QWindows Sub accounts (16 Merged Votes)

Jeff Bowman

Hi all...

Just a suggestion -- likely not the first time its been made... but would love to have see sub-accounts for credit card accounts.

Amex, and many others allow for multiple unique card holders to a "master" account.  This is particularly helpful in tracking who's spending what. An adjunct to this is some cards (again, AMEX) have sub-"plan" types, still under the master account, but their own handling (eg  payment application, interest, fees, etc) outside the master account framework.

Reconciling is not a particular issue as the statement (generally) provides both the master and sub balance, at least in a way that can be discerned to each master/sub.

Yes, this poses a particular problem for downloading transactions, eg to the "main" account or to the individual/sub accounts, but if the sub-type is provided, perhaps the feedback generated will provide solutions for the download.

Feel free to reach out.

Walter Kraslawsky

Right now all accounts show up in the account list on the left categorized and subtotaled as Banking, Investing, or Property, with faint separator lines grouping subsets of those. For some, but not all, I can specify an account intent, but that is inconsistent and sometimes not even available.

Then, when I run a Net Worth report, the accounts are grouped into Assets (Cash and Bank Accounts, Other Assets, and Investments) vs. Liabilities (Credit Cards, and Other Liabilities).

Is there a way to tag the accounts so that the account list subtotals are consistent with the Net Worth report subtotals. That would include the Account List showing assets before liabilities, and the Net Worth report showing Property separate from Other Assets.

Better yet, is there a way other than the inconsistent "account intent" to tag each account with a user-specified keyword to get both an Account List and the Net Worth report subtotaled by that key word?

Bob_L

No that is not a feature.  I changed your post to an Idea so others May vote on it.

RandyB

I like the idea of sub-accounts. Here is an example of how a sub-account could work. Savings account: Total = $25,000, Sub-Account "vacation fund" balance = $5,000, General Savings $20,000.
So one physical savings account has $25,000 in it. But the sub-account has $5,000 dedicated as a vacation fund. Another sub-account might be a home-improvement fund, a new-car fund, or whatever.

We all have savings goals and allowing for sub-accounts you would be able to consolidate them into a single physical savings account.

Kyle

It is not uncommon for me to have several gift cards or prepaid spending cards with available balances at any given time. Currently, I track all my gift cards in a single account within Quicken. This allows me to track and categorize my spending on gift cards, but it doesn't allow me to easily track my remaining gift card balances. I am currently using comments in each gift card transaction to track which gift card I used for the transaction, and what balance remains on the gift card.

What I would like is to set up "mini" gift card spending accounts nested within a master "Gift Cards" account. Each mini gift card account would track spending for a single gift card; it would have a starting balance that would be drawn down with each transaction against that gift card, until the balance was exhausted. Once the balance was exhausted, the mini account would no longer be available to record new transactions into, but would still remain a part of the master Gift Card account for transaction history and reporting.

The master Gift Card account would track total remaining balance across all the mini gift card accounts. Only the master Gift Card account would be listed in the accounts list at the left of the screen. Configurably, only mini Gift Cards accounts with remaining balances would be available to record new transactions to. Or perhaps the mini Gift Card accounts could be manually marked as "closed" or "exhausted", which would cause them not to be available for new transactions.

The idea is not to litter my Quicken file with a full-blown new account every time I want to track a new gift card in Quicken, but also to provide detail on what spending is occurring with each individual gift card and allow tracking of remaining balances for each individual gift card.

Thoughts?

JustMeHere

Have you looked at Savings Goals?  (On Planning tab)

A goal is actually an account that transfers to and from a main account.

Another way is you say you are using the memo to separate out the different cards, tags would be a better fit.

smayer97

I create separate accounts. It is the simplest and cleanest. Otherwise, consider using tags. Then create memorized reports on those tags for each card.

But then again, that is "cluttering" your reports list. So why not just go with separate register accounts and treat each one separately?

Otherwise, what you are asking for is sub-accounts.

UKR

Savings Goals won't cut it.

But a combination of

• a single Asset account "Gift Cards" and
• using the Tag field to mark each transaction with the gift card name and last-4 of card number ("XYZ 1234" or "1234 XYZ")

would, IMHO, be the best way of tracking these cards.

For a transaction detail report, run a report "Itemized Tags" and customize it to only show tagged items.
You can also sort your Gift Cards account register by Tag for a quick and dirty overview on screen. (Just don't forget to change back to sort by Date when you're done viewing by tag)

Quicken_Natalie

Hello @Kyle,

Thank you for bringing this to the attention of the Community!

I went ahead and turned this discussion into an Idea thread so that other users are able to vote on it. Our developer's review Idea threads to get an idea of what people would like Quicken to offer.

Be sure to add your vote by clicking on the gray triangle right above the current vote count, located in the blue box at the beginning of this thread:

Thank you,

Quicken Natalie

Chris29

You have Banking (Personal accounts) section at the top of the list, then Business, then the Property & Debt section at the bottom, which separates personal assets and liabilities. (I don't use the Rental section, but seem to recall it was before Business).

I suggest that "Banking" should be called "Personal" and the Property & Debt section should be rolled into Personal, as it is with Business accounts.

This will allow you to easily minimize Personal, Business or Rental accounts when you're not working on them, and will also allow a 'net worth' aggregation of the assts and liabilities for each section; like it currently works with the Business accounts.

Right now, I have a "total" for Banking, another for Business and another for Property & Debt. I suggest one total for Personal, one for Business, and another for Rental (for those that use it).

Finally, I'd suggest each sub-section is subtotaled. For example, in the Business section, Banking would have a subtotal for only business accounts, another subtotal next to Property & Debt, and another for Invoices to aggregate AP and AR accounts.

Pacman45

If I need sub-accounts, I use an Investment Account type. Money that I enter not assigned to a sub-account just sits there as cash. If I need it in a sub-account, I make up a pseudo-investment with the name of the sub-account and always assign the price as $1.00. It's a work-around.