Actual vs. Budgeted Reports: customize date range and get comparisons (Q Mac) (13 Legacy Votes)

piezanno

Just converted over to Mac version, not pleased with the results. Budgets are a big issue. 1. there are no reports for budgets. 2. The budgets don't roll forward like in the windows version.
Makes it mostly useless when it comes to budgets.

J_H

I just upvoted this request. I was forced to upgrade from QMac 2007 because of an unavoidable Catalina upgrade. I am beyond disappointed that one cannot pull a budget report. This has always been a basic need for me. Why have a budget if you cannot actually use it? I know that development resources are limited, but I sincerely hope that productivity improvements are given priority in what feels like not-quite-finished product. I use software tools so I can understand my finances deeply and make informed decisions.

Jeanne Howard

Unbelievable that Quicken would produce a product without a budget vs actuals report functionality. W have used Quicken for 25 years and I recently switched from windows to MAC version bc I thought it was FINALLY ready. I was wrong - Quicken for MAC is a mess - why they couldn't create at least similar user experience/functionality defies reason.

MKL

I just switched from Windows to Mac, and I can't believe this simple report is not included in the Mac version of Quicken. The report should be customizable and users should be able to specify the date range.

ellen Sutton

Ditto to all above. Who does one contact to press this issue? I have used Q MAC for about 5 years now and keep hoping for budget vs. actual reporting. It really is pathetic that Quicken hasn't included this functionality yet.

pjreding

Adding my vote for this very much-needed, essential and simple report.

ken deemer

Super important!! Please add. Or, at least, add option in Reports to compare with Budget instead of prior periods. BTW, thanks for the many improvements in Quicken Mac over the past year.

robertkenzie

I am a recent convert from Quicken for Windows to the Mac version. I used to have a very valuable report in the windows version that would show either by month or for the year my budget performance - budget vs actual spend. it's one of the main reasons I use quicken. But, I can't find the same capability in the Mac version. Help!

John_in_NC

Unfortunately, there isn't a report to show the Budget versus actual at this time.

You will have to print the entire budget (either one or 12 month view) to see this if you want it in printed format.

robertkenzie

But the budget report doesn't have actuals on it does it? So I'll need to generate two reports and mash them together?? I just can't believe they don't have that report - isn't quicken for tracking personal finances, including budgets???

John_in_NC

Yes, you can show actuals on the budget. There is a button to toggle showing/hiding it (shown in red):



From the dropdown above the year, you can choose between YTD and total year.

robertkenzie

Ah! I'm still learning the Mac version of Quicken - it's quite different. Thanks, I can work with that..

Tom Auer

I am going to jump on this active bandwagon, and ask for what I think should be a very modest code change: the year-to-date budget comparison would be much more useful if it showed actuals and budgets amounts through the end of PREVIOUS month, rather than through the end of the current month. You have that budget view, with the live-updating comparison of actuals versus budgeted, but the end-of-current month view is a poor measurement of how I'm doing year-to-date.

Garrett Jackson

For some reason the new Quicken doesn't offer the flexibility that I would like in Budget vs. Spending Reports. I am not sure why. They offer great flexibility in spending comparisons. There is a great example of flexible spending vs budget reports in the old Quicken 2007 reports. It's beyond me why it hasn't been included in the new Quicken. I have had some luck downloading a CSV file of the budget report and adapting it to my needs. It isn't as convenient as 2007, since it is just static numbers. But I like to keep spending reports by quarter and I can generate this on Excel using the downloaded budget.

robertkenzie

Thanks, Garrett - yeah, it confuses me too! But I noticed that the budget has actuals, so I have been able to use that in Excel to manipulate what I need. The pain is charges in categories that I have not budgeted - the other reports would show me that!

The Billing Clerk

I'd like to add my voice to those who would like to see a budget to actual report in Quicken for Mac.

Quicken_Natalie

Hello All,

Thank you for taking the time to share this feature request with 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

Kay Kibby

Every time Quicken comes up with an update I keep hoping that they will provide reports showing actual vs budget comparison. Instead, it's always just more ways to manipulate categories, tags, etc. So I am still stuck with exporting what I want from the Budget and pasting into Excel, which is time consuming and somewhat error prone. Please! Doesn't any other Mac user use a budget and need to share a comparison of Budges vs Actual in a monthly report??

Melody Bliss

I agree, this is crazy. I should be able to see a month-by-month report of budgeted versus actuals and should also be able to see any period of time I want to report on - for example YTD or using a "from" and "to" month. Such a simple and necessary feature. If Quicken can do it for Windows, why not for Mac?

jacobs

@Melody Bliss  You're asking: "I should be able to see a month-by-month report of budgeted versus actuals." You can. It's shown above in the response from John_in_NC.

