How do I enter my Paycheck?

There are two major methods of entering a paycheck into Moneydance.

The first, and simplest manner, of entering a paycheck into Moneydance is to enter a transaction with a category of “Income” (or whatever you name your income category) in the amount of your net pay. In other words, enter a transaction in the amount of your take-home pay.

Many people want to keep more detailed records of their paychecks, including the amount which is withheld for taxes, insurance premiums, Health Saving Account contributions, or other items. Because I'm most familiar with United States Tax and withholding situations I'll use those as an example, but the same strategy can be used regardless of your country.

First, we'll create a split transaction. The first line of the split is the “Salary” amount, which will be the gross income amount. The remaining lines of the split will reflect any amount withheld from the check- federal, state, and local taxes, insurance premiums, Social Security and Medicare contributions, and any other items. The total “Deposit” amount will now reflect the amount of your take-home pay. See the example screenshot below.

In order to simplify the process of entering your paycheck each time, it's often easiest to create a reminder transaction. To do so, first select the existing paycheck selection. Then right click (or Ctrl+Click or two finger touch on a Mac) the transaction and select “Memorize” from the menu which appears.

This will bring up the Transaction Reminder dialogue box. If you're paid every two weeks, then it's often easiest to set the transaction to repeat every 14 days. If you're paid via direct deposit and your paycheck is identical each week, you may want to have this transaction automatically entered in the register. To do so, check the “Auto-commit” box.

If you deposit your check manually, or your paycheck varies from week to week, it's best to commit the reminder manually. A reminder of your upcoming transactions will show on your home page.

Click on the paycheck reminder to show the Reminder Notification window.

In this window, click on the “Category” field to display the split editor inbox. Then edit the amounts of the individual lines of the split as necessary.