2008 Deluxe Problem Tracking Retirement Account

If you setup your paycheck with a plain Quicken split transaction (instead of the Paycheck Wizard "form"), you should be able to create 5 transfers of cash directly to your 5 IRA accounts. As long as the total number of split lines doesn't exceed 30, you should be able to handle any number of IRA accounts. (Look at one of your current paycheck transactions in a Transaction Report with split lines displayed to see the basics of how to setup a paycheck without the Wizard).

Alternatively, you could have an additional Scheduled Transaction you enter when you enter paycheck transactions. That Scheduled Transaction could consist of 5 transfers from your current intermediate "cash accout" into your 5 IRA accounts.

mrdavie wrote in news:4f781$482730d1$4b594952$ snipped-for-privacy@ALLTEL.NET:

I only read your full question after John Pollard gave his answer. I have a different answer from John's. I think you did right by setting up a "holding account" for the cash withheld from your paycheck, because usually (means in my case) the purchase of retirement fund shares does not occur on the same date as the withholding, but much later (days in my case). I would memorize the transactions into each of your retirement accounts when you download them from AF. Once you have a memorized transaction set up, it should be recognized on the next download, or easily selectable.

HTH

I am waiting for the next purchase of shares at AF to see if, when I download the transactions Quicken will remember what account was used for the last cash transfer. That would be great. However, it could get more complicated because employer contributions are not part of my paycheck so that cash needs to show up in the IRA account set up for each mutual fund. It's a losing proposition for me but it's not the first time. It really is impossible to get all parties on the same page

- Quickan and all the potential financial institutions and credit card companies.

mrdavie wrote in news:54737$48291124$4b594952$7216 @ALLTEL.NET:

I feel the same way. One of my roblems is that my paycheck varies by a few cents to a couple of dollars seemingly each pay period, and I don't understand why that is since the gross is the same each time. An attempt by Cornell to make paychecks bimonthly raher than biweekly was defeated, and getting paid every other week may make things more difficult.

Also, retirement fund investments are tough since first money is take from a paycheck and sometime later is invested at the then current rates. Notice comes even later. Company contributions are (for me) always the same, but date and share price of investment varies. I have been unable to get TIAA/CREF to download data directly into my accounts, for some reason. Others can, but not I.

So for these data I have to rely on manual adjustments of the memorized transactions. At least Quicken lets me enter paychecks and investments (estimated as they may be) a couple of months ahead to make the picture easier to follow.

Han, I believe that the "couple of pennies" variation in your net pay is, basically, due to rounding.

Your employer is, probably, calculating the various taxes that you owe on a "YTD Gross pay basis", and then deducting from your pay an amount that, when added with previous deductions, equals the amount owed YTD. This is done for each of the types of tax owed.

Due to rounding, this can cause the amount owed for each of the taxes to vary by a penny or two each pay period.

The same thing can happen whether pay-days are every two weeks, or twice a month.

I can't offer a similarly easy explanation for your reported "couple of dollar" variations. Is it possible that you have a deduction that it only taken out of, say, the first paycheck of the month? OR, is taken out of 2 paychecks a month, but not out of the (twice a year) third paycheck in a month?

BTW, "Payroll" was the first banking application that I worked on, back when I was first hired as a programmer in 1978.

db

danbrown wrote in news:d3cb6b8c-4d92-47be-ac9c- snipped-for-privacy@k13g2000hse.googlegroups.com:

The pennies difference I can understand, although I would prefer set amounts and then a reckoning at the last paycheck of the year. Should be much easier for everyone. The few dollars I can't figure out, but I have no experience with such applications. It is NOT for a variable deduction, but more like a recalculation every once in a while. I think that Weill Cornell Medical College needs help .

To download all transactions into the same account, try first setting up one account that is NOT setup for online. I'm not familiar with the download for American Funds, not can I look into it since I do not have any American Funds. But try downloading each fund and saving each toi s seperate download file to your hard drive. Then go into your account and click on File, Import Web Connect. A box will pop up with your accoutn listed in it. Select it and the trasnaction for the file you selected should show up. Accept them. Then you have to do this for each downloaded file. The key to it is that you then have to go into Account Setup and remove One Setp Update for the file. Then upload the next file, etc, etc.

It is a PITA but better maybe than having an account for each. It's your choice. It may not even be possible with American Funds, but probably it is.

I have the same problem with Vanguard.