Customized Date Ranges for Different Accounts in the Same Report?

Unknown

Jim_Harman

Are you tracking the credit card spending in Quicken and downloading the credit card transactions? If so, you have a pretty accurate picture of your spending day by day by including the credit card accounts in your spending report. When you pay a credit card bill it is a transfer from your bank account to the credit card account and it does not affect your reported spending

Unknown

Jim - Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I track credit-card transactions in Quicken. But I may not have explained the challenge.  Let's say I download the Amex statement that covers the dates 8/16 - 9/15. Then I pay that bill and other bills by check on 10/1. So far so good. But then I run a spending report for checking and Amex accounts with the custom report date set from 9/2 - 10/1.  That excludes the Amex transactions on that last statement from 8/16 - 9/02. So the alternative is to set the report custom date range from 8/16 - 10/1. But then that report (again) picks up all of the checks I wrote on 9/1.  So I have had to run separate reports for Amex and checking with the different custom date ranges and then export each to Excel in order to provide a single report with the correct transactions for the the checks I've written on 10/1.  That is why I wondered whether any version of quicken allowed the user to set separate date ranges for the accounts being used to generate a single  report. Steve

NotACPA

Steve Wattenmaker said:

Jim - Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I track credit-card transactions in Quicken. But I may not have explained the challenge.  Let's say I download the Amex statement that covers the dates 8/16 - 9/15. Then I pay that bill and other bills by check on 10/1. So far so good. But then I run a spending report for checking and Amex accounts with the custom report date set from 9/2 - 10/1.  That excludes the Amex transactions on that last statement from 8/16 - 9/02. So the alternative is to set the report custom date range from 8/16 - 10/1. But then that report (again) picks up all of the checks I wrote on 9/1.  So I have had to run separate reports for Amex and checking with the different custom date ranges and then export each to Excel in order to provide a single report with the correct transactions for the the checks I've written on 10/1.  That is why I wondered whether any version of quicken allowed the user to set separate date ranges for the accounts being used to generate a single  report. Steve

Steve,
It's unclear whether you're recording your credit card pucchases in a credit card account, in Q.

Because it's those purchases ... NOT the card payment ... that's the EXPENSES and what should show on an Income and Expense report from 9/2 to 10/1.

You might want to look at a Cash Flow report, that will reflect the payments/transfers.

In accounting, a transfer (such as a Card Payment) aren't expenses.  After the transfer you're no wealthier/poorer than you were before the transfer.

Jim_Harman

Unknown

Steve Wattenmaker said:

Jim - Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I track credit-card transactions in Quicken. But I may not have explained the challenge.  Let's say I download the Amex statement that covers the dates 8/16 - 9/15. Then I pay that bill and other bills by check on 10/1. So far so good. But then I run a spending report for checking and Amex accounts with the custom report date set from 9/2 - 10/1.  That excludes the Amex transactions on that last statement from 8/16 - 9/02. So the alternative is to set the report custom date range from 8/16 - 10/1. But then that report (again) picks up all of the checks I wrote on 9/1.  So I have had to run separate reports for Amex and checking with the different custom date ranges and then export each to Excel in order to provide a single report with the correct transactions for the the checks I've written on 10/1.  That is why I wondered whether any version of quicken allowed the user to set separate date ranges for the accounts being used to generate a single  report. Steve

Thanks, Jim.  Those are helpful suggestions. I do download all of the credit-card transactions. But, because of the card statement date some transactions still fall outside the 9/2 - 10/1 report I run on all spending for that period. E.g., in my example, if the card statement period is from 8/16 - 9/15, when I pay that credit-card bill on 10/1 and then immediately run a report on spending for that 9/2 -10/1, the report leaves out the credit card transactions on that specific credit-card bill that occurred before 9/2. Expanding the report to cover 8/16 - 10/1 includes (again) the bills I paid on 9/1.  I think that I'm correct that I need a report feature that allows for customized date ranges in a single report for the different accounts that I'm tracking.  But the Excel work-around is OK, if a bit clunky! Thanks again. You have been very patient. Steve 

volvogirl

Steve Wattenmaker said:

Jim - Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I track credit-card transactions in Quicken. But I may not have explained the challenge.  Let's say I download the Amex statement that covers the dates 8/16 - 9/15. Then I pay that bill and other bills by check on 10/1. So far so good. But then I run a spending report for checking and Amex accounts with the custom report date set from 9/2 - 10/1.  That excludes the Amex transactions on that last statement from 8/16 - 9/02. So the alternative is to set the report custom date range from 8/16 - 10/1. But then that report (again) picks up all of the checks I wrote on 9/1.  So I have had to run separate reports for Amex and checking with the different custom date ranges and then export each to Excel in order to provide a single report with the correct transactions for the the checks I've written on 10/1.  That is why I wondered whether any version of quicken allowed the user to set separate date ranges for the accounts being used to generate a single  report. Steve

I think you are still not understanding something or entering the credit card charges the wrong way. You should not be focused on the credit card statement date & payment. That date shouldn’t matter or affect anything. Is each credit card purchase getting entered with the date it was actually charged?

volvogirl

Steve Wattenmaker said:

