Budget Enhancement - Add the ability to insert comments/notes into the Annual View (13 Legacy Votes)

Scooterlam

Budget Enhancement - Add the ability to insert comments in the cells of the Annual View, in much the same way that one can insert comments into an Excel cell. Make it a popup or mouseover type action. This will help remind me of my budget assumptions as the year progresses. Im surprised that adding notes or comments is not already included!  Pls. correct me if I overlooked this!

I noted that this idea was previously submitted in the MAC community. Not sure how well the Windows and MAC dev teams sync wrt development, so placing it also under Windows.

Pls. Vote!
Scott

orchidpop

This sounds like a great suggestion! I don't know of a workaround.

bazily2k

Great suggestion, I am missing that as well.

scott.kressley

I definitely agree with the Comments idea. I'm always trying to remember why I set budget amounts a particular way.

Scooterlam

Another Budget Enhancement - Add the ability to save-off or "version" current year budget.

Allow versioning of annual budget view :  My budget process is to:

1.  first, create a 2017 Budget Baseline at the start of the year.  

2.  then, every month or quarter, create a 2017 Budget Latest Estimate that tweaks the baseline figures (moving $ around with a goal of net 0 or decrease in overall budget).

3.  finally, use that 2017 Budget Latest Estimate as a basis for 2018 Budget Baseline.

4.  Rinse and repeat.

Right now, I save off a baseline budget via screen grabs....wasteful...I then use the current budget as my latest estimate.  Would like all that in quicken, in a similar way Tax Planner does (Projected, Scenario 1,2,3).

It was painful, today, to have turned on Mobile Sync for the first time and realize later that a dozen or so figures got changed....Cant point it to anything different, other than mobile sync.   Access to a saved-off baseline or LE would have been helpful.

If you like this idea and the first one, above, please vote it up or make them better by commenting!

Scott

Scooterlam

scott.kressley said:

I definitely agree with the Comments idea. I'm always trying to remember why I set budget amounts a particular way.

Would be helpful to see comments every time I use the budget feature.  I rarely have budget categories that are allocated as a fixed monthly or periodic expense.   Those one-offs here and there are hard to remember.  Its important feature and will be used often, in my case!

Snowman

Your best bet to do all of this is the following.  First do all of you budgeting in Excel.  You can paste assumptions the you make for one off items and more.  I update my budget the first of every month.  I name them 2018-01, 2018-02 etc.  I even setup fields on the spreadsheet for a beginning cash balance and ending cash balance for the beginning of the year and every month and also an ending cash balance for every month.  Since I pay all of my credit cards off every month I have a line item for every month that contains the total amount owed on all credit cards at the beginning of every month.  If my projected ending cash balance for any month is 0 or negative then I now I need to pay attention.

The only downside is that any changes you make you have to show in both places.  The upside is that Excel will be not be trashed by Mobile Sync which in my opinion is the #1 worst "feature" in Quicken and the #1 cause of many issues with Quicken.

Scooterlam

Thanks Snowman!  We share some of the same practices.

I
created a spreadsheet last year, built up all the formulas, organized it
similar to Quicken's annual budget view and commented it in Excel.  At
the time, I was experimenting with a better budget forecast idea I had
posted.  Nonetheless, I found messing with Excel and Quicken too time consuming and redundant for either forecasting, cash flows or comments.

Today,
I document (comment) my more important one-offs as an Outlook task, due
in the month that I budget for it in Quicken.   I would have plenty
more comments if I could do it directly in Quicken budgets.  And, I would have a faster, easier time during my budget review.

I'm
not trying to make Quicken to be Excel-like, they both have their
places, but the commenting idea, especially on budget figures, is a
basic user feature, especially for one-off items and items that change
during say a monthly review.   I'm not saying it's an basic or easy technical
implementation, maybe is or is not.  As a user, this
feature, IMO, is a natural extension of the budgeting process - new or
latest estimate.  The natural budgeting questions are captured "close"
to the figure, in Quicken, and not in some other application.   "What does this figure represent"?  "Why is it important"? 
"Why did it change?? et al.

As for the "save off versions" part of the above idea, I think I would have less need for this feature, if I could, from my comments, recreate my thought process.

A picture is worth a thousand words,
as they say.  Image 1 shows where these comments could be conceivably
added.  Image 2 shows where these comments could be conceivably
viewed.   Maybe there are more clever places to do this in the UI !

Vote it up, if you like it, or make it better with your own ideas (then give it a vote!)

Scott
2018 QW HBR r7.5

Image 1:


Image 2: 

Steve

Scott said:

Thanks Snowman!  We share some of the same practices.

I
created a spreadsheet last year, built up all the formulas, organized it
similar to Quicken's annual budget view and commented it in Excel.  At
the time, I was experimenting with a better budget forecast idea I had
posted.  Nonetheless, I found messing with Excel and Quicken too time consuming and redundant for either forecasting, cash flows or comments.

Today,
I document (comment) my more important one-offs as an Outlook task, due
in the month that I budget for it in Quicken.   I would have plenty
more comments if I could do it directly in Quicken budgets.  And, I would have a faster, easier time during my budget review.

I'm
not trying to make Quicken to be Excel-like, they both have their
places, but the commenting idea, especially on budget figures, is a
basic user feature, especially for one-off items and items that change
during say a monthly review.   I'm not saying it's an basic or easy technical
implementation, maybe is or is not.  As a user, this
feature, IMO, is a natural extension of the budgeting process - new or
latest estimate.  The natural budgeting questions are captured "close"
to the figure, in Quicken, and not in some other application.   "What does this figure represent"?  "Why is it important"? 
"Why did it change?? et al.

As for the "save off versions" part of the above idea, I think I would have less need for this feature, if I could, from my comments, recreate my thought process.

A picture is worth a thousand words,
as they say.  Image 1 shows where these comments could be conceivably
added.  Image 2 shows where these comments could be conceivably
viewed.   Maybe there are more clever places to do this in the UI !

Vote it up, if you like it, or make it better with your own ideas (then give it a vote!)

Scott
2018 QW HBR r7.5

Image 1:


Image 2: 

The value and usefulness of Quicken is in its ability to support "one stop shopping". In other words, it is valuable in as far as it replaces spreadsheets. If I need to use both a spreadsheet and Quicken, then the utility of Quicken is significantly reduced for me.

CMsLifePlan

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Budget Notes -.


I have been using Quicken for years to track expenses, but only recently got serious about budgeting. I update the budget for the upcoming month based on what I expect for the month, so some categories are higher or lower than normal because something is going on that month in that category. For instance, I may increase the Restaurant subcategory of Food because we expect to eat our more that month. Or the car may need to be serviced, the kids may be attending an event, etc.


However, sometimes I get into the month and can't recall why I increased/decreased that category. Is there a way to add notes to the budget to remind myself of those specific expected expenses?


I use Quicken 2019 for Windows, Quicken on the web, and Quicken Mobile iOS.

Quicken_Tyka

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Merging.


Hello CMsLifePlan,

I am turning this post into an Idea thread.

Currently, there isn't a way to do this and I was unable to come up with any workaround to show this information across all the platforms.

I was able to add a note to the description with the desktop version but was unable to see this note of the Mobile or Web App.

Thank you for taking the time to come to the Community and add this contribution!

-Quicken Tyka

Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: Budget Notes -.

Bob_L

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Merge.


When you change the budget, would creating a reminder for the expense work?

Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: Budget Notes -.

CMsLifePlan

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Merge.


I do use bill reminders for expenses I'm sure of like utility bills, and I guess I could use them more for this.  But this is for more vague things, like I'm expecting to eat out more next month because friends are coming into town toward the end of the month, or Home Supplies may be higher because we're organizing a storage room.

Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: Budget Notes -.

GeoffG

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Merge.


Tyka,
Your using Mac, right?  There is no description field with QWin.  Either way, it's an idea long overdue.

Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: Budget Notes -.

Scooterlam

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Merge.


A similar idea here: https://getsatisfaction.com/quickenco... QW HBR

Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: Budget Notes -.

CMsLifePlan

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Merge.


Thanks Tyka!  Where did you find a place to add a note on the desktop version?

Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: Budget Notes -.

Scooterlam

CMsLifePlan said:

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Merge.


Thanks Tyka!  Where did you find a place to add a note on the desktop version?

Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: Budget Notes -.

Thanks Tyka.  Pls. reach out if you would like to collect some user stories and ideas.  Always available for your product and software folks.

As GeoffG points out, there is no "notes" feature closely associated with budgets in Quicken Windows.  Can't say re: Mac.

There sees to be interest in this idea!  Hopefully it has legs.  But only if it gets the votes that indicates interest!