"Scheduled Transaction" Problem

fbock1887

I've used Quicken for many years. Stand alone versions prior to early 2021. Since then; the on-line version. I created scheduled transactions to account for the monthly deposit from Social Security for both my wife and myself. Throughout 2021 everything went as expected. The proper net amount was attributed to a checking account and the withheld amount for Medicare Part B was properly accounted for. At the beginning of 2022 I edited both transactions to reflect the changed amounts involved. They have not been touched since. Everything continued as expected until this month. Suddenly the Part B withheld was nowhere to be found. I suspect a software update introduced this glitch.

Two questions:

1) How do I correct the data for May?
2) How can I be assured this will be corrected going forward?

Rocket J Squirrel

I'm going to guess you have a Paycheck problem. Did you set your SS deposits up using the paycheck wizard in Quicken? There was a period of time when that was broken and the symptom was missing split lines just as you described. That problem has been fixed, but you were lucky enough to run into it.

1) You can simply edit the May transactions to be correct.

2) Delete and re-create the scheduled SS deposit transactions. No need to enter them as paychecks, simple split transactions will also work.

[Deleted User]

@fbock1887 - 

• Run a report or use a filter on your account register to create a list of all of the SS deposits for you and your wife.
• Verify the SS and Medicare amounts in each transaction through May 2022 and correct entries, if necessary.
• Ensure the recurring transactions for you and your wife ongoing are correct, starting with June 2022.

I am not sure if you can ever be totally sure that your transactions will always work the way you want, but if you always have easy ways to verify your transactions, that's half the battle.  To help with this, you can create and save a "Social Security Report" that will show all the YTD SS deposits for you and your wife.  You can then easily run this report anytime you need to.

fbock1887

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions.

RJS, I believe I did create them as paychecks. Puzzled as to why it stopped working just this month. I interpret your statement that it was broken for a period of time and was fixed as referring to something in the fairly distant past. Additionally, it's probably a problem of semantics but I'm not clear on what you mean by a simple split transaction as a replacement for the paycheck.

Rocket J Squirrel

@fbock1887 There were a few releases earlier this year which broke paychecks. Because you updated your Social Security "paycheck" during this period, you fell victim to the bug. The bug has been remedied, but any damage caused by it remains and must be repaired by hand.

Do you understand split transactions in Quicken? A paycheck is a special type of split transaction but there is no need to use it for Social Security. See this page for info about splits:

https://www.quicken.com/support/record-split-transaction

fbock1887

Yes, I use split transactions often but apparently not in the way you suggest. I'll investigate further as I don't see how it could replace the paycheck. Additionally, I have to further explore the suggestion to manually update the May errors. I haven't yet come up with a way to account for the source of the Part B deductions.

[Deleted User]

@fbock1887 here is an example of a Soc Sec Deposit made with a split transaction.  The Medicare part B amount is subtracted from your gross Soc Sec Pmt.  (The Medicare amt would be a negative number.)  The net amount is the amount of your Soc Sec check.  The categories you use are the ones you already use, or you can use anything you want.  The gross SS amount would be income and the Medicare part B is an expense.  I actually set this one up for my mom.

[Deleted User]

To fix your current issues and not have them in the future:

• Delete your recurring paycheck transactions for your Soc Sec deposits (for both you and your wife).
• Set up two recurring transactions as split above (one for you, one for your wife).  Start with your first payment in January 2022.
• Delete out all your and your wife's existing "paychecks" in your register from January 2022 through May 2022.
• Post all of the new Soc Sec deposits through May 2022 from the new recurring payments for you and your wife.

Ongoing, all you need to do is change the ss and Medicare amounts before the new year in your recurring transactions.

[Deleted User]

@fbock1887 - one last thing - please make a backup of your file before you make any changes or do any updates.  Just in case something happens, and you need to go back.

fbock1887

Using a split transaction as you suggest would be a viable alternative if I was able to schedule it as I can a paycheck. It appears from another thread I've seen that this is possible but I have been unable to find the menu items they say are needed to do so. Maybe because they're Mac users? I have no idea why I'm having such a hard time with Quicken. It is not intuitive for me at all.

[Deleted User]

@fbock1887 to Schedule the split transaction:

1. Right click on the split transaction you created in your account register.
2. In the menu click on "Add Reminder"
3. In the pop-up box, fill in or edit the appropriate information, including payment frequency.
4. You can update the frequency by clicking on "Change" to the right of the "Due Next on" date.
5. If you need to edit the split for any reason, click on "Split" under Category.

I hope this helps.  If you still have questions, don't hesitate to ask.

fbock1887

Any way to schedule 2nd Tuesday as can be done with paycheck rather than specific date?

[Deleted User]

Yes, it can be easily done.  Here is what it should look like.

fbock1887

Thanks, think I've got it now. I'll find out how it works on the 14th. I still see this as a workaround for the paycheck method that did work for me up until this May. It would seem to me that if the paycheck functionality was lost for whatever reason that Quicken should inform all users of that as soon as it is discovered and provide a detailed means of correcting the resulting error and specifying what temporary arrangements should be made for future if required. I used the 2005 standalone version for many years. An advantage over the subscription model is that I had a stable platform.

[Deleted User]

@fbock1887 - I don't think of using a split transaction as a workaround.  A Social Security deposit is not really a paycheck with deductions and payroll taxes.  In my opinion, using the Payroll Wizard has always been "touchy" since I started using Quicken in 2009.