In Quicken 2007, I can create custom reports with categories and classes (229 Legacy Votes)

rmoore · December 2015

I have used Quicken since 1988 and updated it regularly. I kept an old Mac just to keep using Quicken 2007. I will NEVER upgrade until the new Quicken lets me create custom reports with categories (rows) and classes (columns) & export it to excel for tax preparation.

I tried QuickBooks and do not like it. So don't suggest I switch to it.

Please bring back these important and necessary features that make Quicken so useful for a small business. I would pay hundreds of dollars for these features.

Attached is a screen shot of the Categories and Classes.

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More accurately, QM2007 has the flexibility to choose what data are used for the rows and what data are used for the columns, as shown here:

Row Selection:

Column(s) Selection:

Combined with the power to select what columns and subtotals appear, as follows:

This gives the power to generate all-kinds of summary reports, from single column to multiple columns reports. For an overview of all the types of possible reports, click the following link to take you to a detailed review below.

One of the key attactive features of such a report design is that it would allow easily switching between the different reports without having to recreate the section criteria, either before OR after generating a report (as I already pointed out over two months earlier in this post above). Right now, you have to re-create the criteria if you decide to use a different report.

This is extremely valuable when performing data analysis or trying to figure out which report view would best serve a need.

Click VOTE at the top of THIS page, so your vote will count for THIS report type.

Also click "Follow" at the top if you want to receive notifications of any updates to this thread.

smayer97 · December 2015

I agree that reporting capabilities are under developed in QM2016. As a result reports in QM2007 are not carried over. This is the EXACT same need I have and one of the main reasons that is holding me back on QM2007.

If you have not done so already, I suggest you add your vote for these features to help guide the priorities by the developers. As per the directions of intuit Admin, you can submit your request for bugs/features for Quicken 2016 for Mac by entering into the field "Something not listed? Tell us:" here: http://www.quicken.com/mac/feedback

This is the surest way for them to see your request. The field may appear small but you can type in quite a bit.

(if you have too many details, you can always post them here and place a link to this thread in your feedback)

Take the time to also vote on any of the listed features that Intuit is considering.

Mary Carleton · August 2016

Reporting Classes (Now "Tags") as columns is vital to me. I cannot switch from 2007 to 2016 until this functionality is there. This is how I skim to see if everything is in the right report. The report of all cost centers by column is then my archive record for my taxes.
Please get this functionality added as soon as possible!!

Quicken Marcus · August 2016

Thank you. The picture in your description is perfect. No this functionality is not yet available in Quicken for Mac but it's a top requested item and something we are seriously considering for our 2017 release. Unfortunately the Quicken 2007 code is too old to just re-use so we have to rewrite everything from scratch which takes time.

smayer97 · September 2016

In QM2007, this columnar summary report allows changing the rows and columns to a variety of choices: payees, categories, classes (tag), accounts, various date periods.

It is called Job/Project under the Business tab of Reports.

It also allows selecting the rows only as category, payees, classes (tags), accounts and the column as NONE, effectively subsuming many of the existing reports in QM2016.

@Marcus, If you have not already, please take a look at the flexibility. All report templates in QM2007 have this kind of flexibility. I would expect the same flexibility in QM2016, at a minimum.

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

smayer97 · September 2016

As another consideration, please make it possible to carry over report formats from QM2007. I have about 80 of them. Re-creating them (once QM2016+ supports each of the needed formats) would be extremely time consuming to set up, test and validate their accuracy, etc. So please factor this in when you design the reports engine.

smayer97 · September 2016

Ok...I have added another IDEA post to capture this request here:
Ability to carry forward report formats from other versions

Be sure to click the underlined link and VOTE on that feature.

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

smayer97 · September 2016

@Marcus, I know you have mentioned that this is a top requested item. Just for completeness based on the new GetSat format, I thought I would include references I have submitted before of requests in support of this feature. The following are just a few samples of requests that support the requests above:

Request for Columnar Summary Report template:

smayer97 · September 2016

You may also want to add your VOTE to MANY types of reports and report features, here: https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/list-of-requests-for-report-types-and-related-fe...

