I've got Microsoft Money Deluxe 2006 and I've been spending the last few
weeks inputting all of our financial data for the last year (all of 2005).
For the most part I'm done and I'm really liking Money alot. I have been
having some problems but those other problems will be the topic of another,
later post. For now, I'm hoping I can get some help with properly setting
up my paycheck's split transaction data and my associated 401k account.

For each paycheck, I'm contributing 12% into my 401k and my employer is
matching up to 3%. I have my paycheck set up with each line item --
federal, state taxes, etc, along with my pre and post tax deductions. If I
do not include my employer's matching line item then everything balances
out. My gross pay less taxes less pretax deductions less post tax
deductions equals my net pay. If I try to add in my employer matching in
there anywhere, it completely skews the numbers. Is it possible for me to
add my employer matching value anywhere? If so, where?

An associated question: for the line item for my 401k deduction, I have it
set up so that it counts it as a transfer to my 401k account (which I set up
as a seperate account in money). So that for each paycheck, I see an
associated transaction in the "Cash Transactions" view in my 401k account.
So unless I should set that line item up as something else (and I may very
well should as that is actually what my 3rd question below about), that's
all well and good but (assuming I didn't do something wrong) what I'm trying
to do is make it so that my employer's matching is added also. Is this not
something I'm going to be able to do?

My final question is this: In setting up all of the stocks in my 401k, I
went to the website of the company who is handling our 401k (Paychex).
Since the statements I get are only quarterly and since it doesn't detail
all of fund's purchases (date, price, etc), I figure I could just start off
with a single buy transaction using the date, number of stocks and vested
balances that are detailed on my online statement. This is all well and
good. It's showing totals matching the values those on the website. Here
is where things get sticky (and not only for now but also for the future).
If I go to the account summary view for my 401k account, it's showing not
only the total values for the stocks in the fund but also the total of the
contributions I made throughout last year. This is what makes me think I
did something wrong setting up my pacheck such that it automatically credits
my 401k as a 'cash contribution'. Did I, in fact, set my paycheck up wrong?
If not, how can I tell it that my cash contributions went into puchasing
shares in the stocks in my 401k fund? So that my account balances with the
totals I'm seeing on the paychex website?

I hope I articulated my problems and questions adequately. Any help you
guys can provide would be most appreciated!

thnx,
Christoph

Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Dick

Dick
Mon Jan 23 17:44:04 CST 2006

For your first question, see http://umpmfaq.info/faqdb.php?q=14 for several
approaches. Post back with Qs. I'm not sure this is written at a "few week
newbie" level.

I'm not sure I understand your second question, but my Paychecks each have
three or four lines transferring different components of my 401k saving to
the 401k cash account. The total is what's getting invested each period.

I'm also not sure I understand your third question. (I've been working at a
snail's pace on a 401k tutorial page, but it still isn't done.) The basic
drill:

- Get the contribution money in the 401k Investment Account's associated
Cash Account. Transfers from Paychecks as noted above do this.

- Once the contribution money is there, setup Buy Investment purchases that
match the way your plan works and your investment elections. You can
schedule these in Bills & Deposits. In my case, I have a scheduled Bill that
is split into multiple Buy Investment/CD entries according to the investment
elections.

In my case, my plan invests weekly with a one week lag according to my
elections except for the match money which ESOPs. The plan funds are not
real funds. So there are no shares/NAVs per share that you can readily
track. For this reason, I have defined investments that are "mutual funds"
with no symbol and I always price them at $1 per share and buy "shares"
equal to $ invested.

- Update to match statements. Every quarter, I use the Account Update on the
Investments Summary page to poke in the statement reported $ value by
investment. Money uses Add/Remove shares as appropriate to set the "share"
balance in $1 shares accounted for in the Investment Account equal to the
reported dollar value for the investment position.

There are literally an almost endless number of ways to do this and there is
great variation from one plan to the next. Any way suggested here is just
that. Post back with questions.

