Quicken provides all kinds of facilities for those people that invest directly in the share market.
However my super and I imagine most others is managed by the fund. If there's shares to be invested in, the Fund makes those decisions based on your risk factor.
Each month from my pay slip comes my superannuation deductions and by the time they make their way into the fund, the amount is taxed.
I want to be able to show my payments into the fund less the taxes and make capital adjustments to match the statements I receive each month.
From what I can see, the investments structure provided within Quicken don't allow for this very common situation.
What's the best means of accounting within Quicken for super in this way ie what are others doing??
Any help appreciated. Using Quicken Personal Plus 2008.
Despite all the wizards and things designed to shield you from the notion of accounting, Quicken *is* an accounting program and you make entries - one way or the other - into Asset, Liability, Revenue, and Expense accounts (the last two items are considered "categories" in Quicken-speak) as appropriate; the final result is pretty much what any green-eyeshade accountant from the days of manual general ledgers would recognize as "accounting." So, Quicken can account for your superannuation deductions (retirement plan deductions over here) and changes in the balance of your retirement account just fine because: it's just accounting.
However, if you want explicit help in setting up this accounting you'll need to provide some more details. For example, you say "by the time they (the superannuation deduction) make their way into the fund, the amount is taxed." Are you saying the income taxes deducted from your paycheck are simply figured on your gross wages (x number of hours times $y per hour) such that the superannuation deduction is considered a coming from your after-tax income, OR, are the income taxes deducted from your paycheck calculated on your gross less the superannuation deduction, but the superannuation deduction somehow gets taxed in a separate transaction before it ends up in the retirement fund? Either way the accounting is the same but the mechanics of making the entry(s) could differ.
In the same vein, knowing how the "fund" is setup and presented to you in the statements you receive is relevant to how you make the entries of fund activity. Is it simply a single mutual fund with all the buying and selling of specific securities pretty much invisible to you, or is the fund manager buying and selling specific securities (transactions that you see in the statements you receive) based on risk and other guidelines?
If I take what you say and generalize it into the *simplest* U.S. equivalent, you're just making a paycheck contribution into a non- deductible IRA and the money goes to buy a single mutual fund with the fund value changing periodically based on the value of the securities inside the fund. That's easy to account for in U.S. Quicken, so I can't believe it isn't just as simple in Australia.
,Mark McDonough wrote:yes I found this quite astonishing that you cannot account for superannuationwithin Quicken 2012 following the rules that apply in Australia. There are 10million workers that earn superannuation in exactly the same way I do and wouldhave exactly the same problem accounting for it in Quicken. In case your not sure:
All employers have to pay a 9% contribution. There is tax on contributions of
15%. They are almost all single managed funds. You cand draw on it once you turn
55 (there is some age testing here) but with 20% tax on withdrawal and by retirement age 65 (again age testing) there is no tax on withdrawal.
You cannot set up a super account as a managed fund because the wizard is too inflexible and has mandatory fields which have nothing to do with superannuation.
Personal contributions can only be as much as $25000 before being taxed.
Some people get their super in this way, others by a Defined Benefit Scheme. If a wizard was created, this would need to be fairly early on because the rules are different for both.
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