Transfers from my Checking account to my IRA are not appearing as linked transfers.

jsmith1234 · May 8

Hello all.

Every month, my checking account automatically sends $X to my IRA. I'm assuming this should be categorized as a linked transfer in Simplifi, such as with credit card payments or regular transfers from Checking to E-fund.

However, even after reconciling the categories for both sides of the transaction, Simplifi still isn't showing them as linked.

Further, I don't understand if these transactions should appear in spending plan or reports. Any guidance would be appreciated. I don't need to see the individual buys and dividends for the IRA, I use the IRA's platform for that. I just want to know that the money moving from IRA/Checking is being reported correctly. Thanks!

SRC54 · May 8

They often don't link automatically for me either. I find that once they have come if I change it in the regular account to just a transfer, I can then go to the Investment account and link it to my checking account and usually then Simplifi will pop up a window and offer to link them.

Of course, I have to wait a day for my Investment account to update before I do it. Often the checking account updates first. Also, you know that you can simply say Transfer on both sides without linking them and Simplifi will handle the accounting correctly, but if you keep working at it, you can get them to link.

Good luck.

DryHeat · May 16

@SRC54

I'm having problems with this too. Can you give me a little clarification on how you get the transactions to link?

(1) When you say "once they have come in," do either or both of them show that they are actually transfers to the other account? In other words, does the investment transaction show Category "my checking account" and/or the checking transaction show Category "my investment account"? Or something else?

(2) When you say you change it in the "regular account," do you mean you change the checking account transaction Category to "Transfer"? When you do that, does it affect the Category in the investment account transaction?

(3) When you say you "go to the Investment account and link it to my checking account," it sounds like you do it by changing the investment account transaction Category to "my checking account." Is that right? Was the investment account transaction showing something different before you did that? I ask because the transactions in my investment account already show Category = "my checking account." Do I have to change them to "Transfer" and then change them back?

I would appreciate any help on this, as it doesn't seem to be working for me.

SRC54 · May 16

@DryHeat As I recall, what often happens is that I make the transfer to my checking account and I enter it in my brokerage account with checking account as the category.

Then when the brokerage downloads it, it downloads a duplicate the just says payment/deposit. So that I don't lose the downloads, I go to the checking account and change the category to Transfer. I then go to Brokerage and delete the down orphaned and unmatched transaction. Next, I go to the downloaded transaction in Brokerage and make the category Checking Account and a popup asks me if this is the same transaction already in checking account. I say yes, and Simplifi links it. Convoluted I know but it works. The trick is not to delete anything downloaded but get rid of non matched manual transactions.

So 1) No, the download into brokerage seems never to match with the one I entered but dupulicates.

2) Yes, I change the one in Checking to just Transfer; it doesn't delete the one in Brokerage unless I had entered it originally in Checking. Since I transfer to checking, I always enter it first in Brokerage.

3) Exactly. The downloaded Brokerage transaction was or is usually uncategorized.

Hope this helps. It is convoluted but I get it to work after a fashion.

DryHeat · May 16

@SRC54 Thanks… I'll experiment with it based on your info.

SRC54 · May 16

Good luck @DryHeat.

skgdogs · May 17

I have monthly recurring transfers from my IRA to my checking account. Because I have Federal W/H taken out, I code the tax portion to Federal Income Taxes and the net amount as a Transfer to my checking account. I would like to be able to show the Gross portion (taxes paid and net to my checking) as Personal Income:Taxable IRA Withdrawal. Any ideas?

Being able to Split Categories on Recurring Transactions would solve this problem.

Coach Kristina · May 17

Hello @skgdogs,

Thank you for sharing your feedback. While the feature isn't currently offered, there is an Idea post asking for the ability to split categories in recurring transactions:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/98/using-splits-multiple-categories-in-recurring-transactions-4-merged-votes

If you haven't already done so, I recommend that you add your vote and a comment. Ideas that get enough votes may be implemented.

In the meantime, if you're needing recurring series to reflect both the taxes paid part of the split transaction and the transfer to checking, you can create separate recurring series (one for the taxes paid and the other for the transfer).

I hope this helps!

DryHeat · May 17

Are you asking about how to set up the recurring transaction to do what you want, or how to split the transaction once it has arrived as a deposit at your bank?

I'm not sure there is a good way to handle the recurring. Here's how I handle the splits.

When I get a deposit in my bank account from IRA, it shows up as the net amount. For simplicity, let's say that net amount is $850. The actual distribution from the IRA is $1000, and the amount withheld is $150.

I edit the transaction detail to split it to look like this:

Amount = $850 — Splits: Taxable IRA Withdrawal = +1000; Federal Withholding Tax = -150

When I look at a report, my income includes the full $1000 as Taxable IRA Withdrawal.

Transfers from my Checking account to my IRA are not appearing as linked transfers.

Comments

Categories