Flexible Spending Account

Does anyone have a good way to setup a Flexible Spending
Account (FSA or IRS 125 plan). For example I have $20
deducted from my paycheck each week and it goes to my FSA.
As I incur medical costs I can get the money from my FSA.
This is all pre-tax money. I setup an FSA as an account
and it fills with $20 each paycheck. However I pay my
medical expenses with checks and credit cards. How should
this be done in Money to track my medical expenses
properly? What should I have Money do with the FSA money?
Thanks,
Greg in New Hampshire

Dick
Fri Sep 12 15:43:35 CDT 2003

There's no one right answer. I, too, have a cash account get the HCSA money
from the paycheck. I expense the reimbursable expenses using an appropriate
category (some people create a dedicated category like Medical:HCSA
Reimbursable) in the appropriate account, e.g., Discover if I paid with
Discover. When the bills get submitted to the plan administrator and I get
the disbursement, I transfer from the cash account to the account that gets
the reimbursement. There is no easy way to readily see if the reimbursements
match the expenses, short of defining some customized reporting. I've looked
at this before and just not been able to see a better way.

You might also search the archives for this group at
http://groups.google.com as this has come up before.

"Greg" <gregkann@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1ad901c37954$620822e0$a501280a@phx.gbl...
> Does anyone have a good way to setup a Flexible Spending
> Account (FSA or IRS 125 plan). For example I have $20
> deducted from my paycheck each week and it goes to my FSA.
> As I incur medical costs I can get the money from my FSA.
> This is all pre-tax money. I setup an FSA as an account
> and it fills with $20 each paycheck. However I pay my
> medical expenses with checks and credit cards. How should
> this be done in Money to track my medical expenses
> properly? What should I have Money do with the FSA money?

Mark
Sat Sep 13 02:39:17 CDT 2003


"Greg" <gregkann@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1ad901c37954$620822e0$a501280a@phx.gbl...
> Does anyone have a good way to setup a Flexible Spending
> Account (FSA or IRS 125 plan). For example I have $20
> deducted from my paycheck each week and it goes to my FSA.
> As I incur medical costs I can get the money from my FSA.
> This is all pre-tax money. I setup an FSA as an account
> and it fills with $20 each paycheck. However I pay my
> medical expenses with checks and credit cards. How should
> this be done in Money to track my medical expenses
> properly? What should I have Money do with the FSA money?
> Thanks,
> Greg in New Hampshire

Well, the question is how do YOU get the money out of your FSA and what do
you do with it?

In my case I have set up the FSA as a cash account with contributions from
each paycheck as part of the split.

To get the money I send the medical forms to the claims handling company.
They send me a check. I usually deposit the check into either my checking
or savings account, or cash it and keep the cash. So to me in M03 it's a
TRANSFER from the FSA to either savings, checking or my cash account.

If you draw out all the money that's great. If you don't, then at the end
of the year the residual amount will have to be "EXPENSED" from the FSA
account to whatever account of your choosing. The account has to go to zero
at the end of the year.

Mark Fields