_401Contrib and _401EmployerContrib

- J
- Jay Baker
  
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posted
19 years ago

Thu, Mar 17, 2005 6:30 PM

I have a question on the budget that I haven't been able to noodle out that I thought I'd ask to see if someone can explain. I am using Q05P and the paycheck wizard. I entered my gross salary and the amount I contribute to my

401k along with my employers match. This seemed all well and good... when I enter the transaction, all amounts are deducted and transferred correctly.

In the budget area, I noticed though that the _401Contrib category is listed as income.. not expense. So, in my budget, I have my gross salary (say $1000) and a _401Contrib item for some percentage... say 5% or $50 in this example. So, this then looks like I actually made $1050 when in fact I only made $1000. I expect that the _401EmployerContrib would be income, but not my part... isn't this in fact a deduction from my gross salary in the form of a transfer to my 401k account?

Hope this made sense and that someone might know where my assumptions went awry...

Thanks, Jay

- A
- Alan
  
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posted
19 years ago

Sun, Mar 20, 2005 12:49 AM

enter the employers match as part of your income, so you really make 1050, and then your "expenses" would be your contribution and the employers contribution to the 401k.

alan

- J
- John Pollard
  
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posted
19 years ago

Sun, Mar 20, 2005 5:31 AM

First: I can tell you that Category "Groups" ("Income" is a category group) are not fixed: you can change the group that a category appears in. (For that matter, you can actually add new category "groups" in Quicken, and include them in your budget).

You can change the group a category belongs to in at least two places; in the Category list itself when you "Edit" the category; and in the Budget, by clicking the "Category Groups" button at the bottom of the Budget window.

But I'm not sure you want to approach it that way.

Second: I'm not sure you're going to see any actual amounts for _401Contrib in your budget report. When I look at my girlfriend's paycheck transaction, I do not see any deduction to the category "_401Contrib"; I see a deduction to "[The 401k Account]" (in other words, a transfer to the 401k account). And in Quicken, transfers TO an account are treated as expenses.

So, I suspect that if you ignore the _401Contrib category, and include the [TO 401k Account] category in your budget, you may see the numbers looking as you would expect.