|
Posted by L on June 8, 2006, 2:31 pm
Please log in for more thread options > George Hammett wrote:
>> I'm trying to set up individual "pots of money" within Quicken and I just
>> can't find a good way to do it. I've used Quicken for 8 years and have
>> been
>> very pleased ... until I decided to set up a budget and become debt-free.
>>
>> First of all, I have my checking account and 2 ING direct accounts. I
>> have
>> a scheduled transaction that deposits my paycheck every other week.
>> Occasionally, I have to modify this transaction to account for varying
>> tax
>> and insurance amounts. I have a scheduled transaction that pulls $250
>> once a
>> month from the checking account into the ING "A" account. I have a
>> scheduled transaction that pulls $50 every two weeks into the ING "A"
>> account. I have a scheduled transaction that pulls $100 every two weeks
>> into the ING "B" account.
So far, so good. Understandable, clean, and puts the money where you want
it.
>> I also have a scheduled transaction that divides
>> about $400 per paycheck into 12 different "Assets".
Ok, here you've lost me. Gonna guess this is one reason no one has responded
yet to your post. You have a check, you are depositing it. If you are not
depositing the full amount, you can split some off to different accounts.
What are these 'assets' you speak of? Are they seperate accounts? If not,
why categorize them as such?
>> I have another
>> scheduled transaction that withdraws $300 into 8 existing categories.
Again, how can you 'withdraw' to categories? Is the money coming out? If so,
what accounts is it going to?
>>
>> Basically, I am creating a budget but I want to see how much money exists
>> in
>> budgeted "asset" in the right column. The downside to this approach is
>> that
>> each time I reconcile, the transfers between checking the the "assets"
>> continue to multiply in number (since they are not cleared within the
>> reconcile process).
>>
>> Is there a way to flag transactions to/from an Asset to not show up in
>> reconcile?
>>
>> I tried to use Saving Goals to accomplish this, but there are some major
>> problems with this:
>> 1. Contributions to Saving Goals cannot be used within a Split.
>> 2. Savings Goals cannot go into the negative.
>>
>> Is there an easier way? The "Budget" feature in Quicken doesn't seem to
>> be
>> the right solution in that it:
>>
>> 1. Does not display the outgoing category balances in the right column.
>> In
>> order to view the status of a budgeted item, I must load the Budget
>> report
>> and then generate a report to see the data. What a pain in the ...
>>
>> 2. Does not allow me to specify which date to start the "every two weeks"
>> money allocation for the budgeted items.
>>
>> 3. My paycheck varies from week to week; so some budgeted items may get
>> more/less money each week. The Budget feature is so automated in Quicken
>> that it does not allow for these random occurrences.
>>
>> Any tips or suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks!
>
> Well, it looks like Quicken is officially messed up beyond repair. To
> address this "custom" use of finances I will:
>
> 1. Create a new quicken file and update everything using my last
> statements.
>
> 2. Create a "single" savings goal labeled "Budget".
>
> 3. Transfer $500 (or whatever the varying amount it) into the Budget
> savings
> account for each paycheck.
>
> 4. In a new Excel spreadsheet (headache):
> * First sheet summarizes and add the totals from other sheets.
> Grand Total should match amount in Budget savings goal in Quicken.
> * One additional sheet for each budget item.
> Each row contains either a deposit or withdrawal.
> Running Total balance for budget item at top of sheet.
> * Running Total at the top of budget item sheets may go negative as long
> as the grand total is positive.
> * Downside: Must manually enter all deposits & withdrawals.
> * Downside: Doesn't show up in Quicken.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Note to Quicken Developers
>
> Quicken developers can eliminate this by allowing either:
> 1. Savings Goals to:
> * Go negative
> * Appear within splits
>
> 2. Allow a user to configure an Asset such that transactions to/from it do
> not show up in reconcile. (Basically allow a user to apply the same
> Savings-Goal-Hiding-Scheme to accounts such as assets.)
That final suggestion is just not feasible. Money going in and out of bank
accounts SHOULD be tracked, accounted for, and yes, reconciled.
The problem, as I see it, is that you are trying to open an egg with a
hammer.
I also, have budgeted in Quicken. Interestingly, I also have two ING
accounts, and money is automatically transferred into those accounts via
different transactions in Quicken.
Using scheduled transactions, I can include in my budget disbursals to any
category I can conceive of. The scheduled transactions can be out of any
account, and are easily entered using the calendar view. If you wish, you
can create new 'assets' and use them in the scheduled transactions. At any
point in time you can click on the calendar view for the proposed 'asset'
and see just what the budgeted pot of money looks like. The transaction will
SHOW in your bank account reconcile, as an uncleared transaction. As it
should, because, let's face it, if you are allocating the cash to those
'pots' you want your bank register to reflect the fact the money is not to
be spent. Your reconciled balance (actual online or monthly) will match your
bank, but your account balance will reflect what you can spend. The
transfers to the asset 'pots' will show up in your budget. And yes, in the
calendar views you will see negatives. When you actually move/spend the
budgeted money, make the adjustments by deleting the scheduled transactions
and replacing them with actuals.
| 
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap