Bring back Quick Report for Mac (77 Legacy Votes)

Paul Schopf

I really want QkReport!  

Trying out Quicken 2017, the one reporting feature I miss most is QkReport from QM2007.  I often want to know how much I paid to one payee  (or when).  The feature allows you to choose  [payee, category, class, account or security], and a set of date-range options, and one box to enter the text to search for.   Why keep track of all this data if you can't  find out whether you paid Ralph  for that old bill you found in the bottom of your car.  

It is possible in Quicken 2017 to find such things, but the process is laborious and very time-consuming.

*** To see a list of currently outstanding issues with Quick Reports, see the following tracking comment:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20105749#Comment_20105749

Crashmeister

Agreed.

smayer97

Actually, as of QM2016 v3.5.2 (released August 2016) and higher, there is a limited version of Quick Reports. As per the release notes: 

• 
  NEW: Added ability to create Quick Category and Tag
  reports by right clicking (CTRL+Click) on a transaction and selecting
  Report [Category or Tag].

Granted, this is still a limited version of the functionality. So Quick Reports needs to be improved to:

• to include a Quick Payee report when you right-click on a transaction. 
• allow creating a Quick Report as described by Paul Schopf (the OP) above

This would bring it on par with QM2007. 

Of course, there are still all the report related features that are missing to customize the report better (see my next post to find those).

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smayer97

… [deleted … no longer relevant]

smayer97

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.)

Paul Schopf

It took me a while to discover that Ctrl-click on a transaction let me get a report on the payee or category, which is helpful in some cases.  But QkReport lets me get a report without having to find a transaction first - sometimes I am searching for something that is several months old.

smayer97

Yes agreed. 

smayer97

Ok...so the part about Quick Reports on Payee is confirmed as there also, though not documented in the Release Notes. 

So now, all we need is the ability to create Quick Reports without find a transaction first, and with all the controls.

smayer97

P.S. QM2017 release notes have now been updated to reflect the Quick Report for Payee also.

Paul Schopf

What is frustrating is that the iPad (and iPhone) versions allow you to search for a whole bunch to things quickly and easily.  (as long as you are willing to accept a partial match for Payee,Categories, Tags, Memos, check number or amount at the same time.  Just an implementation of this search box would sort-of work for me.  At least we know that the required SQL is not beyond the abilities of the developers.

Quicken Marcus

Paul, you can do the same thing on the Mac by just clicking in the search box.  If you want to look across all accounts, click on the All Transaction view (in 2017) or All Accounts  (2016 and earlier) and use that search box.  Let me know if this doesn't do what you want?  This is the reason we don't have a literal report.  The thinking is a powerful search meets this need.

Concordman

Just went thru the excercise counseled by Marcus; selected a payee who I have paid thru several accounts.. lists all the payment history across the accounts in question 

Paul Schopf

I found it.  The functionality of choosing which columns to search is a little hidden, but I would say that this satisfies my need.  It is very fast and easy - once you know it is there.  Can I un-vote my suggestion?

smayer97

Please share what method you are using.

smayer97

@Marcus, "The thinking is a powerful search meets this need. " It only meets SOME of the need. There are still three needs; one for more powerful searching to be more precise, such as, contains, excludes, multiple fields, etc.; second the ability to save these searches; third to be able to print these results (though in todays age, 'printing' is more the creation of PDFs but that may be hairsplitting.

Paul Schopf

The suggestion for contains and excludes might be supplemented with wildcards, but I can see that it would be problematic.

I was able to print (to pdf) the result of one such search - no problem.  But I would replace your "print" with "export" as in CSV or some spreadsheet format.

Paul Schopf

From the Banking window, there is a search box in the header.  Clicking on the magnifying glass gives you options to choose fields.  Typing in the field limits the results.  From the Banking window, you get all accounts.  For an individual account, the functionality is the same, but limits the results to that account

Brent

This is exactly what I was looking for. I am so pleased to have found this thread, and this answer. Thank you Paul!

