How do I handle employer 401k contributions?

theoracle39

In Quicken I could have employer 401k contributions in my paycheck that would get transferred to my 401k account.  Is there a way to do this in Simplifi?  If I try to add employer 401k contributions to my paycheck, Simplifi reduces the amount that gets deposited into my checking account.  Would I need to go to my 401k account and add a deposit?  I'd like to have it as part of my paycheck if possible because that's really where it's coming from.

Flopbot

@theoracle39,

While I don’t have employee 401k contributions, I’ve found that any money coming out of my paycheck (HSA contributions, savings account deposits, etc.) need to be entered as separate ‘Recurring Series.’

Personally, I created a second Income Category for this:

• Paycheck
• Paycheck Withdrawal

It’s not the perfect system - you get multiple notification dings each paycheck - but it works for now.

The reason that I did this is that Recurring Series don’t currently support split transactions.  See more info in this post…

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/comment/9871#Comment_9871

If you go this route, consider voting for this ‘Idea Post’ about setting a customizable limit to the Paycheck notifications which would save you from some unnecessary dings…

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/3278/ability-to-edit-the-income-received-notification-edited

Coach Natalie

Hello @theoracle39,

Thanks for posting your inquiry to the Community!

We have a Support Article available here that goes over tracking pre-deposit paycheck deductions in Simplifi. Additionally, with Investment Transactions, you can now track "transfers" to and from your investment accounts!

To clarify, are you also tracking the 401k account in Simplifi? If so, when splitting your paycheck transaction to enter the deductions, you can use a 'Linked Transfer' for the line that's tracking the contribution to the 401k account. Doing so should automatically prompt you to create a transaction in the receiving 401k account if one doesn't already exist, which will then place an income transaction in the account to show the money coming into it. Our Support Article available here has more details on using 'Transfers' in Simplifi. 

Also, I did want to mention that the Transaction Detail modal is having issues when splitting transactions on the Simplifi Web App, so splitting a paycheck transaction to track deductions may be better suited for the Mobile App at this time. For the issue on the Web App, you can follow our Alert here for updates. 

I hope this helps!

-Coach Natalie

theoracle39

Natalie,

The problem I see with the method in the article concerning tracking pre-deposit paycheck deductions is that employer 401k contributions are not deductions.  I would have to artificially inflate the gross paycheck amount by the employer 401k contribution and then subtract it back off.  Whenever I compare my actual paycheck to what is in Simplifi, the gross amounts won't match up and it's a little confusing.

Brett

Coach Natalie

Hello @theoracle39,

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with how 401k contributions are taken from pay or how it would look on a pay stub, and those steps are the only way to track paycheck deductions that I'm aware of. You may want to maybe look at creating a separate transaction for the contribution, and if you're tracking the 401k account in Simplifi as well, you would be able to use Investment Transactions to show the contribution coming into the account. 

I'd suggest reviewing the Support Article we have for Investment Transactions here to see if this may be something that would work for your situation. Otherwise, in addition to what @Flopbot provided above, I hope other users who have some experience with 401k contributions come along with great feedback for you.

-Coach Natalie