suggestion for improvement for seniors, Re: Soc Sec Deposits

tkelly@

Subject: Feature Request: Social Security Deposit Date Customization

Dear Quicken Team,

I appreciate the financial tools Quicken provides, and I wanted to suggest a feature that would be particularly beneficial for Social Security recipients. Currently, Social Security payments are scheduled based on the recipient’s birthdate and are deposited on the first, second, third, or fourth Wednesday of each month. However, since this date varies monthly, users must manually adjust their deposit dates in Quicken. This process can be confusing and may lead to budgeting errors if the date is forgotten or overlooked. It would be incredibly helpful if Quicken offered an option for recurring deposits that align with Social Security payment schedules—such as a selection for “First Wednesday,” “Second Wednesday,” etc. This small change would significantly improve accuracy for retirees and others who depend on these payments for budgeting. As many Social Security recipients are older, simplifying this process would make financial management easier and more reliable. I hope you’ll consider this feature, and I appreciate all the effort you put into improving Quicken for its users.

Best regards,
Tim Kelly

CaliQkn

@tkelly@ Quicken already offers this feature, but I must admit, the settings are not easy to find.

To set up your Soc Sec deposit on the appropriate Wednesday based on your DOB you need to do this -

1. Go to your Soc Sec deposit reminder in "Bills and Income Reminders" and click Edit and then select "Edit this and all future reminders".
2. Click on "change" to the right of the due date. You will see this box -
3. Select "Monthly", then every "1" month, and then choose the appropriate (1st, 2nd, 3rd) week. You need to scroll to the top of the date list to get to the appropriate week. In the last box, select "Wednesday".

tkelly@

Cali

I remember having this feature awhile back, but it is not a feature in my present quicken deluxe program. Here is the screenshot of what is in my quicken. It only offers the date of the month.

tkelly@

Cali

I remember having this feature awhile back, but it is not a feature in my present quicken deluxe program. Here is the screenshot of what is in my quicken. It only offers the date of the month.

Jim_Harman

It's tricky, try again:

Assuming you are paid on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, click on the dropdown arrow next to where you have 16th and pick 3rd. Then there will be more choices in the Day dropdown. Pick Wednesday.

tkelly@

Cali

Sorry, the old man is not quite up to snuff. I found it…thought the 1st 2nd 3rd etc was the day of the month. I did go on to find that the option opened up the next window that shows the week. Thanks for your response…I certainly appreciate it. At 75 yrs I do not have the luxury of growing up around computers. My first computet experience was in 1973 at college where the IBM computer on campus filled an entire room. We had to use punch cards and hand them to the student advisor and he would run them through the program and give us back a printout of pages that had the holes punched on either side and connected together as they came out of the computer like a roll of toilet paper …LOL… What a difference 52 years makes!

tkelly@

Jim,

Thanks for the response. Maybe you can help me with another issue…Is there any way to select accounts in the projected balance drop down graph that makes them permanent selections. I have tried over and over, but each time i close the window, it reverts back to spending accounts. I wanted to view my checking and savings accounts together without having to select multiple accounts each time and then select the checking and savings accounts to get them on the graph. Pain in the neck. Thanks in advanse for any help or advice you can provide

Jim_Harman

To make new questions easy for other users to find, you should start a new discussion for any unrelated questions.

But since you asked, where are you viewing the projected balances? I do not see this issue when I select Projected Balances on the Bills & Income tab.

Palace

You guys are Oh So Right about being tricky to schedule Social Security Payments on correct dates. Another problem is this. Bank I now use allows my Social Security Check to be deposited normally about 3 days before normal due date. Sometimes though, bank states they could vary that; depending on circumstances. Since that's the case, how can you schedule a S.S. payment that varies from say, 3, maybe 2, or 1 day before the primary scheduled date based on birth date? 😯 PS. This question is in jest, somewhat. I just schedule S.S. payment as stated above. Then if S.S. check is deposited early, Quicken will ask in popup "Is the the scheduled S.S. payment you previously scheduled for 2 Wednesday of this month"? I answer 'Yep', and Quicken marks that months S.S. payment as paid in full. Now, wasn't that so 'easy'?? 🤣

CaliQkn

@tkelly@ no worries. The setting is indeed tricky, but glad you got is figured out. Thanks @Jim_Harman .