"Christoph Boget" <jcboget@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:OfLd3EHIGHA.3700@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> I've got Microsoft Money Deluxe 2006 and I've been spending the last few
> weeks inputting all of our financial data for the last year (all of 2005).
> For the most part I'm done and I'm really liking Money alot. I have been
> having some problems but those other problems will be the topic of
another,
> later post. For now, I'm hoping I can get some help with properly setting
> up my paycheck's split transaction data and my associated 401k account.
>
> For each paycheck, I'm contributing 12% into my 401k and my employer is
> matching up to 3%. I have my paycheck set up with each line item --
> federal, state taxes, etc, along with my pre and post tax deductions. If
I
> do not include my employer's matching line item then everything balances
> out. My gross pay less taxes less pretax deductions less post tax
> deductions equals my net pay. If I try to add in my employer matching in
> there anywhere, it completely skews the numbers. Is it possible for me to
> add my employer matching value anywhere? If so, where?
>
> An associated question: for the line item for my 401k deduction, I have it
> set up so that it counts it as a transfer to my 401k account (which I set
up
> as a seperate account in money). So that for each paycheck, I see an
> associated transaction in the "Cash Transactions" view in my 401k account.
> So unless I should set that line item up as something else (and I may very
> well should as that is actually what my 3rd question below about), that's
> all well and good but (assuming I didn't do something wrong) what I'm
trying
> to do is make it so that my employer's matching is added also. Is this
not
> something I'm going to be able to do?
>
> My final question is this: In setting up all of the stocks in my 401k, I
> went to the website of the company who is handling our 401k (Paychex).
> Since the statements I get are only quarterly and since it doesn't detail
> all of fund's purchases (date, price, etc), I figure I could just start
off
> with a single buy transaction using the date, number of stocks and vested
> balances that are detailed on my online statement. This is all well and
> good. It's showing totals matching the values those on the website. Here
> is where things get sticky (and not only for now but also for the future).
> If I go to the account summary view for my 401k account, it's showing not
> only the total values for the stocks in the fund but also the total of the
> contributions I made throughout last year. This is what makes me think I
> did something wrong setting up my pacheck such that it automatically
credits
> my 401k as a 'cash contribution'. Did I, in fact, set my paycheck up
wrong?
> If not, how can I tell it that my cash contributions went into puchasing
> shares in the stocks in my 401k fund? So that my account balances with
the
> totals I'm seeing on the paychex website?
>
> I hope I articulated my problems and questions adequately. Any help you
> guys can provide would be most appreciated!



RE: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by cycleguy

cycleguy
Mon Jan 23 19:36:05 CST 2006

I don't worry about the matching amount as I just post the transaction to the
Cash acct. When I get the quarterly 401K statement, I use the 401K manager
to post the statement and it takes care of posting the proper entries in the
acct for each investment and adjusts the cash amount. True, you can't see
where you stand from minute to minute, but my 401k only gives me the average
buy price of the end of the quarter which is when most of them buy anyway.

I hope that helps.

"Christoph Boget" wrote:

> I've got Microsoft Money Deluxe 2006 and I've been spending the last few
> weeks inputting all of our financial data for the last year (all of 2005).
> For the most part I'm done and I'm really liking Money alot. I have been
> having some problems but those other problems will be the topic of another,
> later post. For now, I'm hoping I can get some help with properly setting
> up my paycheck's split transaction data and my associated 401k account.
>
> For each paycheck, I'm contributing 12% into my 401k and my employer is
> matching up to 3%. I have my paycheck set up with each line item --
> federal, state taxes, etc, along with my pre and post tax deductions. If I
> do not include my employer's matching line item then everything balances
> out. My gross pay less taxes less pretax deductions less post tax
> deductions equals my net pay. If I try to add in my employer matching in
> there anywhere, it completely skews the numbers. Is it possible for me to
> add my employer matching value anywhere? If so, where?
>
> An associated question: for the line item for my 401k deduction, I have it
> set up so that it counts it as a transfer to my 401k account (which I set up
> as a seperate account in money). So that for each paycheck, I see an
> associated transaction in the "Cash Transactions" view in my 401k account.
> So unless I should set that line item up as something else (and I may very
> well should as that is actually what my 3rd question below about), that's
> all well and good but (assuming I didn't do something wrong) what I'm trying
> to do is make it so that my employer's matching is added also. Is this not
> something I'm going to be able to do?
>
> My final question is this: In setting up all of the stocks in my 401k, I
> went to the website of the company who is handling our 401k (Paychex).
> Since the statements I get are only quarterly and since it doesn't detail
> all of fund's purchases (date, price, etc), I figure I could just start off
> with a single buy transaction using the date, number of stocks and vested
> balances that are detailed on my online statement. This is all well and
> good. It's showing totals matching the values those on the website. Here
> is where things get sticky (and not only for now but also for the future).
> If I go to the account summary view for my 401k account, it's showing not
> only the total values for the stocks in the fund but also the total of the
> contributions I made throughout last year. This is what makes me think I
> did something wrong setting up my pacheck such that it automatically credits
> my 401k as a 'cash contribution'. Did I, in fact, set my paycheck up wrong?
> If not, how can I tell it that my cash contributions went into puchasing
> shares in the stocks in my 401k fund? So that my account balances with the
> totals I'm seeing on the paychex website?
>
> I hope I articulated my problems and questions adequately. Any help you
> guys can provide would be most appreciated!
>
> thnx,
> Christoph
>
>
>

Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Chris

Chris
Mon Jan 23 21:09:40 CST 2006

"cycleguy" <cycleguy@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:92B04FFA-A0C9-4F6B-B36F-4C7A837750C6@microsoft.com...
>I don't worry about the matching amount as I just post the transaction to
>the
> Cash acct.

It's easy to do the matching bit if you save the paycheck in the Bills
Summary. Easier to reconcile against the 401k statement, too.



Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Christoph

Christoph
Tue Jan 24 16:50:04 CST 2006

>I don't worry about the matching amount as I just post the transaction to
>the
> Cash acct. When I get the quarterly 401K statement, I use the 401K
> manager
> to post the statement and it takes care of posting the proper entries in
> the
> acct for each investment and adjusts the cash amount. True, you can't see
> where you stand from minute to minute, but my 401k only gives me the
> average
> buy price of the end of the quarter which is when most of them buy anyway.

I don't see an option for '401k manager' anywhere in money. In fact, I
can't find
it anywhere in the help section. Is this not a feature of Money 2006
Deluxe? If
it is, how do I access it?

thnx,
Christoph



Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Chris

Chris
Tue Jan 24 18:13:46 CST 2006

"Christoph Boget" <jcboget@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ufkqOiTIGHA.964@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>
> I don't see an option for '401k manager' anywhere in money. In fact, I
> can't find it anywhere in the help section. Is this not a feature of
> Money 2006 Deluxe? If it is, how do I access it?

From the Investing main page, select the drop down at the top for 'Investing
Tools'. 401k Manager is there. There are other pathways to the same thing.
Do you have accounts set up as 401k, 403b, or 457?
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL




Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Chris

Chris
Tue Jan 24 18:15:58 CST 2006

"Christoph Boget" <jcboget@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ufkqOiTIGHA.964@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>
> I don't see an option for '401k manager' anywhere in money. In fact, I
> can't find it anywhere in the help section. Is this not a feature of
> Money 2006 Deluxe? If it is, how do I access it?

I got a hit in Help on "401(k) Manager" but not on "401k Manager".
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL




Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Art

Art
Tue Jan 24 19:24:38 CST 2006

I agree with everything you say except the following. This works in all
versions prior to Money 2006. In money 2006 they force one to enter
both the total cost and the quantity (number of shares) to enter it into
the Bills & Deposits. I have an open issue with MS tech support and
they say this is the new design requirement for Money 2006.

Art

Dick Watson wrote:


> - Once the contribution money is there, setup Buy Investment purchases that
> match the way your plan works and your investment elections. You can
> schedule these in Bills & Deposits. In my case, I have a scheduled Bill that
> is split into multiple Buy Investment/CD entries according to the investment
> elections.

Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Chris

Chris
Tue Jan 24 19:44:47 CST 2006

"Art McClinton" <art@nova.org> wrote in message
news:zrABf.13596$Dh.8645@dukeread04...
>I agree with everything you say except the following. This works in all
>versions prior to Money 2006. In money 2006 they force one to enter both
>the total cost and the quantity (number of shares) to enter it into the
>Bills & Deposits. I have an open issue with MS tech support and they say
>this is the new design requirement for Money 2006.

There must be a reason for that requirement, however illogical it might
seem. But you can always edit it exactly when recording the buy. What
matters, from a cash flow forecast perspective, is that the total cost looks
right.



Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Art

Art
Tue Jan 24 20:03:55 CST 2006

That is the arguement that I made. I can not project the price in the
future so I can not project the quantity in the future. The other item
they have changed is on projected bills I can not longer enter $0 as the
estimated amount.

btw - those set up in Money 05 continue to work. Just can not enter any
new ones.

