tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:/discussions/switching-from-another-personal-finance-program/16559-converting-from-quicken-accounting-for-401k-contributions-into-investment-accountInfinite Kind: Discussion 2020-08-01T17:50:22Ztag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/482956942020-05-01T23:01:48Z2020-05-01T23:01:48ZConverting from Quicken, accounting for 401k Contributions into Investment Account<div><p>I'm a fellow user.</p>
<p>In terms of entering the transaction it is typical to enter it as part of your paycheck using a split transaction.</p>
<p>For example in my case I started with my gross salary, then as part of the split transaction I have Tax, retirement savings etc taken out and the final amount left goes to my chequing account.</p>
<p>The following older articles specifically shows entry of a paycheck and may help you.</p>
<p><a href="https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/kb/archive-entering-transactions/archive-how-do-i-enter-my-paycheck">https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/kb/archive-entering-transactions...</a></p></div>dwgtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/482956942020-05-01T23:36:45Z2020-05-01T23:37:58ZConverting from Quicken, accounting for 401k Contributions into Investment Account<div><p>Given your already extensive knowledge of MD, it is obvious you are a researcher.</p>
<p>Although I did not encounter your particular issue about zeroing out negative entries, I did encounter both the "magic money" issue, as well as IRA issues. I'm finished, moved to MD, and fine now, but I documented issues I encountered (like BUYXFR and SHRSIN, and so on) in the way TMI thread called "The Vicissitudes of Quicken to Moneydance".</p>
<p>I wouldn't be surprised if you've already read it.</p>
<p><a href="https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/discussions/switching-from-another-personal-finance-program/15012-the-vicissitudes-of-quicken-to-moneydance">https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/discussions/switching-from-anoth...</a></p></div>dtdtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/482956942020-05-02T00:03:00Z2020-05-02T00:03:01ZConverting from Quicken, accounting for 401k Contributions into Investment Account<div><p>Hi dantdavis,</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. I actually saw your lengthy exchange about converting from Quicken and found it very encouraging. Unfortunately, I found that it was exceedingly difficult to make the transition, and after putting more than 40 hours into it, I could not justify going further.</p>
<p>Glad it worked out for you!</p>
<p>Andrew</p></div>Andrewtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/482956942020-05-02T01:56:22Z2020-05-02T01:56:22ZConverting from Quicken, accounting for 401k Contributions into Investment Account<div><p>Not surprised. Good luck.</p>
<p>I wrote a few messages to MD and Sean saying they would lose people like you and me during this Quicken 2017 closedown transition who had significant investment account history, but I never heard anything back, which suggests we are not their potential future market.</p>
<p>Again, good luck and good fortune.</p></div>dtdtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/482956942020-05-02T02:05:35Z2020-05-02T02:05:35ZConverting from Quicken, accounting for 401k Contributions into Investment Account<div><p>I'm a fellow user.</p>
<p>In some things that Quicken does it seems to take the approach of that the End justifies the means, for any software that is based on accounting this just is not going to cut it.</p>
<p>Quicken has two ways of managing investment values. The first is using the universal way of having prices and shares, or in the case of funds this translates to units and unit prices. The concept is the same but shares usually are in whole numbers and units usually include decimal values.</p>
<p>Quicken has a second approach which is usually reserved for funds. This allows you to use a fixed value of 1.00 for the price on buys and sales and uses ShrsIn to denote increases in value and ShrsOut for decreases in value. This I just take to be the action name being used for a different purposes and when an investment type of funds is selected Quicken understand the different usage, rather than requiring another two action types.</p>
<p>Thus by understanding this Quicken can calculate the cost basis, performance percentages, returns etc.</p>
<p>This second method could be used when you just want to see totals in your financial software and use the investment house site for anything more. A more significant use in my view are for those situations where the investment house provides the data required to manage the investment in any details outside of the investment house in such a way that it is too onerous or time consuming to maintain it in any program. I see that where I am where data is often provide as a CSV file with just date, description and amount columns similarly to a bank statement so you would have to some way extract what you need from the transaction description to be able to enter it.</p>
<p>I have suggested to the developer that something along the lines of how Quicken does this (in this case) would be a desirable improvement. Using a function to increase and decrease the value does not break accounting rules as they are not a transaction, it is just an alternative to having a unit/share price.</p>
<p>Without such capability there are a couple of approaches that can be taken, one is using pseudo prices for the investment as a total. I have done this via a spreadsheet. This really amounts to generating data so that the investment in total can be handled on the basis of having a number of units and a unit price. This method should allow most reports and the like to work as intended.</p>
<p>The other method replaces ShrsIn and ShrsOut with buys and sell transactions using a number of units (shares) with no prices.</p>
<p>The total value should be correct using this approach however most reporting will be rubbish.</p></div>dwgtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/482956942020-05-02T17:43:12Z2020-05-02T17:43:13ZConverting from Quicken, accounting for 401k Contributions into Investment Account<div><p>Thank you, guys, for taking the time to provide this helpful information. I can see that Moneydance has a large group of supporters, and I don't think the support team could keep on top of all the questions and issues without the substantial assistance that a number of users take the time to provide.</p>
<p>Best,</p>
<p>Andrew</p></div>Andrew