how to enter Mastercard line items

You either split category your payment to your Mastercard provider or create a separate Mastercard account and enter each transaction in that account, with the payment registered as a transfer to that account.

?Hi, ps56k.

Create a Credit Card Account for your MasterCard. Each time you use the card, record the expenditure and charge it to the proper category - or categories, just as though you were spending cash on that day. By the end of the billing month, your MC account will have a balance, which should equal the amount on your monthly statement, except for any transactions that have not yet cleared through the system. Reconcile the statement balance to your own Quicken records, just like you do your bank statement. Then, when you pay the bill from your checking account (either by writing a check or by using an online payment system), DO NOT divide the payment into expense categories. Just record the whole amount as a Transfer (in Quicken-speak) to the MC account. (Create a separate credit card account for each of your MC, Visa, Best Buy, Texaco, etc., cards and use them all the same way.)

This way, those Valentine gifts you buy this month will show as expenses in February, not in March when you pay the bill.

Also, if you pay less than the full balance due, you won't have to try to determine WHICH expenses are being paid now and which ones are being deferred. And you can just add interest to the continuing balance when appropriate.

We've talked about this here many times, so you should find of plenty of discussions if you look through previous messages. I've been using this system for over 20 years and it has always worked very well, first with manually-entered transactions and paper checks, and for the past several years with downloaded transactions and online payments. ;

?Hi, Bob.

True. And for the uninitiated, "OSU" = One Step Update.

RC

And all along I thought they were talking about my alma mater, The Ohio State University ;-)

It'll also make you think twice before renting the movie, "Debbie does OSU!"

tnx all - I just did the brute force manual entry method - going to the checking account and doing a "split" - which brings up a screen of line items - which I was hoping for...

Used this and entered about 35+ items from the MasterCard statement, which we pay in full every month - and always have -

Just wanted to see how things might look if we do this, used some of the built-in categories, and added some of our own; so then we can go back to review the Quicken categories reports...

Well, I hate to say this, but most of us will think you just did it incorrectly, although this works for a small number of splits, it isn't the recommended way of using Quicken accounts. Go back and read RC White's posting about creating a credit card account and entering your purchases there, one per entry just like your real spending. After all, that's the real world that you have. When it comes to paying your bill, you write a single check (no splits) from your checking account using the credit card account as the other side of the transaction which gets posted over to that credit card account.

By using a credit card account (and not splitting a check payment), you can maintain account balances to that card, and use Quickens' One Step Update to do reconciliation and such.

Yes, what you did works, but once you become proficient with Q, you'll see that this method is far superior. YMMV.

--

------------------------------------------------------------- Regards -

- Andrew

I've been using quicken since 1994 and I agree with Andrew. When I make an expenditure, I post it. Period.

Recording each transaction to the credit card account at the time of the charge (and not at the time of the payment of the credit card bill, which can be several weeks later) captures the expenditure in the correct time period for any Quicken reports that you run.

For example, if you record transactions this way and charge a charitable contribution to your credit card on December 31, 2010, that is properly an itemized deduction for tax year 2010 on your income tax return (assuming USA) and will show up in that year in a Quicken report. If instead you record that transaction using the date that you pay the credit card bill in 2011, it will appear in your report as a 2011 expenditure and deduction - not what actually happened and certainly not what you want.

tnx all - I understand the real time balancing and advantages of setting up the separate MasterCard account, but I'm not really interested in that aspect, and don't physically track payments now, though I might set it up just to see how it would work.

I'm really happy just trying to cat the spending, by entering the statement info when I receive the bill, and not the cash flow aspect or budgeting concerns since I don't do that now...

Just looking for .... where'd it go type report.

"ps56k" wrote in news:ij0p7l$rkq$1 @news.eternal-september.org:

With all due respect, you're losing one of the best features of Quicken, downloading txns into an account so you can check whether everything is kosher.

YMMV!! :-)}

ok... Just tried it - and it is pretty nice.

My concern was getting charged by Chase for downloading - appears to be zero/ok -

I'll have to see how the "real time balance" feels to me, since the download includes charges after the payment cycle, vs just having a zero balance show after each payment.

Again - since I'm not juggling dollars to pay the balance, it's just a matter of taste on how to view the "account".

But thanks for encouraging me to try it :)

ok - last nit - paying the statement.

How do I enter/record the payment and relate it to a check number that will get reconciled when the check clears ?

If I do a "transfer" from the checking acct -> mastercard account then there is no relation to a check number.... ala simple bank account "transfers".

?Hi, ps56k.

How do you record other checks you write?

If you write the check by hand, just enter your MC payment like any other handwritten check. In the Category column, enter your MasterCard account name (start the entry with a square bracket [ so that Quicken knows it's an Account, not an expense category). After the first month, this will be suggested automatically - if you have Quicken set to do that.

There are many different ways to pay a credit card bill online, so I can't tell you the details of how to do it in your case. Quicken basically ignores the Check # column anyhow, so just put Transfer or your own notation in there to help you match the transactions. (We are not limited to the half-dozen or so options shown on the Quicken menu; just click Edit List there. I've added "int" for interest on checking accounts, and "WFBP" for Wells Fargo Bill Pay.) But the basic idea remains the same: reduce your bank balance asset AND reduce your credit card liability with a single entry. Just like what is happening "in real life".

With either method, as soon as the check clears your bank, it should show up in your downloads twice - once from your checking account and once from MasterCard - and you should be able to reconcile these easily.

RC

It's not necessary to enter the equivalent of a "check number" (I don't even think it's possible.), as Quicken looks at the amount or payee for a match.

Charges and the inability to do OSUs were good enough reasons for me to actually dump a couple of my credit cards.

"R. C. White" wrote in news:rJ6dndyLRZPomMnQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@posted.grandecom:

The usual, excellent explanation from RC. Just to add: The download from the bank will tell the checking account register the check cleared (a "c" in that column), and the credit card download the same for the credit card account.

Depending on the balances and the kind of account you have at Chase there will or will not be a monthly charge. DO confirm the situation with your bank branch personnel. That's what they are for. Here in Fair Lawn they are very nice ...

First you need to setup the MC credit account, of course. Then you hawe two choices, depending on how you want to monitor your spending.

We add our charges in the MC account as we incur them, or at least once weekly. That also makes it easy to categorize things which is useful for budgeting and reporting. Then, vhen we download transactions (and update inwostments) each weekend it only takes a couple of minutes to match and accept to the register. On the rare ocassions where there is a discrepancy it stands out. We always know our financial position.

An alternative approach is just to download transactions and add them to the register by accepting. You aren't matching them to anything that way, and we would have a much harder time categorizing things. For split transactions we would find it impossible.

Vhen it is time to pay the credit card it just gets recoded in the checking account and the category is the name of the credit card. That automatically onters it into the credit card register.