I remember punch cards as well. You had to be a good typist otherwise you'd go through a stack of card until you got one right. The computer room floor would always be littered with discarded punch cards. I also once dropped my cards and to play "52 card pickup".

tkelly@

Jim

When I use the stay on top of Monthly Bills section that I have on the Home page section… and open up the projected balances window, this is where I cannot get the accounts to stay in the graph … it always reverts to spending accounts after closing the window. On the other hand when using the Bills and Income section, and choosing the projected balances option they stay selected under the choose multiple accounts. Shouldnt they both operate the same way? This would allow me to work from the home page instead of having to go into the Bills and income section each time I want to iew my projected balances

UKR

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20493712#Comment_20493712

When you're on either the Home tab / Projected Balances view or the Bills & Income tab / Projected Balances view:

Make sure that, after making changes in the "Select accounts" field, you click on something else within the window to remove the active cursor (blue highlight) from the selection field.
If you leave the field selected and then use the mouse scroll wheel in an attempt to scroll the entire view up or down, you will scroll through the active selection field instead, changing its settings.

tkelly@

When selecting multiple accounts there appears a pop up that has me check which accounts to view in projected balances. Once I okay the selected accounts the window pop up goes away and the correct accounts are displayed in the graph. There is then no blue highlight. I do not use the scroll bar in any of this. The problem is when I exit the projected balances tab and then re enter it the choices auto default to the spending accounts and I lose the savings account selection in the graph. This does not occur when entering from the Bills and income tab … the selections remain after I exit and re enter.

UKR

If I understand you correctly, the problem is with the Home tab's traditional (aka Classic) view page.
If you haven't done so already, please try deleting the Projected Balances view from the Home page. Close and restart Quicken. Add a new Projected Balances view and customize your Multiple Accounts selection. See if that makes Quicken memorize the selection across sessions.

tkelly@

sorry about delay in answering … the problem exist in the "Stay on top of monthly bills section" in the main view section that I have organized into my preferences. Under the section title "Whats left" there is a drop down choice labeled see projected balances. It is using this window that opens up to display the projected balances and where the problem exists. When the drop down opens up to display the graph and I select multiple accounts to view, they do not stay selected after I exit out of the window. When I reopen it there is the spending accounts, but not the savings accounts that were also preselected the first time I opened and save them. This does not appear to be a problem with accessing the projected balances tab from other areas like the Bills and Income tab instead of the home tab or for that matter adding the projected bills and income section permanently to the Home Page. it works fine but just adds a permanent section i do not want included in the Home page layout. I would prefer using the drop down window in the whats left section. Would just like to keep my homepage with only a few sections to eliminate a cluttered look and do not understand why this problem only occurs in the stay on top of monthly bills section.

Thanks for any assistance in resolving or at least understanding this issue.

UKR

Ahhh, that's where the fly is in the ointment … so to speak.
Calling the Projected Balances view appears to execute a "canned Spending view" which doesn't save customizations.

It would be nice if it did indeed save customizations.

I recommend you call the Projected Balances view from the Bills & Income tab.
You can make this a one-click selection if you add the "Go to Bills » Projected Balances" icon to the Quicken Toolbar.

tkelly@

found an alternate method by relabeling the savings account to spending accounts now they all appear in the graph. Such a simple solution I wonder why I had not thought of it before. The only thing it does is remove the delineation line between the spen and saving accounts on the left side where the accounts are listed. Voila' … now it is just as I like it! Thanks to all for the help for this old fart!

Jim_Harman

@tkelly@

Do you mean you change the Account Intent of the savings account to Spending and that keeps all the accounts selected?

I have found that the Home page views are better at honoring the Account Intent settings than other places.