You're also asking to "be able to see any period of time I want to report on - for example YTD or using a 'from' and 'to' month." The first half of that -- YTD totals -- exists. Clicking the << icon shown in that screen shot will toggle showing/hiding a totals column, and clicking the down-arrow in the heading of the total column lets you switch between full year or YTD totals.

The only part that's missing from your request, then, is the ability to generate a report for any specific range of months, such as February-May. That doesn't exist in the current Quicken Mac.

As for "why can Quicken Windows do it and not Quicken Mac?" It's a long story, but the short answer is because Quicken Mac was re-developed from scratch this decade, and doesn't have the 30+ years of development that Quicken Windows does. There are still many things, large and small, that Quicken Windows can do that Quicken Mac cannot, simply because it will take additional years of development to address all the features customers want. 

michaelweinberg

> @jacobs said:
> @Melody Bliss  You're asking: "I should be able to see a month-by-month report of budgeted versus actuals." You can. It's shown above in the response from John_in_NC.
> You're also asking to "be able to see any period of time I want to report on - for example YTD or using a 'from' and 'to' month." The first half of that -- YTD totals -- exists. Clicking the << icon shown in that screen shot will toggle showing/hiding a totals column, and clicking the down-arrow in the heading of the total column lets you switch between full year or YTD totals.
> The only part that's missing from your request, then, is the ability to generate a report for any specific range of months, such as February-May. That doesn't exist in the current Quicken Mac.
> As for "why can Quicken Windows do it and not Quicken Mac?" It's a long story, but the short answer is because Quicken Mac was re-developed from scratch this decade, and doesn't have the 30+ years of development that Quicken Windows does. There are still many things, large and small, that Quicken Windows can do that Quicken Mac cannot, simply because it will take additional years of development to address all the features customers want. 

@jacobs Unless I'm mistaken, I don't think you can see HELPFUL YTD information. Say I have a budget that has only 1 item: $100/month for ice cream expenses. And, say I've spent exactly $110/month in each of January through June. On June 30, I see that I'm over budget, because Quicken shows I've spent $660 and my budget was $600. However, on July 1 it looks like I'm under budget because it shows that I've spent $660 and my budget is $700. It's easy to see where you are if you only have one budget line item, but is more difficult if you have dozens. What I'd like to see (and what I think most commenting on this issue would like to see) is the ability to see where I am against budget for the completed months. Thus, in July I'd like to see where I am for each budgeted item for the period of January 1 though June 30. This has to be something that would be easy for Quicken to program, as already prepare that helpful YTD report--The problem is that I can only see it on the last day of a month. [If I'm missing something here, please let me know.]

mborens

Glad to see this item discussed here! I would like to see budget vs actuals data through the end of the last month, not just through the end of the current month. Really, we should be able to set the start and end dates as we see fit. Without this ability, the budget features are extremely limited and very frustrating.

Tom Auer

First, congratulations to Quicken for the very-extensive improvements in reports in Version 5.17. That is the most-substantial upgrade I've seen in some time.

Having said that, I was disappointed to see that the reporting on actual vs. budgeted is still rather limited. The report is most meaningful when run for the period from start of year to last day of previous full month, but there is no way to get that report except by printing the report on the last day of each month.

Rich Blackburn

The sole reason I have VMWare on my iMac is to run Quicken for Windows because of this singular reason of having an actual vs budget report.

Paul Kleeberg

Is there a year to date budget report in the works? Quicken Mac 2007 had it and it was very useful. Now I must export to excel and manipulate the data to compare YTD spending to budget.

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @Paul Kleeberg

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community to post your question.

Your post has been moved to the ongoing Idea thread to be able to generate a budget report.

This Idea has been marked as "Under Consideration", meaning the Idea is being reviewed, however, there is no ETA available for when you can expect to see this feature.

-Quicken Tyka 

Alan7

Quicken have updated and added a lot of reports lately, but Why can't we get a monthly and YTD actual v Budget report. This is always the report that is used in business and I am treasurer of two non profits to whom I would like to give this report monthly.

dalrad1

I use Quicken for Mac updated with the newest update; I want to create a report to compare actual vs budget each month and for the year. Any pointers? I previously asked this question and the response was not what I needed. Perhaps I did not ask the question property. Any thoughts would be very appreciated.

jmeinen

I totally agree with the ability to customize budget reporting, particularly the ability to select date range. The only way to capture a month end report is to run the budget report on the last day of a given month. It seems this feature should not be difficult to add.

Architect55

I'm also in agreement that is a very basic and extremely useful reporting function. I'm a little baffled why this would not have been considered in the development of Q for Mac.