Click the link above to go take a look at the list and vote for the ones you want to see implemented in Quicken for Mac.

Be sure to scroll down the page, as some contain lists of related features. Click on the link to EACH IDEA separately. Then you click the VOTE button at the top of EACH page that opens up respectively to increase the count and therefore its visibility to the developers

If you do not click VOTE at the top of the page of each feature, your vote will NOT be counted for THAT feature!

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

David Thorup · October 2016

I don't see anybody begging for graphs. Graphs are a waste of good memory and design time

smayer97 · October 2016

That may be true but this is not a graph...this is a tabular report format.

smayer97 · October 2016

BTW, ignore the feedback link above, as this IDEA area in this forum is the current way to collect requests.

Instead, just a reminder that If you do not click VOTE at the top of each IDEA page, your vote will NOT be counted!

Also, click "Follow" at the top if you want to receive notifications of any updates to this thread.

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

smayer97 · October 2016

@Marcus (and developers), in a discussion here https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/can-i-re-create-this-q2007-report-in-q2017?topic..., it became apparent that some issues need to be dealt with regarding tags. Since transactions can have multiple tags, there is the possibility to get cross-tagging, which would result in double-counting. I believe the options are quite simple to deal with this. Let me present to you my suggestions:

Without having analyzed it completely, I can see only 2-3 solutions to that challenge of developing such a columnar summary report: either this report format carries a warning that any transactions that have more than one tag and appear on the report will be double counted, or the program goes the extra step to warn the user if it found cross-tagged transactions that are being double-counted, or even one step further, for any row where cross-tags are detected, the user can be given the option to not display subtotal or total for those lines; this would give the user a visual cue as to where approximately the cross-tagging exists.

Whichever way, I cannot see any program knowing what to do beyond that; it would be up to the user to decide how best to handle that. In some cases, it may be as simple as the user choosing to not display subtotals and/or totals (QM2007 has the functionality to choose your columns, including which subtotals and totals to display in such a report), or the user would have to decide if that cross-tagging makes sense for the transactions involved.

As an example, here is the column selection for a sample columnar summary report in QM2007:

This could easily be modified to add the option to show/not show subtotals and/or totals for any rows that have cross-tagged transactions.

BTW, just in case this is not clear, this means that this report format should handle Subtotals and Totals across the rows, as well as in vertical columns.

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

Sue · November 2016

Agreed. Being able to create a columnar summary report to export to a spreadsheet would be really helpful, especially since we currently can't create one subtotaled by Payee for Charitable Giving reports.

smayer97 · November 2016

For the record, I want to highlight the fact that a properly designed report engine and equally important UI, for this Columnar report, like done in QM2007, would subsume the following reports that are currently in QM2017 v4.3.1:

Account Summary Report (Columnar report subtotaled and sorted by account, single column subtotal)
Category Summary Report (Columnar report subtotaled and sorted by category, single column subtotal)
Payee Summary Report (Columnar report subtotaled and sorted by Payee, single column subtotal)
Tag Summary Report (Columnar report subtotaled and sorted by tag, single column subtotal)
Spending Over Time (Columnar report subtotaled and sorted by category, displaying multiple selected periods)
Net Worth Over Time (Columnar report subtotaled and sorted by category, grouped by Assets vs Liabilities, displaying multiple selected periods)
Comparison Report By Category (Year over Year) (Columnar report subtotaled and sorted by category, displaying multiple selected periods, which add an extra column for each comparative period, and columns showing the calculation of the differences)
Comparison Report By Payee (Year over Year) (Columnar report subtotaled and sorted by payee, displaying multiple selected periods, which add an extra column for each comparative period, and columns showing the calculation of the differences)
Comparison Report By Tag (Year over Year) (Columnar report subtotaled and sorted by tag, displaying multiple selected periods, which add an extra column for each comparative period, and columns showing the calculation of the differences)

To further explain what I mean, let's examine the Columnar Report template.

