In addition to the survey, we’re also offering the opportunity to schedule a call with our team to discuss your experience using Quicken for budgeting. We’d love to hear directly from you about what’s working well, what could be better, and any suggestions you have for future improvements.

Click the link below to take the survey and learn more about how to schedule a call. Your feedback is valuable to us and will directly influence future updates and features!

Thank you for being a part of our community and helping make Quicken even better!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RFWHHKF

Are you open on Saturday? What are your hours? I do not know when these errors began. The entire account needs to be checked.

Barbara Berman. (personal information deleted - Jon)

If my monthly mortgage payment is $1,454.66, here is what shows up in my Quicken budget for Housing:

• Interest: yes
• Escrow: yes
• Principal: nowhere

That is not a rounding error. That is Quicken working exactly as designed, and it is a real problem for anyone trying to budget their actual cash outflow.

How a Mortgage Payment Actually Splits in Quicken

When you set up a linked mortgage account and use a split transaction in your checking register, each payment has four lines:

I don't understand why have the 3rd column at all if you can just put that in the first category section as a transfer. As soon as you put a transfer in the 3rd colum it disappears from the category as an expense. Seems very frustrating and silly. I am sure there's some problem that third column solved, but it certainly not this one.

The transfer lines are not an accident or a workaround. They are required. If you categorize principal as an expense instead of a transfer, the loan balance inside Quicken stops tracking correctly and your net worth becomes wrong.

So Quicken puts you in a corner: record principal correctly as a transfer and lose it from the budget, or record it as an expense and break the loan account.

Here is what it looks like if I remove the transfer to the loan. The budget then becomes accurate.

This is a mess. It is time-consuming and does not accurately reflect my net worth. I realize we are limited by what the developers have built into the program, but if there is a way to fix this, I have not been able to find it anywhere.

Why the Transfer Column Exists (And Why It Still Does Not Help the Budget)

Quicken's split transaction has a third column where you can assign a transfer account. For principal, that column points to the linked mortgage account. This is what keeps the loan balance accurate.

But here is the frustrating part: even though you can see the transfer sitting right there in the split, it still does not appear in your budget. The transfer column exists purely for accounting accuracy. It has no effect on what the budget displays.

This means a homeowner looking at their Housing budget sees something like $979 when $1,454 actually left their checking account that month. The accounting is correct. The budget is incomplete.

What the Loan Account Does Well

Before proposing a fix, it is worth being clear about what the linked mortgage account actually provides, because it is genuinely valuable and should not be removed to solve the budget problem.

The Progress tab shows exactly how much principal and interest you have paid, your projected total cost, and a visual payoff curve comparing your current trajectory to the original schedule.

The What If tab lets you type in an extra monthly payment and instantly see how many years it saves and how much interest you avoid. With your actual current balance already loaded, this is more useful than any generic online calculator.

These features depend on the loan account being linked. Removing the account to fix the budget would mean losing the payoff projections, the interest tracking, and the net worth accuracy. That is too high a price for a problem that should have a much simpler solution.

The Net Worth Problem If You Separate the Account

Quicken has a setting under Account Settings, Display Options called "Keep account separate from reports, budgets, and total." If that box is checked, the mortgage liability disappears from your net worth calculation entirely.

Leave that box unchecked. The mortgage liability needs to flow into your Total so your net worth reflects what you actually own after subtracting what you owe.

The Forced Choice Quicken Currently Imposes

This is the gap. It is not a user error. It is a product limitation.

The Fix: One Checkbox

The solution does not require a redesign. It requires one optional setting on transfer transactions and scheduled reminders:

Include this transfer in Budget

When enabled:

• The transaction still behaves as a transfer
• The loan balance remains accurate
• Net worth remains accurate
• The budget also reflects the full cash amount

Nothing about the accounting changes. Only the budget view improves.

Why This Matters Beyond Mortgages

The same gap affects any intentional transfer:

• Emergency fund contributions
• Vacation sinking fund
• Vehicle replacement fund
• Envelope budgeting transfers
• Zero-based budgeting systems

Any time you move money on purpose, it represents a real cash flow decision. The budget should be able to reflect that without breaking the underlying accounting.

A Note on Incremental Progress

This change is narrow and surgical. It does not alter any accounting behavior. It only changes what the budget displays.

Quicken Mac has improved meaningfully in other areas over the past few years. Transfer matching, loan tracking, and register navigation are all genuinely better than they used to be. The budget section deserves that same attention, and this one checkbox would be a significant step forward.

Summary: When mortgage principal is correctly recorded as a transfer, it disappears from the budget. The fix is simple: add an option to include transfers in the budget without changing how they are recorded. One checkbox. No accounting changes. Accurate cash flow visibility for the first time.

