Can you add an employer 401K match to an existing paycheck entry?

Douglas24

I started tracking my paycheck in quicken. My employer started matching me 6 months from my start date. How do I create an entry within quicken without starting over?

Chris_QPW

volvogirl said:

You will need to add 2 lines to your paycheck entry so they offset each other and Net to zero.

One for the amount as a positive to some deferred category not income.  And a negative amount to your 401K account.  

The paycheck reminder takes care of that.  I assume you are just using a standard split transaction.

Just for reference this is what the paycheck reminder/entry does in the background.  Note I have added a $50 employer contribution to the above example.

Chris_QPW

Ctrl+J, select the Edit button on your paycheck and then select "Edit this instance and all future instances".

If you have already started contributing you should be able to just select Edit on your Employee Contribution Transfer line.  If you are just starting to contribute select the Add Pre-Tax Deduction button to add the 401K contribution line.

In this way you can set if for future transactions.  If you need to change the amount through out the year because it changes you can select the Edit button on either the employee or employer line item as you are entering the paycheck.

volvogirl

You will need to add 2 lines to your paycheck entry so they offset each other and Net to zero.

One for the amount as a positive to some deferred category not income.  And a negative amount to your 401K account.  

Douglas24

Hi Chris and thank you. I get what you are saying, my challenge is I can't add the employer match in. My contribution is already added. Is there a way to do that?

Douglas24

Hi Volvogirl and thank you for your response. As a last-ditch effort, I will use your suggestion and thanks again.

Chris_QPW

Whenever you add the 401K contribution it will automatically add a line for the employer contribution.
So, you should be able to enter the employee contribution right now, the only thing that my instructions add is how to change it so that the amount will be pre-filled in for the future transactions.

Here is what it looks like from scratch (starting with creating the initial paycheck reminder).
I have put in $1000 for the Salary and selected Add Pre-Tax Deduction -> 401(k)/403(b)/457.
At this point I created a 401K account so that it could be selected since my test file didn't have one, you would have selected your 401K account for this.

This dialog comes up:
As you can see the Employer contribution line is already there.
I put in $100 for just the employee contribution, just as you would have only put in your part when you first set this up.


And this how the Paycheck setup looks like at this point:


This dialog isn't resizable so I will scroll down a bit.


I select Done.


Looking at this in the register:

Clicking on the Due, and then Enter this reminder:


Selecting either of the Edit buttons I have indicated above:


Unfortunately you can't just change the employer contribution from this line, you have to select the Edit.


If you have a fixed amount if you change it in the Bills & Income reminders window (Ctrl+J) it will be set here for future reminders.

Another way to edit the reminder's future instances is if you select the clock icon in the upper right of the register and select a date range that includes future paychecks like this:


Clicking on the Upcoming status of one of the Paycheck reminders and selecting "Edit all instances of this reminder" will bring up the same "Setup dialog" for the paycheck reminder.

Chris_QPW

volvogirl said:

You will need to add 2 lines to your paycheck entry so they offset each other and Net to zero.

One for the amount as a positive to some deferred category not income.  And a negative amount to your 401K account.  

The paycheck reminder takes care of that.  I assume you are just using a standard split transaction.

Just for reference this is what the paycheck reminder/entry does in the background.  Note I have added a $50 employer contribution to the above example.

Douglas24

Hi Chris - That worked. What I had to do is to delete the 401K line and add it back in. I now got the option to enter the employer match. If you just clicked on edit, the employer section did not come up. Thanks for all your help.