Bring back Quick Report for Mac (77 Legacy Votes)

Paul Schopf

As one who advocated for QuickReports, I would like to say that the "powerful search" is indeed great. I can search on payees, memos, ... you name it, on one or all accounts and get results virtually instantaneously. Once that is done (and perhaps refined) I can see the totals of all those transactions, etc. I don't know of any Banking query that I would need that I can't get from the search box. I am not sure that I can say the same for investment accounts, but I am very happy to have figured out how to use the search feature.


Perhaps there should be a more obvious tutorial or guidance for us old timers

smayer97

That's great that you find it works well for you but keep in mind that the results and totals for the searches does not display qualifying individual split lines; it only displays and totals all split lines, whether they meet your search criteria or not. 

Quick Reports allows for better filtering and seeing and totalling only what you want.

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smayer97

@Quicken Marcus many of us really look forward to seeing the results of that work effort.  :-)

smayer97

I feel I need to elaborate my earlier response. Although searching has its place, and granted the searching functionality in QM2017 is nice, it can only meet certain needs. 

So searching fills certain needs, and if its functionality is expanded, then it would reduce some of the need to create a Quick Report but be sure to understand that Quick Reports fit a need between simply searching and being able to create formatted reports from the same starting point, with access to such report features as sorting, adding subtotals of various kinds, etc.

Hence, I see searching as a quick and dirty, but Quick Reports as being a bridge from simply searching/filtering to being able to start performing more in-depth analysis or investigating without starting over but without having to commit to setting up a full-fledge report from the outset BUT with the flexibility to then transition to building customized formatted reports of many kinds if one so needs/desires, without having to start your query all over again, just like in QM2007 and QWin. That is its power and usefulness...

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Unknown

Also agreed. Those of us who have been using Quick reports and enjoyed the ease of clicking on an easy to find icon miss that feature. "Hiding" features in right clicks drives us to google search too often. Making Quicken easier to use for casual users ought to be the thought process going forward, not just making it easier for techies or designers. But I am relieved to see that I can still access and customize quick reports, which are huge for me in tracking my business income and expenses.

Unknown

I was counting on Quick Report to get me through the accounting needed for an executorship. First, Quicken 2007, for the first time ever, lost data entry--a week's worth of work--in a crash. Now, because of that, I've upgraded to Quicken 2018 (Mac) and find I can't use Quick Report. Why did Quicken abandon this vital feature? 

smayer97

Just for reference, these are all the things that Quick Reports in QM2007 could do:

Quick Reports in QM2018, etc. still does not cover Memo, Account and Security (as mentioned above). And Filters in QM2018 still does not cut it, as it cannot isolate individual splits in transactions.

Unknown

Quick Report in QM 2007 was very easy to use and offered much better functionality. Please bring it to QM 2017

smayer97

An update contrasting QM2018 and QM2007:

Quick Report in QM2018 and QM2007 behave very similarly if you start a Quick Report by right-clicking a transaction: you get the option to create a report based on Payee or Category. In QM2018 you have the added benefit of doing a Quick Report on Tag (not so in QM2007 using the equivalent Class).

QM2018, defaults the Quick Report to 12 months, whereas QM2007 defaults to the current year only.

What is still missing from QM018 is the ability to create a Quick Report using Memo Account, and Security.

What is also still missing in QM2018 is to create a Quick Report WITHOUT starting from a specific transaction.  

The above dialogue box shows the ability to create a Quick Report from scratch, selecting the field, entering the search content, and selecting the date range (menu is hidden underneath) from either the pre-set date ranges, or pre-set custom date ranges. 

Also, if you trigger Quick Report "from scratch" while in a transaction then the Quick Report auto-selects the corresponding field from the transaction (where the cursor is) as the quick report type AND auto-populates the 'contains' field with the data from the corresponding field in the transaction. MUCH MORE flexible and versatile as a 'Quick Report'.

So, what is still missing are the extra fields (Memo, Account, Security) and the "Full" Quick Report dialogue.

Barry Gilbert

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled QMac 2007 Reports.


Q2018/Mac is improving.  But I cannot fully switch over from Q2007 until a full Quick Reports feature is available.  I use that feature multiple times each week in Q2007.  PLEASE continue to develop Quick Reports!!

Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: List of Requests for Report Types in Quicken for Mac.

jacobs

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Moving to merge.


Barry, can you describe what Quick Reports you do? I'm a longtime Quicken 2007 user as well, and I've found I can find pretty much what I need in Quicken 2018 between the Quick Reports and the really powerful Search box.