Chris Cowles wrote:

> "Art McClinton" <art@nova.org> wrote in message
> news:zrABf.13596$Dh.8645@dukeread04...
>
>>I agree with everything you say except the following. This works in all
>>versions prior to Money 2006. In money 2006 they force one to enter both
>>the total cost and the quantity (number of shares) to enter it into the
>>Bills & Deposits. I have an open issue with MS tech support and they say
>>this is the new design requirement for Money 2006.
>
>
> There must be a reason for that requirement, however illogical it might
> seem. But you can always edit it exactly when recording the buy. What
> matters, from a cash flow forecast perspective, is that the total cost looks
> right.
>
>

Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Christoph

Christoph
Tue Jan 24 20:04:34 CST 2006

> For your first question, see http://umpmfaq.info/faqdb.php?q=14 for
> several
> approaches. Post back with Qs. I'm not sure this is written at a "few week
> newbie" level.
> I'm not sure I understand your second question, but my Paychecks each have
> three or four lines transferring different components of my 401k saving to
> the 401k cash account. The total is what's getting invested each period.

The URL you provided pretty much covered my first 2 questions. That's a
very slick trick, I must say. :) Thanks for the pointer!

> I'm also not sure I understand your third question. (I've been working at
> a snail's pace on a 401k tutorial page, but it still isn't done.) The
> basic
> drill:

You've come really close to answering my question with the steps you
detailed. Now I understand how the money added to the 401k account
as contributions are to be used up. And using the 401(k) manager (as
suggested by another respondent) makes things soooo much easier. And
since my statements come quarterly and since I'm not 100% sure as to
the frequency at which shares are purchased with my contributions (I've
a request for this information in with Paychex), I don't have to micro
manage my 401(k) within money.
As an aside, I look forward to reading your tutorial when you are
finally finished with it.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my original post - you guys have
been a great help!

thnx,
Christoph



Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Dick

Dick
Tue Jan 24 20:18:24 CST 2006

I have setup the scheduled items with a guess for price. I edit this when
entering the transaction. Delete quantity. Tab. Type new price. Shift Tab.
Tab. Delete. Shift Tab. R Arrow. Backspace and edit as required to round.
Hit Enter. I'm pretty good at it by now.

It may well be a "design requirement" but if it is, it just shows how
utterly clueless the designers are. Simplicity in their underlying table
design may have dictated it. But anybody with even a peanut for a brain
knows that you cannot know the future price of most investments. If you
could know this, you could make money off the skill. It's called futures
trading. To me, it's just one more redundant piece of evidence that the
people designing this thing don't actually use it and/or don't understand
the underlying problem at hand.

"Art McClinton" <art@nova.org> wrote in message
news:zrABf.13596$Dh.8645@dukeread04...
>I agree with everything you say except the following. This works in all
>versions prior to Money 2006. In money 2006 they force one to enter both
>the total cost and the quantity (number of shares) to enter it into the
>Bills & Deposits. I have an open issue with MS tech support and they say
>this is the new design requirement for Money 2006.



Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Christoph

Christoph
Tue Jan 24 20:48:04 CST 2006

>I don't worry about the matching amount as I just post the transaction to
>the
> Cash acct. When I get the quarterly 401K statement, I use the 401K
> manager
> to post the statement and it takes care of posting the proper entries in
> the
> acct for each investment and adjusts the cash amount. True, you can't see
> where you stand from minute to minute, but my 401k only gives me the
> average
> buy price of the end of the quarter which is when most of them buy anyway.
> I hope that helps.

I've been fooling around with the 401(k) manager. I went in and added the
information for the first 2 statements of the year. Things didn't quite add
up
and I deleted the transactions that were set up by the 401(k) manager. Then
when I went in to try to add the first statement, I was told by money that I
needed to add a statement date after the most latest statement. Is there
any
way I can roll back the last statement date so I can re-add statements I
have
previously added but subsequently deleted? I went into the account settings
but wasn't able to find anything there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

thnx,
Christoph



Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Chris

Chris
Tue Jan 24 23:56:33 CST 2006

"Christoph Boget" <jcboget@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:uUAqMnVIGHA.3728@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>
> I've been fooling around with the 401(k) manager. I went in and added the
> information for the first 2 statements of the year. Things didn't quite
> add up and I deleted the transactions that were set up by the 401(k)
> manager. Then
> when I went in to try to add the first statement, I was told by money that
> I
> needed to add a statement date after the most latest statement. Is there
> any way I can roll back the last statement date so I can re-add statements
> I have previously added but subsequently deleted? I went into the account
> settings
> but wasn't able to find anything there.

Take care that if the 401k manager enters 'Add Shares' transactions, that
you revise them to 'Buy' with a price, even if average. I don't think you
can get even slightly meaningful ROI reports with Add Shares.



Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by harrelsonesq

harrelsonesq
Wed Jan 25 00:34:46 CST 2006

The payroll company won't be able to give you that information. They just
record the deduction so your employer can tell its bank to transfer $xx to
the 401(k) company. The 401(k) company distributes the funds into your
investments with buy transactions. If the 401(k) company's statement
generating software isn't set up to report individual transactions to you,
you can't get them.

Use Dick's method. It won't accurately reflect the 401(k)'s effect on your
net worth, or the Lifetime Planner, but it enables you to track your
holdings for most purposes.

Susan

"Christoph Boget" <jcboget@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:%23FUW4OVIGHA.3348@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> For your first question, see http://umpmfaq.info/faqdb.php?q=14 for
>> several
>> approaches. Post back with Qs. I'm not sure this is written at a "few
>> week
>> newbie" level.
>> I'm not sure I understand your second question, but my Paychecks each
>> have
>> three or four lines transferring different components of my 401k saving
>> to
>> the 401k cash account. The total is what's getting invested each period.
>
> The URL you provided pretty much covered my first 2 questions. That's a
> very slick trick, I must say. :) Thanks for the pointer!
>
>> I'm also not sure I understand your third question. (I've been working at
>> a snail's pace on a 401k tutorial page, but it still isn't done.) The
>> basic
>> drill:
>
> You've come really close to answering my question with the steps you
> detailed. Now I understand how the money added to the 401k account
> as contributions are to be used up. And using the 401(k) manager (as
> suggested by another respondent) makes things soooo much easier. And
> since my statements come quarterly and since I'm not 100% sure as to
> the frequency at which shares are purchased with my contributions (I've
> a request for this information in with Paychex), I don't have to micro
> manage my 401(k) within money.
> As an aside, I look forward to reading your tutorial when you are
> finally finished with it.
>
> Thanks to everyone who responded to my original post - you guys have
> been a great help!
>
> thnx,
> Christoph
>



Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Dick

Dick
Wed Jan 25 07:14:29 CST 2006

It will accurately reflect account value every time you update to known
values. I do this quarterly. The impact within a quarter is unlikely to hit
even 10% unless it's been a great or terrible quarter or you are an
exceptionally lucky or poor investment selector.

"harrelsonesq" <harrelsonesq2@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:u2rBwlXIGHA.1728@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> It won't accurately reflect the 401(k)'s effect on your net worth, or the
> Lifetime Planner, but it enables you to track your holdings for most
> purposes.



Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Christoph

Christoph
Wed Jan 25 08:52:08 CST 2006

>> I've been fooling around with the 401(k) manager. I went in and added
>> the information for the first 2 statements of the year. Things didn't
>> quite add up and I deleted the transactions that were set up by the
>> 401(k) manager. Then when I went in to try to add the first statement, I
>> was told by money that I needed to add a statement date after the most
>> latest statement. Is there any way I can roll back the last statement
>> date so I can re-add statements I have previously added but subsequently
>> deleted? I went into the account settings but wasn't able to find
>> anything there.
> Take care that if the 401k manager enters 'Add Shares' transactions, that
> you revise them to 'Buy' with a price, even if average. I don't think you
> can get even slightly meaningful ROI reports with Add Shares.

Ok, fair enough. But how can I reset the last statement date so I can go
back in and re-enter the information for past statements -- statements
that I previously entered but subsequently deleted all transactions set up
by the 401(k) manager?

thnx,
Christoph



Re: Setting up a paycheck, 401k account by Christoph

Christoph
Wed Jan 25 17:44:41 CST 2006

> Ok, fair enough. But how can I reset the last statement date so I can go
> back in and re-enter the information for past statements -- statements
> that I previously entered but subsequently deleted all transactions set up
> by the 401(k) manager?

It looks like this has been an issue since at least MSMoney 2002

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.money/browse_thread/thread/3b22fad2c9c6818c/593e26e1e39e2cac?lnk=st&q=%2B%22Microsoft+Money%22+%2B%22401k+manager%22+%2Bstatement&rnum=1&hl=en#593e26e1e39e2cac

Has anyone found a work around? I can't believe that there is no way that
a user can reset the statement date for the 401k manager. That if you
entered
a wrong date or if you've deleted the transactions created by the 401k
manager
wizard, there's no way to go back in and run the wizard again for that
statement
using the correct date.

Or am I wrong making it so I am pretty much SOL?

thnx,
Christoph