Should income be entered as negative values when budget planning?
I am working on my 2024 budgets and adding expenses as positive values and any credits in expenses as negative values (e.i., credit card reimbursements). I am wondering if my normal income from my checks should be entered in negative values. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I did a search prior to posting but I could not find my response that was recent.
Best Answer
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Number in both sections - Income and Expenses - are typically entered as positive numbers. There can be exceptions to this, like the reimbursement situation you mention.
(In a reimbursement situation it's generally more straightforward to enter credit card charges that will be reimbursed in a Quicken offline asset Account. Then when you deposit the check for the reimbursement the offset would be to that asset Account, zeroing it out. That way you always and instantly know how much money you're due and you're not seeing "expenses" in one period being offset by negative expense in the next period in the if the "expenses"/reimbursement don't always occur in the same month.)
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Answers
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Number in both sections - Income and Expenses - are typically entered as positive numbers. There can be exceptions to this, like the reimbursement situation you mention.
(In a reimbursement situation it's generally more straightforward to enter credit card charges that will be reimbursed in a Quicken offline asset Account. Then when you deposit the check for the reimbursement the offset would be to that asset Account, zeroing it out. That way you always and instantly know how much money you're due and you're not seeing "expenses" in one period being offset by negative expense in the next period in the if the "expenses"/reimbursement don't always occur in the same month.)
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Thank you Tom! Your answer is extremely helpful. The reimbursements always occur 1 or 2 days after the expense is posted and never goes into the next period.
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