The developers don't engage with requests to "just make it like Quicken 2007", but they do pay attention when people tell them what specific functionality they find missing (which can include examples from Quicken 2007). The specifics, and the how or why really matter in getting them to see where the current product is a problem.

Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: List of Requests for Report Types in Quicken for Mac.

Unknown

Not sure why "Make it like QM 2007" is a difficult request.  2017 is completely different. I miss ALL the functionality of 2007.  Extra steps, less intuitive, less ability to narrow down a report without multiple steps.  I can no longer run 2007 so it would be difficult for me to explain exactly what I want (& this may be true for Barry also) except to say I want reports to function like 2007. I see this repeated by many users. You'd think developers would take a look at 2007 for clues. Just my thoughts. If this doesn't happen in 2017 & I hear that they get it right on 2018 it may be the one thing that drives me to that.

smayer97

Quicken is working on this, as noted in this reply above by Quicken Marcus.

Meanwhile, I highly recommend you to add your VOTES to related IDEAS found on the:

• List of Requests for Report Related Features, 
• with the essential ones described and listed here 
  
• List of Requests for Report Types

Click on each underlined link, then follow the instructions to add your vote to more related ideas. Your VOTES matter!

For background, you may want to read this post too. BTW, the columnar-type report is the basis for MANY other reports, as described in detail in this post a little lower; only the selection and formatting criteria are different.

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jacobs

Susan, I understand your frustration. But what makes "Make it like QM 2007" a difficult request for the developers is that the new Quicken Mac was designed to do certain things differently. Specifically, it has this very powerful Search feature which Quicken 2007 never had. The philosophy was apparently to make it easy and fast to do ad hoc queries by searching rather than creating reports. So the developers aren't as responsive to someone who says "I don't care about that; just make it like the old program" as they are to someone who says "well, I've tried the new approach, and I find it more difficult to do 'X' and there's no real way to do 'Y'." And that's why folks like me and @smayer97 (who both still use Quicken 2007 and certainly appreciate its virtues) post on this forum to encourage users like you and Barry to detail to the developers specific things you want them to implement or find lacking in the current Quicken, and to vote for features you particularly want.

Here's a for instance... In Quicken 2007, the QuickReports I use most often are to search for Payee, Memo or Category. In Quicken 2018, I can type the same payee, memo or category in the Search box and quickly generate similar results, which was apparently the goal. But they're not quite the same. I first have to remember to change my register to All Transactions or Banking in the left sidebar before doing my search. Narrowing the Search to only look at one field (say memo) requires an extra step of fiddling in the Search box. If I want a specific date range, that requires setting a date range filter. Setting any of those parameters isn't hard to do, but what irks me is that I must manually set them back after my quick search -- clear the date filter, change Search back to All Visible columns, change back to the account I was working in. Also, search results include the full transaction where a split line matches the search, so you have to click to open them one at a time if you need to see the detail, whereas in Quicken 2007, every split appeared on its own line in the report. And that means the Quicken 2007 report total was a total of what I searched for, while the total in Quicken 2018 is meaningless because it contains other split lines that don't match the search criteria. (But if I right-click on the category, for instance, for a Report on the category, the resulting report is very much like the Quicken 2007 Quick Report, with only the matching split lines shown, unlike the Search.)

The bottom line is that they're not going to just "make it like QM 2017" because they've intentionally changed the way parts of the program work -- some for the better and some for the worse, in my opinion. But they have shown they do listen to user requests to make certain things work differently, or to add ways to do things we can't currently do, when we can make them understand that something is missing or cumbersome to use. 

Barry Gilbert

     The comments below are in  response to one by Jacobs, in turn a partial response to an earlier question that I had posed.  I do not expect features to *look like* Q2007; I just need the functionality.  I have 20 years of records, and I need to be able to search for items from a few years ago (not just "this year" or "last year", but even many years ago.  So, as several examples: 1) When was the last time I paid a bill to this particular merchant?  2) When was the last time I owned this particular stock, and how did it perform---what was its ROI and IIR, even many years ago? 3)  I know that I have owned this particular stock several times in the past 20 years, but when?  4) I remember writing a memo with regard to this particular transaction, but when was that?  5) ....and many similar examples.
     I read Jacobs's long response, and candidly I am mistified.  I cannot even find the "Quick Report" function that he describes, and when I called the help line, I was told that there is no such function/capability in Q2018.  Further, Jacobs talks about a powerful "Search" function.  Where is it?  It is not anywhere that I can see; I've looked through every single toolbar item, and all of the respective pulldowns, and----nowhere!  The only "search" that I can find is under the Help pulldown, and typing even the most simple query into that box yields nothing.  So, if there is another "search" box, would someone please point me to it. 
     Further, reading Jacobs' comments, he really does appear to be a super-user, and if *he* is frustrated by some of the complexities, where does that leave those of us who are mere mortals?
     I badly want to convert permanently to Q2018 (I am only running a "test deck" at present for learning purposes), because I am running on an old computer and a deprecated version of Mac OS, but I cannot do the upgrades until I can fully trust Q2018 to give me the functionality that I need.  The product is improving, but when will enough features be present that a cutover to Q2018 can be justified?
     Thanks for listening; and any guidance regarding where to find some of these features would be *greatly* appreciated.  The help line folks appear not to know.
     Barry Gilbert