First, I want to point out that the only difference between a properly designed columnar report (like in QM2007) and a Summary report is that the Summary report only shows the subtotals for each row with no additional columns. All a columnar report does is add extra columns to show more detail of the subtotals, as outlined above for each report.

In fact, the report template UI could be taken one step further than QM2007 achieved and easily roll up the Comparison reports too by simply adding a check mark to expand the columnar report into a Comparison report, as has been outlined above, because those reports are just another extension/application of the columnar format.

Once properly developed, then a whole bunch of Business related reports that are currently in QM2007 could easily be deployed, listed as follows:

Accounts Payable by Vendor (Columnar report subtotaled by Payee, displaying multiple selected periods (by month?), with pre-selected accounts=Banks, excluding Payments and Deposits) (Like Payee Summary Report and Spending Over Time formats combined)
Accounts Receivable by Customer (Columnar report subtotaled by Payee, displaying multiple selected periods (by month?), with pre-selected accounts=Assets, excluding Cleared and Reconciled transactions) (Like Payee Summary Report and Spending Over Time formats combined)
Balance Sheet (~Net Worth Over Time but on specific day only)
Cash Flow Report (=Category Summary Report, pre-selected accounts, organized by cash flow)
Income Statement (aka Profit and Loss-P&L) (=Category Summary Report, organized by Income vs Expenses)
Job/Project Report (Columnar report subtotaled and sorted by category, displaying multiple columns as tags, organized by Income vs Expenses)
Payroll Report (Columnar report subtotaled and sorted by category, displaying multiple columns as payees, pre-selected categories, organized by cash flow)

Again, though there might be some tweaks needed, all the above reports would be the same Columnar Report, simply with pre-set criteria as outlined above, as many report defaults are currently set up in QM2007.

In other words, the following are the advantages:

all these reports would be rolled up into one (1) report template and UI, versus 16 separate reports (assuming all are re-created)
it would allow easy configuration in defining selection criteria due to a common interface
it would allow easily switching between the different reports without having to recreate the section criteria, either before OR after generating a report (as I already pointed out over two months earlier in this post above). Right now, you have to re-create the criteria if you decide to use a different report
more efficient for the user with far less effort

This is extremely valuable when performing data analysis or trying to figure out which report view would best serve a need.

One way to implement this in a common UI is to have a report selection window with a menu with either the choice of a generic template (only default settings) or a selection of the different pre-defined reports, as listed above, whereby the UI shows or hides selection criteria as applies to the report.

I do not believe it would be significantly more effort than designing the reports individually but the return would be more significant from a usability perspective.

In the words of Mike Holmes of HGTV fame, "Do It Right".

If you see the value in this approach (similar to what is in QM2007), be sure to:

click VOTE at the top of this page for the Columnar report format
click on Request for Customizable reporting engine (with the power and flexibility of QM2007 and QWin) then click VOTE at the top of THAT page to add your vote for this style of reporting engine.

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

(BTW you can add your vote for the here:

Columnar report (with selectable choices for rows and columns)

(see the for background info and a better understanding of this consolidated and versatile approach)

smayer97 · November 2016

oops...posted prematurely...I did not finish my edits...

smayer97 · November 2016

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Add Income vs Expenses, Cash Flow, Profit & Loss (P&L) type report to Quicken for....

Please add a Income vs Expenses, Cash Flow, Profit & Loss (P&L) type report to Quicken for Mac.

EDIT: It turns out that these reports are simply a subset or application of a columnar summary report, with report being organized in income vs expense or cash flow format.

Here is a sample of a request for this type of feature:
http://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/just-upgraded-from-quicken-for-mac-2007-to-mac-2016-and-converted-files-cant-find-my-saved-reports-from-2007...