[Edited - Readability]

THE SCENARIO
You save $X/month into a dedicated savings account. When ready to buy, you transfer that money back to checking and pay the dealer. Quicken sees the transfer back as phantom income and the purchase as a massive unbudgeted expense.

WHY IT HAPPENS FROM QUICKEN'S OWN DOCUMENTATION
Quicken's official help page says this directly:

"Transfers are a special type of category because these types of transactions can cancel each other out if they appear in 2 different accounts. For example, if you transfer $50 from your checking account to your savings account, the transaction will appear as an ‘expense’ of -$50 in your checking account and an ‘income’ of +$50 in your savings account. The result will calculate to be $0 in your budget when Quicken adds both these transactions together which doesn’t really help you when you’re budgeting. For the transfers you want to budget, we recommend using a linked transfer where you select the account to where your money is being transferred to. This way, when you select the category to budget you can select the specific account and the side of the transfer you want to budget whether it’s money leaving an account or going to an account."

Source: https://info.quicken.com/mac/adding-or-removing-categories-or-accounts-from-you

In plain terms: if you check both the "FROM" and "TO" sides of a transfer in Select Categories, Quicken double-counts every dollar. The result is garbage numbers.

THE FIX (set up once, never touch again)

Step 1: Edit Budget > Select Accounts > choose "All accounts."

Step 2: Edit Budget > Select Categories > check ONLY:

• "TO X Savings" (under Transfers Out) — tracks your monthly saving commitment
• "X Purchase" — tracks the actual spend when you buy
  Uncheck everything else: all FROM transfers, all other TO transfers, Investments, Opening Balance.

Step 3: In the budget spreadsheet, enter your monthly transfer amount for "TO X Savings" every month of the year. No exceptions, including the purchase month.

Step 4: In the purchase month, also enter the purchase price in the "Vehicle Purchase" row. Keep the monthly savings amount in that month too. The transfer still happens.

RESULT
Every saving month: "TO X Savings" $X goal met. Clean.
Purchase month: "TO X Savings" $X goal met. "X Purchase" $Y goal met. Both green. No warnings.

The key insight: the purchase month is not a problem to hide. It is a month where two planned things happened. Budget for both honestly.

Full guide with real Quicken screenshots showing every step, the broken state, and the clean working result: Link

If anyone has found a cleaner approach, especially around the transfer-back-to-checking step that savings-only accounts like most savings accounts require, please share it.

Is there a status on ticket QMAC-28834?

Example:

$600 annual Budget

Jan Budget=$600 - no clothes bought

Feb Budget=$600 - no clothes bought

March Budget=$600 - $80/clothes bought

April Budget=$520 - no clothes bought

May Budget=$520 - $200/clothes bought

June Budget=$320 - etc, etc,

I am using Quicken Classic Deluxe for Mac Version 9.0.1 (Build 900.60628.100)

If others feel the same way, let's promote this enhancement

Thank you for two recent additions that have made a real difference in daily workflow. The "Apply to All Checking/Credit Card/Savings Accounts" feature in column view is very helpful, and the new "Go to Matching Transfer" (Command+[) makes reconciling transactions significantly easier. The ability to quickly navigate between matched transfers is a real time-saver for tracking and error resolution.

As a dedicated user, I'd like to share a few suggestions that I believe would greatly improve usability, especially in the area of budgeting:

1. Budgeting Enhancements

• Zero-Based Budgeting: A more intuitive approach to zero-based budgeting would help users assign every dollar a job more easily and clearly.
• Category Name Truncation: Avoiding truncated category names and better use of white space would significantly improve readability.
• Zero-Value Items: Please provide an option to hide categories with $0 monthly values, especially for annual items that clutter the monthly view unnecessarily.
• Parent Category Redundancy: In one-month views, allow users to hide parent categories when they simply duplicate a single subcategory's data.
• Visual Hierarchy: If a parent contains multiple subcategories, outline it differently (e.g., with a pattern or distinct color) to visually signal that it is summarizing lower-level data.
• Subcategory Indentation: Indenting subcategories would provide visual clarity, helping users quickly understand the category structure.
• Collapse/Expand All: Add "Collapse All" and "Expand All" controls in budget views to make navigating large budgets faster.
• Overall, a cleaner interface with less visual noise will help users make quicker and more accurate budgeting decisions.

2. Transfer Handling in Reports and Budgets

A common frustration in the community is how transfers are handled in monthly category reports and budgets. For example, mortgage principal payments appear as transfers rather than expenses, making it difficult to see a complete picture of monthly spending. Better integration of account transfers into budget and report views, with clear and intuitive options for including or excluding them, would go a long way toward more accurate financial planning.