Brent

Well, there does seem to be a bit of a flaw in that if you have hidden accounts (closed accounts from a while back), these "reports" don't seem to find those transactions

Paul Schopf

I think that is why the accounts are "hidden".  I quite often "unhide" accounts if I am doing historical research.  

Unknown

The changes in the reports is very upsetting to me. I had several formats I used over the years and now zilch! Can't compare stuff in the same way or easily for that matter.

Paul Schopf

I certainly agreed with you when I first made the switch from '07.  In response to the upcoming demise of Q'07 for mac, I had tried iBank (Banktivity) and now Q'17.  I choose to ignore the "Quicken" in the title of Q'17 and just accepted that I would have to change my workflows.  Then I compared Q'17 to Banktivity and found that Q'17 works better for me.

The concept that Q'17 has "powerful search" sounded funny to me, but I have come to learn that searching the registers is the best way for me to get my "report" data.  For instance, if you select the "Banking" set of accounts, you can then select whatever dates you want to include, and you can choose whether to see cash or credit card accounts or both.  Then you can select whether to see income or spending or both.  With all these chosen, you can search on any of the visible columns for text.  You can then click on the column headers to sort by Payee, Category, Account, or whatever.

Then if you select a range of transactions, the File -> Export menu item lets you Export Register Transactions to CSV file.

I realize that this probably does not fit your workflow, but you may find mods to something like this to help out.   I recommend playing around with filtered views of register transactions to see all the various ways you can get what you need.

Unknown

Paul Thanks And I agree this is a pretty good work around the poor situation that Quicken has given us. I've been with quicken so long (Windows version till about 3 years ago) that I don't want to give up on it. I keep thinking it will get as good as the windows version was. Maybe I'm wrong. I do like your way of the work around though. Thanks Again

Paul Schopf

Thanks!  

I think that in the future, I will find it more than a "workaround", as I discover more interesting features that lurk in this register search.

Next, I am interested in looking at what I can get out to the Investments tab.

smayer97

You can add your VOTE to Add Option to Search in Hidden Account Registers.

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

While you are at it, you may want to add your VOTE to related IDEAS found on the List of Requests for Data Entry and Usability Options and Features. Click on the underlined link, then follow the instructions to add your vote to more related ideas. 

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smayer97

Just to re-iterate what is still missing:
- ability to create a Quick Report on Memo, Account, or Security (like in QM2007)
- ability to create Quick Reports without finding a qualifying transaction first, and with all the controls. 

- report formatting options (separate IDEA thread, see List of Requests for Report Related Features)

- the ability to save the report

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Unknown

-ability to select or deselect transfers to include in income/expense reports and the Home "pie chart" of monthly expenses.  

smayer97

yes there are many features missing from reports in general...which applies to all reports, including Quick Reports but those other features are captured elsewhere.

This thread is only for functionality to actually create Quick Reports.

Unknown

Agree loss of Report functions in Q2016 is dreadful.  Causing lots of problems.

smayer97

Then be sure to add your votes at the links above. Your VOTE matters!

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Quicken Marcus

We understand that reporting needs to be improved and are doing quite a lot of work in this area.  We added Comparison and Summary reports in 2017 and are currently building a powerful report engine that can be used to build lots of different type of reports in 2018.  Completing the engine is a huge milestone that should help us accelerate reporting capabilities in the 2018 release.  With that said, we also fundamentally believe that the search paradigm and the ability to save searches is also an important paradigm to adopt and may fit better with how new customers expect their software products to work. That was belief when Quicken Essentials was built which is why reporting capabilities is limited in the new Quicken Mac.  We also have a long way to go to improve our search capabilities but that will also be a priority once we bring reporting in line with 2007.   The bottom line is I wanted to let everyone know that we understand reporting is important and we're doing quite a lot to better meet that need.