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Everything else in budgets

unknown

Does Quicken 2018 still use the everything else category in budgets. I am sorry I ever did my last upgrade and will not do another upgrade until they get rid of this. I am even considering going back to my old version.

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UKR

If you're talking about Quicken for Windows ... unless and until Quicken Inc. changes their design in a future version, "Everything else" is here to stay.

The pseudo category "Everything else" is needed by the Budget process logic to show transactions that were categorized to a main category which has subcategories.
Take, for example

Auto - main category
-- Auto:Car wash - sub category
-- Auto:Fuel - sub category
-- etc.

If you recorded a transaction to "Auto", its amount will show up in the budget views under "Auto:Everything else"

You aren't supposed to categorize anything directly to "Auto", but if you do, that's where it'll end up in the budget views (only!)

Think about the process of adding up transactions in subcategories to subtotals in the main category.
Auto - $200
-- Auto:Car wash - $20
-- Auto:Fuel - $180

Looks good, doesn't it?

Take this example:

Auto - $300
-- Auto:Car wash - $20
-- Auto:Fuel - $180

WTF? Can't Quicken handle simple math? Where's the extra money coming from?
That's the complaints that start rolling in when the extra $100 categorized to "Auto" aren't made visible. And that's where "Everything else" started coming in.

Auto                             - $300
-- Auto:Everything else - $100
-- Auto:Car wash          - $20
-- Auto:Fuel                  - $180

Of course, it would be nice if one could make "Everything else" to optionally show in budget views ONLY IF there's a transaction that needs showing. That would reduce clutter in the views, no?

Scooterlam

My approach to reducing clutter and noise wrt "everything else" was to 1. review all my categories having subcategories and move those transactions at the category level to an appropriate (new or existing) subcategory. And, 2. Make "everything else" a category to group all those small expenses that I don't explicitly budget against.

Approaching it this way, I have only 2 "everything else" categories, one for my discretionary account group and one for my non-discretionary account group. Each "everything else" category (2 of them) gets a budget based upon last year spend and this years planned spend.

I can still see all of these "everything else" expenses grouped in their respective categories and I am assured that I can account for all spending and that there is no "off the books" spending. See image.

For me, getting rid of "everything else", in the way I have implemented it, leaves a potentially large and hidden "expense leak". So, don't get rid of it completely would be my vote.

Regards,
Scott
QW 2018 HBR R4.10

PS. for #1 above, re-categorization feature in Quicken would be your friend!

David Christopher

I was working on my budget this morning and had 4 everything else lines and wondered how to get rid of them. So I searched this site and found this thread. I got rid of all 4 by unchecking the main category in the "Select Categories to Budget" screen. There were no charges on any of the 4 Everything Else lines anyway.

Then on the Graph view and Annual view, I had an Everything Else line for $598.47 but when I clicked the green bar in Graph View, it did not tell me what the transactions were. I finally saw the little '+' sign to the left of the green line for the last Everything Else line.When I clicked that, it opened up and there was a transaction for Dental, Health and Fitness, and Tax:Sales.

I went to the select categories screens and checked those three Categories. When I looked at the budget screen the Everything Else line was grey, no transactions. I was then able to get rid of that Everything Else line with a right click and choosing Delete this category.

Now I understand the use of this big Everything Else line. I have many charges most months that are what I call "One Time Expenses" and as a general rule, I transfer money from Savings to cover them. Examples:

1. I pay property tax once a year in May and I use savings goals to save up the money monthly, so I do not need those in my Budget for the spending accounts.

2. This year I had a large sum of money spent on Dental Expenses because I had many teeth pulled and bought uppers and Lowers. I do not need to budget for those expenses either. They are paid from transfers from savings.

3. I pay Property Insurance once a year in July and use a Savings Goal to save up the money for that.

4. I pay Car Insurance twice a year and use a Savings Goal to save up for those payments.

I will now uncheck those 4 categories and keep the big Everything Else line at bottom of each Budget view. If I want to know what is in that category, I know how to click the '+" sigh and see what charges are in there and make corrections, if required.

PhotoCitizen

Thanks for answering my question: How do you get "Everything Else" to appear or disappear in the budget. It's 2022 now and your answer - "uncheck the main category in the Select Categories to Budget screen" (which is reached via the Manage Budget Categories button) - is still valid.