3. Savings Goals

Savings Goals remain one of the most-requested missing features in Quicken Mac, with hundreds of community votes. The ability to set aside money toward specific goals and have that reflected meaningfully in budget views would be a major quality-of-life improvement for long-time users.

4. Scheduled Transactions in Budget View

Please consider incorporating Bill and Income Reminder series into budget planning. Currently there is no way to pull forecasted amounts from established reminders into a zero-based budget without manual entry and calculation, even though that data already exists in the file.

5. Budget Reporting and Export

• Please allow an export option that outputs budgeted amounts only, without actuals and difference columns, for easier sharing with family members or for use in external spreadsheets.
• An actual vs. budget report for year-to-date as of the end of the most recent month or quarter is a critical missing feature. Please add this.
• The ability to print a budget directly from Quicken Mac has been a long-standing request. This should be a basic function for any financial management tool.
• Enhanced reporting options for tracking and analyzing spending patterns would support more informed financial planning.

6. Customizability

Please allow greater flexibility in customizing budget views, layouts, and reports. Users have different planning styles, and a more adaptable interface would serve a much wider range of needs.

These refinements would not only streamline daily use but also bring the Mac version closer to parity with the Windows platform. The budgeting section has been flagged by the community as a long-overdue priority, and I'm encouraged by the surveys and focus groups that suggest a redesign is in progress. I look forward to seeing how Quicken for Mac continues to evolve.

I'd like to forecast my cash balance throughout the year and prepare for any shortfalls when I will inject more cash. I have a simple setup with a bank account, and a credit card account which are consolidated in Quicken. They are both linked to my bank where I download transactions. All of my bills are paid electronically.

I've started to use the Bills and Income function, and have setup several regular transactions such as a paycheque on the income side, and rent on the bills side. The problem I'm experiencing is that when the actual transactions occur, they are double counted - the bills and income which are setup for the future are not erased when the actual bill or income take place. This is throwing off the forecasted balance and the actual balance. If I delete the transactions manually, it does balance to the penny, but it seems the manual effort is not what was intended.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

I have used (and still use) Quicken for Windows for more than 15 years, but I bought a Mac Mini last year and started also using QC for MacOS. I use them both now and maintain them separately, at last until I get a Macbook for travel…

For years, I have used the Bill & Income>Projected Balances table to plan spending and avoid shortfalls. The feature in MacOS and Windows is a different experience. In MacOS, the table at the bottom shows a Balance column, but it is a Net Balance from today, not an actual balance. I have looked all through the software and can't seem to find a way to have this table column show the actual projected balance. Yes, the chart at the top shows the correct balance, but I'd like them to match. It is easier for me to follow the column rather than interpret the graph and have to hover over the predicted points.

Does anyone know a way to have this reflect actual balance? In the Windows version, it does show the actual balance in the table.

See the screenshot. The next two transactions total for $37.49 and the balance table shows that amount instead of the total balance of $2,004.46.

Any help would be appreciated.

So far, I love it, but I do miss the ability to update my budget in the same screen as the "view budget" which compares actual vs budget. It was also nice to see the variance onscreen, and not just in reports.

Wondering if anyone else feels this way, and if there are plans to update the functionality in the future. I tried switching from Windows to Mac once before a few years ago when I bought my first Mac, but the clunkiness of the budget feature is what made me go back to Windows after one day!

It's like budgeting features have somehow been treated as a step-child. What's up with that?

Any thoughts or feedback?

What is the long term vision for Quicken Classic for Mac?

• They have a prior‑year budget history
• They have prior‑year actuals
• They were ever included in a budget
• They are marked “include in budget”
• They have a non‑zero value in the current year
• They are used in a transaction
  

Is there anyway to keep it from doing this? I just want to select categories I want in the budget and enter numbers for each category that will stay the same unless I change it. Something that keeps happening is I have numbers for each category that if I add up manually totals a certain number, but the Quicken total is different. I just want: Only the categories I want

• No legacy categories

• No auto‑added categories

• No categories with budget history

• No categories with prior‑year values

No categories Quicken can resurrect

I want:

• A budget that stays stable
• A budget that updates automatically
• A budget that doesn’t require re‑entry
• A budget that doesn’t mix actuals and budget
• A budget that doesn’t resurrect old categories
• A budget that reflects changes instantly
• A budget that you can trust

I want a budget I can create without fighting Quicken’s broken UI.

Seems like there should be a setting or something somewhere that allows me to tell Quicken to just use the categories I select and the numbers I enter. I don't want Quicken randomly throwing stuff into my budget willy-nilly.

So frustrated with the budgeting logic that I just want to throw the budget out the window and do my own outside of Quicken, but that just creates work I shouldn't have to do. I should be able to create a clean budget with Quicken.