Unknown

I am still working on QM 2017.  There is a "search all visible columns" (in QM2017) in each register on the right side right under today's balance/  Ditto if you are in "all transactions" or "banking" or Credit cards".  Still, for me "powerful search feature" in no way trumps easy and varied reports.

jacobs

Barry, as Susan notes, the Search function is the box in the upper right of any register window. Its default is to search visible columns in that register. That means if you wan to search for text in the Memo field, you need to have the Memo field visible in your register to search it. If you in the Search box and then click the small (tiny!) little down arrow on the left side of the box, you can select to search just one field (payee or memo, for instance).

The key with Search is to make sure you select the single account, or the account group, in the left sidebar that you want to search. For instance,e I've had a number of credit cards over the years, so if I want a search across ALL my credit cards, I need to click on Credit Cards (or Banking) in the left sidebar to get a register with all those transactions that I can now search.

So using your example, when you want to know "When was the last time I paid a bill to this particular merchant?", I click on Banking in the left sidebar, then type the merchant name or some portion of it in the Search box, and in a second, Quicken shows me all my transactions for that merchant, from most to least recent. (If you want to narrow the search time period, you can pull down the "All Dates" filter and limit the register (and resulting Search) to just the current year, last year, or enter any date range you wish. In reality, Quicken is so fast at performing these searches -- much faster than generating a Quicken 2007 Quicken Report -- that I usually don't bother setting a date range. 

As for Quick Reports in modern Quicken, they do exist, but most support agents won't know them as that because they're labeled as "QuickReport" and they are not coming from Quicken 2007.  They're different because you create them when looking at an existing transaction, not out of the air. So if you're looking at a purchase from Home Depot, say, and you want to quickly see other Home Depot transactions, right-click (Control+click) on the transaction, and about half-way down the pop-up menu, you'll see "Report on Home Depot". 


Select that, and you'll get a "Quick Report" of all your Home Depot transactions.

Just below that, you'll see a "Report on Household and 2 more >". This is a "Quick Report" for the category -- or multiple categories in this case, because the transaction I selected had split lines with multiple categories. It will generate a report of all transactions using the category(ies).

But wait, you say, how can I do a Quicken Report to search for a particular memo? (That's probably my most-frequent use of Quicken 2007 QuickReports.) That type of Quick Report does not exist yet in Quicken 2018. But for me, using Search is just about as useful, and maybe faster. If I want to find when I bought or serviced my lawn mower, I might select Banking in the left sidebar, type "mower" in Search, and boom there's all my transactions. Want it as a printed report? Just select print, and the search results register becomes a report. Want to export what you found to deal with in Excel/Numbers? Select File > Export.

Is this the full and exact replica of the Quicken 2007 QuickReport functionality? Nope. But once you learn your way around, I think most people will find they can do most of the things they did with QuickReports in 2007. And "learn your way around" definitely is an issue, because some of these features aren't right in front of you or instantly intuitive. How to use the Search functionality is actually nicely explained in Quicken 2018 Help... assuming you think to look there and can figure out what topic to look for. (In this case, click "Basics", then "Finding transactions" under the "Registers and Transactions heading".)  But if the "Report on..." functionality is described in Help, I'm not sure where to find it. So please don't take my descriptions of how you can do these things as an endorsement of the way they are currently implemented; I think they need more work for functionality and discoverability. I was only try to help you learn that there are some ways to do many of the things you're used to doing in Quicken 2007, but they're a bit different in Quicken 2018.

Hope that helps answer some of your questions.

