screen, it should perform a sync on your mobile device. Also, could you check to make sure you are on the correct dataset? 

If you go into the three lines in the upper lefthand corner of the app, below Settings you should see the name of your dataset (in this example, labeled HONGKONG) - are there any other options in the list?







If there are no other datasets and it still is not showing your budgets even after an update, we may need to reset your Quicken Cloud.

To Reset your Quicken Cloud you may use the steps detailed below. This will not affect your data file or any other Cloud Accounts you may have with us. 

1. First, I recommend that you Save a Backup of your data file before we get started.
2. Next, please navigate to Quicken in the menu bar at the top of your screen, then Preferences.
3. Please click on Mobile, Web, & Alerts, turn the Sync toggle to the Off position, and click Disable Sync.
4. Next, please navigate to Connected Services and click Reset. Confirm this by pressing Reset in the pop-up box.
5. Once the reset has finished, please navigate back to Mobile, Web & Alerts and flip the Sync toggle back to the On position and click Enable Sync. 

If the issue persists, please let us know so that we can further assist you. Thank you!

-Quicken September

Boborino

Well its mysteriously appearing now. Is there no way to select between my two budgets which is displayed or is it defaulted to only the one that was last opened at home?

Quicken September

Hello again, @Boborino

Thank you again for getting back to me with an update on this issue! I appreciate the reply. I'm glad to hear your budgets are now appearing! You were correct with your guess - currently, with the mobile application, there is no way to switch between budgets in-app.

Quicken Mobile displays the budget that was active the last time you did a One-Step Update. There is, unfortunately, no way around this entirely within the mobile app, however, if for whatever reason you need to switch budgets on the go, you may access the web app through your mobile device and view it there. Alternatively, you may switch to a different budget on the web app and then perform a One-Step Update from there. This will change the active budget displayed in your mobile app next time you sync there. 

Hope this helps! If you have any further questions or need further assistance, please reach out as we are always happy to help. Thank you!

-Quicken September