[Edited Readability]

[A} PERSONAL INCOME:

1. Gross Salary

2. Other income sub-categories that I can custom-order, e.g.

2.1 Bonus(es)

2.2 New Hire Office Allowance(s)

2.3 Imputed (custom order)

2.3.1 Medical deductions (imputed earning)

2.3.2 Dental deductions (imputed earning )

…

3. Deductions - Pre-tax (custom order below too):

3.1 401 K

3.2 …

4. Taxes

4.1 Federal Income Tax

4.2 Medicare

4.3 Social Security

4.4 State Tax Withholding - CA

4.5 SDI Withholding - CA

4.6 …

5.0 Deductions - Post-tax (custom order below too):

5.1 Medical - Post-tax

5.2 Dental - Post-tax

5.3 STD - Post-tax

…

10.0 Net Pay (custom order below too):

10.1 Total

10.2 Distribution to Credit Union / Bank 1

10.2Distribution to Credit Union / Bank 2

10.3 Distribution to …

10.4 Distribution to …


[B] BUSINESS INCOME (custom order below too):

1.0 Consulting Income

2.0 Other Income

3.0 Others ….

…

10.0 Total Business Income

11.0 Net Business Income

[C] INVESTMENT INCOME (custom order below too):

…

[D] OTHER INFOME (custom order below too):

…

1. Personal
2. Business
3. Investment
4. Other
5. …

10. Total

End ::

One remaining limitation is that column width and column order still must be adjusted individually in each register. The ability to apply those settings globally has existed in the Windows version for decades, and bringing similar functionality to the Mac version would significantly improve workflow.

Many users frequently switch between different screen sizes. For example, I often move between a large desktop display and a smaller laptop screen. Because of this, I regularly need to resize columns so the information is readable and fits the screen well.

A very helpful improvement would be allowing users to resize columns once and apply that layout to all accounts of the same type.

For example:

• Apply column width layout to all checking accounts
• Apply column width layout to all savings accounts
• Apply column width layout to all credit card accounts

Even if this required adjusting layouts separately for each account type, it would still save a significant amount of time compared to resizing columns repeatedly in every individual register.

An additional enhancement that could make this even more powerful would be the ability to create saved column layout presets. For example, users could quickly switch between layouts such as:

• Laptop view
• Large screen view
• Essential columns
• All columns

These presets could potentially live under a menu such as Window → Layout Presets, allowing users to quickly change register layouts depending on their screen size or the task they are performing.

Sometimes I want a very minimal view with only essential columns visible. Other times I want to see everything. Being able to switch between named layout presets would make Quicken much more flexible and reduce the need for constant manual adjustments.

More broadly, allowing column layouts and presets to persist consistently across accounts and views would streamline navigation and reduce repetitive interface adjustments.

My Goal: I want to look back and see what we actually spent in each of my categories between 01/2025 and 12/2025 - the amount per month and the total for the year. And I would like to be able to enter a budgeted amount for each category and have the program compute the actual spending. My Quicken data file for last year is already complete - all accounts Reconciled, all transactions Categorized.

I am not clear on the following -

(does Quicken provide basic how-to instructions, and if not, why not?)

• Should I start by setting the "Budget as of…." function to 1/2025 to set the 12-Month period displayed?

• Having done that, is Quicken supposed to populate the Budget fields (months) with the actual spending for that time period?

• Quicken seems to go ahead and automatically set the Budgeted Amount per Category to the amount actually spent - if that's normal, I guess I have to then use the "Edit Budget" feature to adjust the budgeted amount to my target number.

• When the time comes to move on to a new year, am I supposed to (a)duplicate the budget, and then (b) set a new start date? — how?

As an alternative (and considering the problems users seem to be having with the Budget feature in Quicken) can you describe or point to instructions for exporting the above data into a spreadsheet so I can manually create the information display I want?

Thanks for looking. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

However, in the catefory monthly report, all I see is the loan interest expense. The money I spend to refuce the principal does not show up as an expense, at least not one that is defined as a category. It shows up as a transfer to the mortgage account and therefore, is not included as a monthly expense.

HOw do I track all my expenditures and income if sokme of those entries are transfers between accounts?

When comparing with the Quicken for Windows, the Tax Schedule Report from Quicken for Windows does show the "correct net" taxable amount, which is the gross icome minus the pre-tax deductions.

Is tha the expected behavior of the Quicken for Mac?

Is it possible to print/export a budget model as presented in the budget edit mode? I prefer to see this "annual P&L type" layout to the options presented in standard report offering.

Mac Quicken Classic Premier 8.4.1

Greatly appreciated,