Barry Gilbert

Thank you, Jacobs.  I don't have time right now to take this through step-by-step, but I *will*.  I really appreciate the tips.   BKG

Barry Gilbert

     Jacobs, your note was very thorough and very helpful.  I've spent a couple of hours trying out your suggestions, and they work as you describe.   For example, I never would have found the "tiny arrow" to which you drew my attention, and yet it was important.  It would be helpful if the software developers would make some of these features less obscure, e.g., by putting them in the top-level toolbars, e.g, under "reports" (though they may not like that particular suggestion).  Overall, I feel more empowered to use this tool, which I understand is still evolving.
     Another question: how do I find ROI and IRR for stocks that I have not held for a long time?  Example:  I have not held Sysco since 2002.  I tried various approaches, but none worked.  It seems that for *present* holdings, ROI and IRR are available; but not for long-gone holdings (which I *can* do in Q2007, although I do have to pick through the long generated report to find the individual stock).  Can anyone help me with this?

      Barry Gilbert

jacobs

Barry, I agree that the tiny arrow in the Search box is a user interface mistake: (a) it's too small, and (b) it doesn't show up until a user clicks in the box. 

(I have also argued, unsuccessfully, that it's not clear to new users that clicking on "Reports" in the blue menu produces a completely different action than clicking on the arrow next to "Reports", since there is no separation line or anything to convey that there are actually two separate menu choices there. in most programs, a menu item with a down arrow next to it signifies there's a dropdown menu if you click on it; Quicken confuses this by only showing the drop-down menu if you click on the arrow -- it's just not intuitive.)

I'm not certain enough I can give you the right answer on your investment report question, but I suggest you post that as a new topic so some of the people here who are more knowledgeable in that area might see it and respond.

Unknown

Count me as a 2019 QuickenMac user upgraded from Q2007---count me as one who needs QuickReport so I can see all transactions in  such as "Contributions" across all credit cards and checking accts--

Unknown

In Quicken Mac, navigate to the "Banking" heading in the sidebar.

Make sure the "Date" filter is set to the range you need to see.

In the Search box, put in "Contributions".

Done.

Alternatively, in that same Banking register, find a transaction with "Contributions" as the category, highlight and right click.  You should see "Report on Contributions" as a choice in the overlay.  Select that.

Then customize the report to the specific date range.

The key, in both of these, is to use the Banking heading in the sidebar to see the ENTIRE checking, savings and credit card registers all together.

smayer97

What you are offering is simply a filter in the transactions registers. It is NOT the same as the old Quick Reports. For example, the filter shows entire transactions and cannot show only the specific entry in a split, so any details and totals are not correct. 

BTW, using the filters, you can also use the All Transactions view...

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smayer97

Hank see the post above, for info on how to use the limited "Quick Report" that does exist:
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/bring-back-qkreport?topic-reply-list[settings][f...

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Unknown

I've now read all of Jacob's input and it works great!!--who would have known the developers were creating a scavenger hunt for how you create a QuickReport!!!--I almost find Q2019 usable except for Loans--I cannot make Mortgages get in synch with my BofA mortgage or my loans to my kids--

drrobins1

Well, as of today it looks like the end of the useful life of Quicken 2007 Mac (16.2.4). Financial downloads no longer work, all of them reporting an error with OL-209 code. I called Quicken, and was told this was expected to happen for some time now, but could not explain how and when it actually happened. Since B of A, American Express, Fidelity, Chase and Citicards all happened together, it seems not to be an institutional issue. Interestingly, my stock prices downloads still do work normally.

My last successful downloads were May 18, 2020. I hate Quicken 2020 (and 2017,2018, and 2019). The ease of use, especially QuickReports, is just not emulated in 2020. And my carefully crafted budgets do not transfer over, either.

As for printed checks, I will have to order new blanks, since the old wallet blanks cannot be used due to alignment, and the type of check. Still have over 500 left, and they were expensive.

RIP Quicken 2007 ;-P

(Quicken user since '92, using QM2007 until today)

jacobs

@drrobins1  All of us who have happily used Quicken 2007 have had various warnings that we were on borrowed time for the past several years. Interestingly, the connectivity to financial institutions was supposed to take place last fall, so I'm surprised to hear (from you and others here) that it just happened. That connectivity was provided by a server run by former parent company Intuit, and I guess they finally pulled the plug.

Quicken 2007 was great for its day… and, as it turns out, well beyond. Those who have continued to use it have been fortunate to have this extra time as the Quicken developers slowly (very slowly!) add functionality to the modern Quicken Mac. We've now reach the point where Quicken 2007 downloads don't work, and it can't be run on the latest Mac operating system. Some people will manage to continue using if awhile longer, entering their data manually and not upgrading their Mac, but even that approach has a limited life ahead.

