Request for Customizable Reporting Engine in Quicken for Mac

smayer97 · January 2016

Because of the new 255 chars limitation on the new feedback form for submitting request for Other Features, I am posting details here, then submitting the link to this post on the feedback page to the send to the developers. This is not intended to open a discussion but simply to enable my feedback submission. If you agree, feel free to add your vote.

Background
First, this is a request for a customizable report generating engine similar to what is in QM2007 (and even Quicken for Windows), with all its flexibility. Pre-defined canned reports are far too limiting and can never accommodate the needs of all users as it requires anticipating their every need. With customizable report templates, users can modify to meet their needs.

Currently in QM2007, there are 17 templates for transactional reports (10 Standard, 7 business) + 6 for Investments. As I have pointed out before, there are ONLY 8 unique generic templates needed in QM2007 to generate all 17 reports (2 are for taxes and 5 are for the other 15) and 4 unique templates to generate the 6 Investment reports.

So far, only 4 of 8 generic report templates have been implemented in QM2016 (Summary, Net Worth & Tax Schedule). QM2016 has rolled into the current reports the Detailed reports but is very clumsy and limiting. The other reports in QM2016 are simply subsets of the generic templates in QM2007; in QM2007 only one template is needed to be able to create the Account Summary report, Category Summary report, and the Payee Summary report.

As a comparison, because QM2016 has rolled Summary and Detailed reports into one "template", 3 report templates are needed to generate the the 6 different Accounts, Category and Payee reports. On the other hand, QM2007 uses only 2 templates, one Summary, one Detailed, to create all 6 reports. The current design approach will prove a problem when moving forward to create new templates (see the Job/Project columnar summary report discussed below).

There is also the fact that the layout designs of existing reports in QM2016 are very "mickey mouse" and lack a professional look and feel (as has been many times reported on QLC) due to lots of white space, totals at the top, etc. but more importantly lack the ability to truly select and organize the data as needed, e.g. selection criteria such as which accounts or details are included, sorting, subtotals, managing splits, organization such as Income vs Expenses or Cash Flow, etc.

Requests
Ideally, I (and many others) would like to see the other report templates implemented. To help prioritizewhich next template to implement, I personally would like to see what is called the Job/Project report template in QM2007. It is essentially the existing Summary report that allows adding columns across the top, creating a multi-column report. It should have the same flexibility to allow selecting what shows up on the right side (Category, Payee, Account, Tags) and what shows up in the columns (Category, Payee, Account, Tags, various time periods). The highest priority is the Category vs Tag combination (see below for supporting info). This should be linked to the Detailed Transactions report template to be able to drill down on any one entry.

I believe to implement this, and other reports needed, the report creation engine needs to be re-designed to allow creating multiple reports from the fewest number of templates. I highly recommend taking cues from other versions of Quicken to create a more efficient reporting engine.

The other priorities include improving the selection criteria to allow more info on existing report templates and organization of the info, as discussed above.

Another complementary request is that once adequate templates are created, create the ability to import existing saved templates from QM2007 (and even Quicken for Windows).

Supporting Info
The following are just a few samples of requests that support the requests above:

Request for Columnar Summary Report template:
(FYI: I alone have almost 20 saved columnar summary reports to carry over)

Request for organization features:

Requests for ability to import existing saved reports:

From QM2007:
(NOTE: I alone have about 80 saved reports that I re-use all the time, and need to carry forward. Recreating them would be a major undertaking.)

From Windows:

smayer97 · February 2016

I hope Quicken is seeing the same thing I am seeing here on QLC, which is a very strong demand for customizable reports, with similar capabilities as ALL other versions of Quicken (Mac & Windows) before QM2015.

Also a strong demand to be able to carry over memorized reports in the Mac and Windows versions.