(If you find this feature helpful, please be sure to click "VOTE" above to increase the count and therefore its visibility by the developers, thanks.)

smayer97 · November 2016

For the record, I want to highlight the fact that a properly designed report engine and equally important user interface (UI), for this Columnar Summary Report, like done in QM2007, would subsume the following reports that are currently in QM2017 v4.3.1:

Account Summary Report (aka Balance Sheet aka Net Worth; Columnar Summary report subtotaled and sorted by account, single column subtotal)
Category Summary Report (Columnar Summary report subtotaled and sorted by category, single column subtotal)
Payee Summary Report (Columnar Summary report subtotaled and sorted by Payee, single column subtotal)
Tag Summary Report (Columnar Summary report subtotaled and sorted by tag, single column subtotal)
Spending Over Time (Columnar Summary report subtotaled and sorted by category, displaying multiple selected periods)
Net Worth Over Time (Columnar Summary report subtotaled and sorted by account, grouped by Assets vs Liabilities, displaying multiple selected periods)
Comparison Report By Category (Year over Year) (Columnar Summary report subtotaled and sorted by category, displaying multiple selected periods, which adds an extra column for each comparative period, and columns showing the calculation of the differences)
Comparison Report By Payee (Year over Year) (Columnar Summary report subtotaled and sorted by payee, displaying multiple selected periods, which adds an extra column for each comparative period, and columns showing the calculation of the differences)
Comparison Report By Tag (Year over Year) (Columnar Summary report subtotaled and sorted by tag, displaying multiple selected periods, which adds an extra column for each comparative period, and columns showing the calculation of the differences)

To further explain what I mean, let's examine the Columnar Summary Report template.

First, I want to point out that the only difference between a properly designed columnar summary report (like in QM2007) and a Summary report is that the Summary report only shows the subtotals for each row with no additional columns. All a columnar summary report does is add extra columns to show more detail of the subtotals, as outlined above for each report.

In fact, the report template UI could be taken one step further than QM2007 achieved and easily roll up the Comparison reports too by simply adding a check mark to expand the columnar summary report into a Comparison report, by adding the extra needed columns, as has been outlined above, because those reports are just another extension/application of the columnar format.

Once properly developed, then a whole bunch of Business related reports that are currently in QM2007 could easily be deployed, listed as follows:

Accounts Payable by Vendor (Columnar Summary report subtotaled by Payee, displaying multiple selected periods (by month?), with pre-selected accounts=Banks, excluding Payments and Deposits) (Like Payee Summary Report and Spending Over Time formats combined)
Accounts Receivable by Customer (Columnar Summary report subtotaled by Payee, displaying multiple selected periods (by month?), with pre-selected accounts=Assets, excluding Cleared and Reconciled transactions) (Like Payee Summary Report and Spending Over Time formats combined)
Balance Sheet (~Net Worth Over Time but on specific day only aka Accounts Summary)
Cash Flow Report (=Category Summary Report, pre-selected accounts, organized by cash flow)
Income Statement (aka Profit and Loss-P&L) (=Category Summary Report, organized by Income vs Expenses)
Job/Project Report (Columnar Summary report subtotaled and sorted by category, displaying multiple columns as tags, organized by Income vs Expenses)
Payroll Report (Columnar Summary report subtotaled and sorted by category, displaying multiple columns as payees, pre-selected categories, organized by cash flow)

Again, though there might be some tweaks needed, all the above reports would be the same Columnar Summary Report, simply with pre-set criteria as outlined above, as many report defaults are currently set up in QM2007.

Currently, the Category/Transaction Detail reports are accessible via the respective Summary reports. In like manner yet again, a properly designed report engine and equally important UI for these, like done in QM2007, needs to be independently accessed, to be able to be configured as needed, and not have to generate and store the Summary report first.

In fact, once properly developed, another report that are currently in QM2007 could easily be deployed, the Tax Summary report, listing transactions for all tax related categories.

In other words, the following are the advantages:

all these reports would be rolled up into one (1) UI, with one (1) report template for the summary version, and one (1) report template for the transactional version, versus 16 separate reports (not including budget, investment, and tax reports) (assuming all are re-created)
it would allow easy configuration in defining selection criteria due to a common UI
it would allow easily switching between the different reports without having to recreate the section criteria, either before OR after generating a report (as I already pointed out over two months earlier in this post above). Right now, you have to re-create the criteria if you decide to use a different report
more efficient for the user with far less effort
maintains backward compatibility to be able to carry forward saved reports from QM2007 and QWin.

