transfer not income

Hi, Stan.

Right; a transfer is not income. You are just moving your own money from one asset (the CD) to another asset (the MM account). You DO have the CD in an Asset Account or an Investment Account, don't you? And the MM is in a Checking Account? (I've forgotten already what Q2006 called these accounts; in Q2007 they are Spending & Savings Accounts in the Cash Flow Center.)

In the simplest form, assuming your accounts as I've pictured in my mind, just make an entry in your MM checking account for the deposit and show that it came from the CD Account (by whatever name you call it).

Interest earned on the CD is another matter. That is income and should be accounted for as such. The method depends on whether you get a check periodically (monthly? quarterly?) or at maturity, or if the interest gets compounded (added to principal). But we'll leave that question until you ask it.

RC

Hi, Stan.

Well, there are several ways you can handle this, but that one makes the most sense to me.

If you use Quicken only to keep track of your checkbook - which was its original purpose - then you would record the deposit of the CD proceeds as having come into your account from some outside source. You would record the deposit and show it as coming from "Stan and Sue", rather than from any income source.

But I think that most Quicken users keep track of much more than just their checking account - as I do. We record all or most of our assets, especially money in all its forms (checking, savings, CDs) and investments (stocks, bonds, real estate). Many or most of us also include non-financial assets, such as our homes and cars. In such a system, we would have an account for CDs (or several accounts for multiple CDs). When we buy a CD, we would record the disbursement from our checking account as a transfer to the CD account, not as an expense of any kind, of course. As we receive interest checks, they would be increases in the checking account, offset by increases in our interest income category. And when the CD matures, we would transfer the proceeds from our CD account when we record the deposit into our checking account. Quicken uses [Accounts] to record assets and liabilities, and Categories to record income and expenses.

No matter how you use Quicken, you must make a clear distinction between cash flow and income. They are NOT the same thing, as your question illustrates.

RC