Scheduled
Bills And Deposits
One of the greatest features of Quicken is the
ability to set up scheduled bills and deposits. Used properly you
can begin planning your spending months ahead of actual due dates of
payments and receipts. Again from the TOOLS menu, you will find
SCHEDULED BILLS & DEPOSITS LIST. Please open this.
This screen shows the bills and deposits you
have and their status. At the bottom is a graph showing future
account balances and a calendar with dates of activity. If you are
just getting started with Quicken this screen may be empty. Let us
get started by clicking the CREATE NEW. The screen pops up for you
to enter information about the bill or deposit. Notice the TAG
section, just leave the field empty for now, it will be discussed later.
Fill out this form as complete as you can.
Setup the schedule to coincide with the expected due date and the
frequency which you pay or deposit the transaction. Items that vary
in amount each transaction can be estimated and changed each time
they occur. I like to set the reminder time for bills to occur on
the date my pay is deposited.
The real value of setting up scheduled
transactions is that it allows you to plan your spending into the
future. You know how much money is coming in and how much you are
going to need before the next influx. As soon as you are paid, pay
your upcoming bills in quicken. Even if the money doesn’t come out
mark it as paid so you know that money is taken. After you do this
you will notice in your bank account that you have a CURRENT
BALLANCE and an ENDING BALLANCE. The former is what is actually in
your account and the latter being what is remaining after all of
your bills are paid.
This is an excellent tool for planning ahead to
achieve a prepayment of all your bills for a period of 3-6 months
ahead of time. If you are doing so this will take you away from
living paycheque to paycheque. It also ties in to creating your
Emergency Fund.
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Related Articles
Categories & Groups
Scheduled Bills & Deposits
Creating a Budget
Setting Up Online Services
Reports
Quicken Home Inventory
Backing Up Your Data
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Additional Article Information
This Article was written by
Christopher Skjonsby
This article was posted
October 25th 2008.
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Disclaimer
Please note the articles contained herein are examples for one
method for managing your financial situation. If you are in serious
financial trouble theCitySage.com recommends speaking with a debt
counsellor before proceeding.
The purpose of the articles under this category are to help you
the reader become more aware of how and where you are spending your
finances focus on the mandatory expenses and get control of your
discretionary spending. Follow at your own risk.