This is extremely valuable when performing data analysis or trying to figure out which report view would best serve a need.

One way to implement this in a common UI is to have a report selection window with a menu with either the choice of a generic template (only default settings) or a selection of the different pre-defined reports, as listed above, whereby the UI shows or hides selection criteria as applies to the report.

I do not believe it would be significantly more effort than designing the reports individually but the return would be more significant from a usability perspective.

In the words of Mike Holmes of HGTV fame, "Do It Right".

If you see the value in this approach (similar to what is in QM2007), be sure to:

click VOTE at the top of this page for the Columnar Summary report format
click on Create Useful Category/Transaction Detail Report, then click VOTE at the top of THAT page to add your vote for that template
click on Request for Customizable reporting engine, then click VOTE at the top of THAT page to add your vote for this style of reporting engine

A mirror of this post is cross-referenced to a similar post in the Request for Customizable reporting engine IDEA here.

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

smayer97 · November 2016

Of course for the templates to be as versatile as in QM2007, they need to include an essential the list of report related features, as was originally listed before at the link
Create Useful Category/Transaction Detail Report but is also at the link in the
Request for Customizable Reporting Engine, as follows:

You may want to add your vote for each of these. First, click on each underlined link above to go there, then click VOTE at the top of THAT page, so your vote will count for THAT feature and increase its visibility to the developers.

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

fivepac · November 2016

Are tags now available for Quicken Mac 2017? Since 2007 I left quicken due to lack of classes. Now quickbooks says it will not work with the new update to MAC OS upgrades. If classes are available with Quicken Mac 2017, I can come back......

jacobs · November 2016

fivepac, I'm not certain I understand your question, because classes still exist in Quicken 2007. In Quicken 2017, classes are renamed tags, and you can have more than one tag on a transaction.

smayer97 · November 2016

@fivepac QMac has something called Tags, since QEM (2010), which is very similar to Classes but not identical. The difference between QM2007 and QM2017 is that you can now have multiple tags on a single transaction. The problem is there are no 'sub-Tags', so if you use Sub-Classes in QM2007, they get converted to regular Tags.

So first, you may need to do some data clean-up for them to make them work the same way you intend. Second, there is no columnar summary report format yet, so you cannot use Tags in columns or rows combined with some other data field like categories, like you can in QM2007. That is what this IDEA request is about.

You may want to take a look at the following List of Obstacles and Hindrances for Migrating from QM2007 or QWin to Quicken for Mac

Among other things, it highlights the lack of this report format in and the ability to batch edit data that are located in split transactions, so for example, clean-up of tags located in splits would be one transaction at a time.

So you may want to add your vote to each of those features lacking that make it difficult or impossible for QM2007 users to migrate.

And you may want to add your vote for this Columnar Summary Report IDEA and its related report features too.

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

Larry Rogers · November 2016

This flexibility with reporting is absolutely essential to provide concise tax data to our CPA and for general financial planning

Amy Sewell · December 2016

I recently moved from 'Quicken 2007 for Mac' to Quicken 2016 for Mac and am very disappointed. I thought it was just a new learning curve,but I keep finding things that are either not accurate or just not present.
I had more than 10 years of saved tax reports that I cannot find. When I create a customized report, I cannot re-organize by date, payee or other previously customized fields, which makes it hard to read. Also, I cannot find "Quick Report" which offered a really easy way to run a report on just one category, or payee, or other field, and save that report.
I am also having trouble in my account transactions. Reconciling accounts is harder and less accurate. My checking account total is wrong, and I cannot find the error.

David Thorup · December 2016

Welcome to the club. But aren't those graphs pretty!

jacobs · December 2016

Amy, it's hard to help you troubleshoot all the issues without knowing more specifics of some of your issues. I'd actually suggest starting new questions for each different topic (like reconciling), so you stand a better chance of getting answers from people here who can offer help.