You can continue to use Quicken 2007 to work through your inventory of checks, if it's worth it to you to enter your transactions manually.

As for budgets, yes, it's unfortunate that they can't transfer over. Budgets didn't exist when the original versions of the modern Quicken Mac came out and the conversion code was written, and even after the added budgeting functionality to Quicken Mac, I think the database structure is just so different that there wasn't a way to make Quicken 2007 budgets carry over. (Or perhaps more accurately: it would have taken a massive amount of work to do it, and they decided there were more pressing priorities for most users.) The same is true of reports. The reports in the early versions of modern Quicken Mac were limited and crude, and it was impossible to map the features of Quicken 2007 reports to the limited Quicken Mac reports. In the last year or so, the reports in Quicken Mac have gotten better (although still incomplete compared to Quicken 2007), and they haven't gone back to try to write the complex code it would take to try to map reports between the two versions. At this point, I suspect the number of Quicken 2007 users has shrunk to a point that they are not going to invest large chunks of time re-writing the Quicken 2007 to Quicken Mac conversion for budgets or reports. 

I wanted to address your comment about the absence of Quick Reports in modern Quicken Mac. I felt that way when I first started using it, and I still do miss the Quicken 2007 approach at times -- but generally, once I adapted to Quicken Mac's way of doing things, I can find most of what I want to find pretty quickly and easily. The first thing to understand is that the developers felt a robust Search function would relieve the need for some of the old Quick Reports. Quicken 2007 had Find, which searched through accounts one at a time, but Quicken Mac's Search is much better and more powerful. Let's say I want to find out what I paid the last time I renewed my magazine subscription to Traveler magazine. In Quicken 2007, I would open Quick Report, enter a time range, enter 'Traveler' in the Payee field, and Quicken would think for a bit and produce a report of my transactions. In modern Quicken, I click on All Transactions on the left sidebar, enter 'Traveler' in the Search field, it thinks for a few seconds, and I get a register of my transactions. In both cases, I can print the report if I want to. The same approach is true for searching for something by category or with a specific words or words in the Memo field. Search in Quicken Mac works to replace many (not all) of the reasons people used QuickReport in Quicken 2007.

There are some additional vestiges of QuickReport in modern Quicken Mac. If you are looking at a register with a particular transaction, and you want to find other instances of transactions for the same Payee or same Category, you can Control-Click on the transaction and select "Report on (payee name)" or "Report on (category)". These function similar to Quicken 2007 QuickReports.

For other searching in Quicken Mac, you can create a report that can be tailored around Payees, Categories, Accounts, or Tags. It does take a few more clicks than a QuickReport, but it allows more customization.

My point overall is that while we longtime Quicken 2007 users love QuickReports, it's because it was a primary way to quickly find things in our database. Modern Quicken Mac has a different interface and in some cases a different approach, but I found that once I got over my frustration at not having QuickReports on the menu, I could actually do all the things I did before, and in most cases just as easily. But it does require a bit of a mindset change to work the way the program was built rather than trying to use it the way its predecessor was built.

That's just my opinion. You may disagree, but I just wanted to share that I've found the functionality less limited than it originally seemed in this area. 

And yes, RIP Quicken 2007.

FEdward

Bring back Quick Report. Also, the Reconcile window that appeared in Quicken for Mac 2007 in a separate window rather than the register was preferable to the new, in-the-register reconciliation method. Additionally, need option to re-reconcile when an entry changes from a previous reconciliation

jacobs

@FEdward  It will help make this more compelling to the developers (assuming they read this) if you give some examples of things you did with QuickReports that don't have an easy equivalent in modern Quicken Mac. Some things we did with QuickReports can be done differently, but just a easily, in Quicken Mac; other things we could do in QuickReports are not easy to to in Quicken Mac. The developers pretty much reject "just make it like Quicken 2007!" arguments, but they do listen to things people want to do but can't (or can't easily) do in modern Quicken Mac. So any specifics you can provide will help make the case.

And if you haven't already, make sure you cast your vote for this idea: go to the first page of this topic, find the large blue box, and under the vote counter, click the little gray triangle to make the counter go up by one. A post without  a vote doesn't fully help.

GWHorter

One of the most versatile reports on Quicken 2007 was the "Quick Report" which allowed a wild card search on a number of fields (payee, category, class, memo etc.). Quicken 2020 could use just such a report.