To see the evidence since I posted this here 1 1/2 months ago, see the first link under the first 2 headings above, as good examples.

mshiggins · February 2016

If by carry over you mean retain saved reports when upgrading year versions on the Windows side, that feature is already present.

smayer97 · February 2016

No...I mean carry over when converting from Windows to Mac, or from QM2007 to QM2016+ as per the sample links above

smayer97 · February 2016

as per the sample links above

jacobs · February 2016

Who closed this thread?? In the Lounge?? I was typing a reply, and by the time I clicked to submit it, someone had closed the thread.

Anyway...

I think the fact that they added a new Export CSV function to the Category Summary report, while helpful, is potentially worrisome. I was hoping to see evidence of an overhaul of the reports section of the program, which I find awful. (I've posted about reports before, and I won't repeat it all here.) If this CSV export functionality on a single report in version 3.1 was a quick-and-easy temporary solution, great -- many people want the ability to export reports. But if this signals that the development team thinks they can just add a few tweaks here and there without re-engineering the reports, that's bad. And note that better customization of reports is not one of the top 12 things presented for people to vote on in the polls on the Feedback and Compare web pages.

@smayer97: For your sake, I hope I'm wrong, but I'm guessing it's unlikely they'll ever implement a carry-over of reports from the legacy Mac version, because the databases and reports are so different. The amount of work needed to engineer it, for the relatively small number of Mac users who will still be using Quicken 2007 by the time they could get it built, makes me think they won't do it. That will definitely cause some pain for a small number of Mac users who have lots of custom reports. (For me, it's a minor inconvenience; I could rebuild the reports I need without too much pain.)

splasher · February 2016

Not me. When I first read it, it was closed, but it made sense to me based on this statement "This is not intended to open a discussion but simply to enable my feedback submission." in the very first paragraph.

smayer97 · February 2016

For me I have about 80 customized reports. Many of these I use regularly. And it seems others desire this capability too.

smayer97 · February 2016

splasher said:

Not me. When I first read it, it was closed, but it made sense to me based on this statement "This is not intended to open a discussion but simply to enable my feedback submission." in the very first paragraph.

Sorry, that was me, for exactly the reason you quoted. BUT, if anyone has useful feedback to keep in one place for the DEVELOPMENT team, by all means add constructive comments/feedback.

smayer97 · October 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.)

Unknown · November 2016

Same. I had a lot of Saved Reports, especially for Tax purposes.

smayer97 · November 2016

smayer97 (QM2007, CDN user since '92) said:

I hope Quicken is seeing the same thing I am seeing here on QLC, which is a very strong demand for customizable reports, with similar capabilities as ALL other versions of Quicken (Mac & Windows) before QM2015.

Also a strong demand to be able to carry over memorized reports in the Mac and Windows versions.

To see the evidence since I posted this here 1 1/2 months ago, see the first link under the first 2 headings above, as good examples.

For the record, I want to highlight the fact that a properly designed report engine and equally important user interface UI, for the 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 or more (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 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). 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 this Customizable Report Engine
click on Columnar Summary report, then click VOTE at the top of THAT page to add your vote for that template
click on Create Useful Category/Transaction Detail Report, then click VOTE at the top of THAT page to add your vote for that template

A mirror of this post is cross-referenced to a similar post in the Columnar Summary report 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 list of report related features, as has been listed before at the link
Create Useful Category/Transaction Detail Report, 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.)

Unknown · February 2017

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 2007 and 2009 versions.

I am going to have to take the information from the "Summary Report" and make my own Excel or Numbers spreadsheet. It will take me hours...

smayer97 · March 2019

Though there may be a new reporting engine under the hood, the features related to this new engine are only PARTIALLY implemented... as listed above.

Golf Is Fun · April 2019

I am desperate for the same report functionality as QM2007. I am keeping an old computer running that software because the new QM apps do not meet my needs. Please implement the same templates and the ease of customization. Pretty please!

smayer97 · April 2019

In case you are not aware, QM2007 LC (v16.1.x or higher) can run on macOS up to Mojave (10.14.x). There is one caveat. Read more here:
Is Quicken for Mac 2007 Compatible with Mojave (macOS 10.14)?

Request for Customizable Reporting Engine in Quicken for Mac

Implemented · Last Updated March 2019

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