Enter Social Security under Profile → Cash Flow → Income. Add one income record for each adult who receives a benefit, select Social Security as the type, and enter the amount with its actual frequency. The Retirement projection reads the saved income record directly.
Older instructions that describe a separate annual-only Social Security field in the Retirement Goal no longer match the current retirement model.
Add the income record
Open the client.
Go to Profile → Cash Flow → Income.
Choose the add-income control.
Select Social Security.
Enter a clear name, such as “Sarah Social Security.”
Select the adult who receives the benefit.
Choose Manual or PIA for the amount entry mode.
Enter the applicable benefit amount or monthly PIA.
Confirm the start timing and other available income details.
In Manual mode, if the Social Security statement gives a monthly benefit, enter the monthly amount and choose Monthly. If you enter an annual total, choose Annual. Never enter an annual total with Monthly selected.
Available income frequencies can include Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Twice a Month, Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annual, and Annual. Use the frequency that describes the amount you entered.
Choose Manual or PIA
Manual
Use Manual when you already know the benefit at the modeled claiming start. Enter the amount and select its matching frequency. Kerdora uses that saved benefit with the income timing.
PIA
Use PIA when you have the adult's monthly Primary Insurance Amount from an SSA source and want Kerdora to calculate the benefit for the saved claiming start. Enter the monthly PIA. Kerdora uses the adult's birth year to determine Full Retirement Age and applies the early-claiming reduction or delayed-retirement credit for the claiming age implied by the income start.
Social Security retirement benefits are modeled within the age 62–70 claiming window. If the saved start implies an age outside that range, Kerdora warns and clamps the modeled claiming start and adjustment to the permitted window. Confirm the adult's birthday and the income start before relying on the calculated amount.
PIA mode is not an optimization engine. It calculates the benefit for the timing you save; the advisor still decides which timing to analyze or recommend.
Use one record per recipient
Social Security is associated with an individual adult. If both adults receive a benefit, create two records.
Separate records allow Kerdora to preserve:
the correct owner;
different benefit amounts;
different start timing;
different end timing if relevant; and
person-specific use in Taxes and planning.
Do not combine two benefits into a joint record merely because the household spends the income together.
Set the start timing
The current Income model can default Social Security to retirement timing, but you must confirm that the saved start date or age reflects the scenario you intend to model.
If the benefit appears too early or too late in the Retirement projection, check the income owner and start timing first. Do not change unrelated retirement spending to compensate.
Kerdora does not determine the client's ideal claiming age. Use external analysis and advisor judgment to decide which benefit amount and start timing to model.
How Retirement uses Social Security
The Retirement projection includes the saved Social Security income in the appropriate years. It combines that income with spending, taxes, contributions, withdrawals, returns, the plan horizon, and legacy assumptions.
Review the Income view in the Retirement projection to confirm when each benefit enters the plan. Use the Spending and Gap Analysis views to see how the income reduces the amount the portfolio must supply.
The projection is deterministic. It shows the result under the selected benefit, timing, and other assumptions; it does not provide a probability of success.
Planned, Sustainable, and Social Security
Planned follows the saved retirement spending plan. Sustainable rescales the year-by-year spending pattern while keeping source income and its timing in place. Taxes and withdrawals are recalculated as spending changes.
Sustainable does not invent a different Social Security claiming strategy. It uses the saved income record.
Use What If correctly
Retirement What If can test a temporary Social Security reduction. This is useful for stress-testing a lower benefit without changing the saved income record.
What If cannot change the Social Security claiming age or start timing. To compare claiming strategies, model the relevant saved amount and timing, record the result, then deliberately restore or adopt the intended plan.
How Taxes uses the record
Taxes can derive adult Social Security inputs from the owner-specific Cash Flow income. Confirm the selected tax scenario and its derivation behavior before relying on the taxable-benefit result.
If Taxes and Retirement appear to use different values, check:
income owner;
amount and frequency;
timing;
whether the tax field is derived or manually overridden; and
which tax scenario is selected.
Common mistakes
Annual amount marked Monthly
This can multiply the modeled benefit by twelve. Correct the amount or the frequency so they match.
One combined household record
This loses person-specific ownership and timing. Create one record per adult.
Wrong start timing
The Retirement income view can show the benefit in the wrong year. Correct the Social Security income record rather than adding a compensating contribution or spending override.
Using What If to claim it compares ages
What If can reduce the benefit temporarily, but it cannot change claiming age. Use saved income timing for a true timing comparison.
Duplicating Social Security
Do not add the same benefit as Social Security and as a second Ordinary Income record. Search Cash Flow before creating a new item from extraction.
Verify the result
After adding or changing Social Security:
confirm the Income row, owner, amount, frequency, and timing;
open the Retirement projection and review Income;
review Planned and Sustainable results;
check the relevant tax scenario; and
preview any Financials or Guide content that shows retirement income.
If the value still appears wrong, contact Kerdora Support with the client, income record, expected timing, and observed result. Do not send client credentials.