Jim - Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I track credit-card transactions in Quicken. But I may not have explained the challenge.  Let's say I download the Amex statement that covers the dates 8/16 - 9/15. Then I pay that bill and other bills by check on 10/1. So far so good. But then I run a spending report for checking and Amex accounts with the custom report date set from 9/2 - 10/1.  That excludes the Amex transactions on that last statement from 8/16 - 9/02. So the alternative is to set the report custom date range from 8/16 - 10/1. But then that report (again) picks up all of the checks I wrote on 9/1.  So I have had to run separate reports for Amex and checking with the different custom date ranges and then export each to Excel in order to provide a single report with the correct transactions for the the checks I've written on 10/1.  That is why I wondered whether any version of quicken allowed the user to set separate date ranges for the accounts being used to generate a single  report. Steve

Reading your post again. Why do you want credit card charges made outside your date range (before 9/2) in the report? Seems obvious, you asked for transactions starting with 9/2.

Unknown

Steve Wattenmaker said:

Jim - Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I track credit-card transactions in Quicken. But I may not have explained the challenge.  Let's say I download the Amex statement that covers the dates 8/16 - 9/15. Then I pay that bill and other bills by check on 10/1. So far so good. But then I run a spending report for checking and Amex accounts with the custom report date set from 9/2 - 10/1.  That excludes the Amex transactions on that last statement from 8/16 - 9/02. So the alternative is to set the report custom date range from 8/16 - 10/1. But then that report (again) picks up all of the checks I wrote on 9/1.  So I have had to run separate reports for Amex and checking with the different custom date ranges and then export each to Excel in order to provide a single report with the correct transactions for the the checks I've written on 10/1.  That is why I wondered whether any version of quicken allowed the user to set separate date ranges for the accounts being used to generate a single  report. Steve

Yes. In short, I want the spending report I run for the bills paid on the 1st of the month to include the credit card charges on the credit card bill I just paid, which will include charges outside the 8/2 - 9/1 report date range - because the credit card statement I paid runs from 7/16 - 8/15. My question has nothing to do with downloading credit-card charges - only how to harmonize dates in creating an accurate report of the transactions - checks and credit card transactions - that I've paid on the first of the month.  

Jim_Harman

Steve Wattenmaker said:

Jim - Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I track credit-card transactions in Quicken. But I may not have explained the challenge.  Let's say I download the Amex statement that covers the dates 8/16 - 9/15. Then I pay that bill and other bills by check on 10/1. So far so good. But then I run a spending report for checking and Amex accounts with the custom report date set from 9/2 - 10/1.  That excludes the Amex transactions on that last statement from 8/16 - 9/02. So the alternative is to set the report custom date range from 8/16 - 10/1. But then that report (again) picks up all of the checks I wrote on 9/1.  So I have had to run separate reports for Amex and checking with the different custom date ranges and then export each to Excel in order to provide a single report with the correct transactions for the the checks I've written on 10/1.  That is why I wondered whether any version of quicken allowed the user to set separate date ranges for the accounts being used to generate a single  report. Steve

If it is a spending report for 8/2 to 9/1, I would think you would want it to include all the things you bought in August, regardless of whether you paid for them with cash, a credit card, a debit card, or a check, or which month's statement they appeared on. That is what Quicken does when you include all your cash accounts The credit card payment is treated as a transfer between accounts, and does not appear in the report because it does not make you any richer or poorer.

If on the other hand you are tracking what bills you paid, you could set the report to just include your checking account.

Unknown

Steve Wattenmaker said:

Jim - Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I track credit-card transactions in Quicken. But I may not have explained the challenge.  Let's say I download the Amex statement that covers the dates 8/16 - 9/15. Then I pay that bill and other bills by check on 10/1. So far so good. But then I run a spending report for checking and Amex accounts with the custom report date set from 9/2 - 10/1.  That excludes the Amex transactions on that last statement from 8/16 - 9/02. So the alternative is to set the report custom date range from 8/16 - 10/1. But then that report (again) picks up all of the checks I wrote on 9/1.  So I have had to run separate reports for Amex and checking with the different custom date ranges and then export each to Excel in order to provide a single report with the correct transactions for the the checks I've written on 10/1.  That is why I wondered whether any version of quicken allowed the user to set separate date ranges for the accounts being used to generate a single  report. Steve

Thanks again. Actually, what I want the report to do is include all the items for which I wrote checks on 9/1 - including the check to the Amex which covers some transactions in the Amex statement that didn't fall within in the 8/2 - 9/1.   Yes,I am now setting the report to only capture checking transactions I paid on 9/1. And then running another report to capture the Amex transactions from 7/16 - 8/15, the period covered by the Amex bill I paid 9/1. Then I'm exporting the two separate reports and merging them in Excel to get an accurate picture of all the items - checking and Amex - that I paid on 9/1. 

But I think your helpful responses have answered my original question: whether there was any version of Quicken that allows customized dates for different accounts in the same spending report.  The answer is no and I'll just keep using my clunky methodology!

So, thank you again for helping me noodle this. Take care.

Steve

Just one post-script. I think my objective - printing a spending report that captures transaction in credit-card accounts with different statement closing dates, isn't such an eccentric approach to tracking all transactions in multiple accounts for which checks have been written on a certain day - in my case the first of the month.