How do I decide whether to enter year-to-date information when setting up a paycheck?

When setting up a new account in Quicken Classic for Windows, you may be asked whether to include year-to-date (YTD) information. This step is optional but helpful if you want a complete financial picture for the current year.

What is year-to-date info?

Year-to-date information refers to the transactions or balances from earlier in the year—before the date you start using Quicken.

You don’t need to enter this information unless you want your Quicken reports to reflect activity for the entire calendar year.

When to enter year-to-date info

Enter year-to-date info if you want Quicken to reflect your full-year spending or income—not just activity from today forward.

If you're only interested in tracking your finances from this point on, you can skip this step.

• Example: If you're adding a checking account in September but want to track spending since January 1, enter past transactions or a YTD balance.

How to enter year-to-date info

You can enter this information in two ways:

• Enter individual transactions from earlier in the year.

• Enter a single year-to-date balance to reflect earlier activity.

This is especially useful for budgeting, spending reports, and tax planning.

You can always begin tracking from today and enter historical data later if needed.