Principal 401k Transactions

futurepotato

Hi,

I'm new to Simplifi and I'm trying to categorize transactions from my 401k at Principal.  I've added the account to Simplifi and I've imported transactions but they all have an action of "Payment/Deposit" and are marked "Uncategorized".  This is the case for both buys and bank fees.  I'm guessing this has to do with the data that Principal provides (and not something to do with Simplifi) and that I'm going to have to manually clean it up.

For comparison, I looked at my IRA and HSA accounts in Simplifi. I can see the incoming money has an action of "payment/deposit" and there is a corresponding "buy" action for the same amount, for the appropriate security/payee.

In my 401k, I expect to see a single amount being deposited and then 3 smaller debits going towards various funds (as per my automated investments).  However, each week the incoming money appears as separate 3 amounts which are applied to the funds; but not as buys -- they appear as incoming deposits (i.e. they displayed in green text with a "+").  There isn't a single deposit, followed by three buy actions.

So, unless there is a way to fix this using Simplifi, I'm looking for some bookkeeping advice -  What is the recommended way to clean up these transactions and categorize contributions/deposits to the accounts, as well as fees. Should I manually create the single weekly deposits, and recategorize each of the 3 "payments" as buys?

As for the fees, how should I categorize those?  I don't see a default category that seems appropriate. Should I just create a "Management fee" subcategory under "Fees & Charges", or "Financial"?

Thanks

Coach Kristina

Hello @futurepotato,

The transactions show up that way due to the way the data is sent to Quicken Simplifi. I see the same behavior in my own investment account.

From a bookkeeping perspective, it comes down to personal preference. I typically edit transactions only if it's unclear what activity the downloaded transactions correspond to on the financial institution side.

If there isn't a pre-made category that meets your needs, then you would want to create a new category and/or subcategory. See this article for more information on creating/editing categories and subcategories:

https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/4378958-managing-categories-and-subcategories

I hope this helps!