Let me tackle the reports issues here. First, as you've discovered, saved reports do not come over from Quicken 2007. The report engine is very different in Quicken 2016, with many features different or not present in the new programs, so the developers did not build a way for them to partially transfer. Some fellow Quicken users here are still lobbying for this, but I don't know that this is likely to get added in the future. Since not all the report features map to Quicken 2016, it would be difficult, if not impossible, until/unless the reports capabilities in the new program are beefed up. (Note that even if such features are added, Quicken 2016 is now in maintenance mode and will only receive bug fixes and security updates; all new features will only show up in Quicken 2017.) By the time new reports features are added, the declining number of ongoing Quicken 2007 users may make writing complex transfer processes a low priority. But that's just speculation; for now, there is no transfer of Quicken 2007 reports, and your only option is to re-create what you need in Quicken 2016, if the features exist for the reports you want.

Quick Report was one of the missing features from quicken 2007 which I found problematic early on, but a combination of learning to do things differently and some enhancements to the program have mostly solved this issue, in my opinion. The fist thing to realize is that the Search box, in the upper right side of a transaction register screen, pretty much does what Quick Reports did: you can do a fast search against all columns, or click the tiny little triangle next to the magnifying glass to select searching specific columns (e.g. categories or memos or payees). By selecting one account, or an account group (e.g. Cash & Credit), or All Accounts in the left sidebar, you can control which accounts are searched. If you're just looking for info, this often suffices.

But you said you want to create a printed report. This exists, too. Let's say you want a report on a particular Payee, such as Home Depot. Find a Home Depot transaction, and Control-Click on the transaction line. In the dropdown menu that appears, the fifth menu item is "Report on Home Depot"; select that, and Quicken will crete a report of all transactions for Home Depot transactions. It will initially use the date range you had selected in your register, but you can change the date -- or any other parameter -- by clicking Customize in the upper right corner of the report window. Also in the customize dialog box, at the bottom, is a check box for "Save as a custom report", which allows you to save your current search criteria and name the report for easy use in the future. The same "quick report" functionality wen clicking on a transaction exists for the category of the transaction, too.

While the reports customization gives you pretty good control over accounts, dates, categories, tags and payees, you are correct that you have almost no control over formatting the reports. You can't change sort order, add or hide any columns, adjust column widths, etc. A lot of us here have been lobbying the Quicken developers to revamp the report engine to offer this type of flexibility, but so far, they've focused on other areas of need in the program. I'm still hopeful that they'll get to overhauling reports at some point in the future.

Ed · December 2016

Creating as separate thread for visibilit

Please reference the new conversation here: Having trouble with reconciling as well as reports - Q Mac 2016

Ed · December 2016

Moving to original post comment was part of

Please reference the new conversation here: moving to newly forked thread for context

David Novick · January 2017

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE bring back 2007 Reporting Flexibility. Simply put, the way 2017 "assumes" you want the report they way it groups and sorts it is highly arrogant. I had a lot of flexible memorized reports which helped me especially at tax time. Now, I will spend hours manually sprint through the crap that Quicken 2017 vomits. This is so important that if I find another program that provides flexible reporting (iBank is just as awful), I will dump Quicken in a minute AND post it to the 1000s I am connected to on both FaceBook and LinkedIn... that's how awful reporting is.

LCopp · February 2017

Quicken used to be one of the most powerful accounting tools. Quicken for Mac 2007 and 2009 were able to make beautiful detailed reports. Now the Quicken for Mac software is useless for Reports, as it can not do what the photo above shows.

LCopp · February 2017

Re-writing code takes time? You have got to be kidding!
I just spent my time during the whole year using Quicken for Mac 2015 (after having to give up the 2009 version) only to discover that I cannot create the Reports I need!

I expected Quicken 2015 to be the same, if not better than the 2009 version, not unbelievably WORSE, to the point that it is USELESS to me as a business owner. How can that be????

This software used to be the most powerful accounting software on the market, only to be given a lobotomy in its current versions. It is USELESS for a business owner until it can make reports like the one shown above.

In Quicken 2007, I can create custom reports with categories and classes (229 Legacy Votes)

Implemented · Last Updated March 2019

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