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Categorize tranferred funds

unknown

I want to be able to categorize the funds that are transferred from one account to another. For example, I transferred $1,000 from savings to checking, of which $200 was for Travel, $500 was for Medical expenses, and $300 was for Entertainment. All three of these categories have funds in them in Savings. I can create a manual xfer where I have to split transactions in both accounts in order to categorize the funds, or I can xfer the funds but the category is the [account name]. I want to be able to have quicken recognize the xfer automatically, but I only want to categorize the source of funds once. Suggestions?

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jacobs

Typically in Quicken, transfers are not categorized -- they're simply moving an asset (cash) from one account to the other. The categorization comes when you *spend* the money. So if you've transferred the money to your checking account, when you write a check for $500 for your medical bill and $300 for your entertainment expenses, that is where you categorize your spending. If you were able to categorize the transfer, then when you wrote a check, you would be double-counting the expense.

If you're talking about budgeting to spend money in different categories, that's a little bit of a different topic. Quicken doesn't really accommodate this style of "envelope budgeting," where you want to designate and track that certain amounts of money within your checking or savings account are intended or set aside to be spent for certain categories of expenses. Is that what you were looking to do?

unknown

Thanks for your help jacobs!

If I have $5,000 in savings, I want to know, for example, that $1,000 is set aside for entertainment, $2,000 is for travel, and $2,000 is for future medical expenses. When I transfer funds out of savings, I want to do a single xfer of $1,000 but "pull" funds from the three different categories. Then, at any time, I can run a report to know how much $ is in savings by category.

On the checking side, I want to know where the funds came from - I could put it in the memo, but I am still stuck making two manual transactions if I want to categorize the savings side.

unknown

Another example is that I want to pay my credit card bill from my checking account and know where the funds went - split transaction.
I also have essentially the same transaction in the credit card account - a payment that is split among the categorized transactions that are being paid off.

GeoffG

You might want to consider Savings Goals under the Planning tab. You can establish from $5,000 in savings, $1,000 Entertainment, $2,000 Travel, and $2,000 Medical. You add and withdrawal however you decide and move the funds to checking at the time funds are needed.

As to your latest example, you do not split the transaction for the credit card payment. As jacobs pointed out previously you transfer the funds from [checking account] to [credit card account] when paid monthly. You have already captured what was spent (category) through the credit card register.

Arctic Hare

You might want to consider Savings Goals under the Planning tab. You can establish from $5,000 in savings, $1,000 Entertainment, $2,000 Travel, and $2,000 Medical. You add and withdrawal however you decide and move the funds to checking at the time funds are needed.

As to your latest example, you do not split the transaction for the credit card payment. As jacobs pointed out previously you transfer the funds from [checking account] to [credit card account] when paid monthly. You have already captured what was spent (category) through the credit card register.

I endorse the recommendation to use a SavingsGoal to address the original poster's described requirement. That is the best practice approach to address the original problem statement. Another option is using Tags, but SavingsGoals are a better approach.

jacobs

You might want to consider Savings Goals under the Planning tab. You can establish from $5,000 in savings, $1,000 Entertainment, $2,000 Travel, and $2,000 Medical. You add and withdrawal however you decide and move the funds to checking at the time funds are needed.

As to your latest example, you do not split the transaction for the credit card payment. As jacobs pointed out previously you transfer the funds from [checking account] to [credit card account] when paid monthly. You have already captured what was spent (category) through the credit card register.

Jim, Just to make sure we're being clear here about how to handle credit cards in Quicken... You have an account for each credit card. Every time you charge something on the credit card, a transaction is added to the credit card register (either entered manually or downloaded from your financial institution). Each of those transactions is categorized for the proper expense category or categories. When the time comes to pay your credit card bill, it's a simple transfer from checking to the credit card account -- there's nothing to categorize, because all the individual transactions have already been categorized.

unknown

You might want to consider Savings Goals under the Planning tab. You can establish from $5,000 in savings, $1,000 Entertainment, $2,000 Travel, and $2,000 Medical. You add and withdrawal however you decide and move the funds to checking at the time funds are needed.

As to your latest example, you do not split the transaction for the credit card payment. As jacobs pointed out previously you transfer the funds from [checking account] to [credit card account] when paid monthly. You have already captured what was spent (category) through the credit card register.

Jacobs, you state "You have an account for each credit card.". No, he probably does not. He most likely is paying the bill right from the checking amount and is attempting to categorize that payment via a split. This works ok for a very small number of transactions each month that need to be categorized, but doesn't work when the number is bigger than 30 (I recall that's the limit of splits in a single transaction) or if one wishes to reconcile the credit card account as well .

So Jim, what Jacobs was telling you is to CREATE and USE a credit card account, entering and categorizing each individual charge (or via Download if you'd like) as you incur them. Then, pay the bill and reconcile the account by using as the CATEGORY the name of the credit card account in your check transaction when you pay your bill - no splits!! This will create a payment in the Credit Card account that will reduce the ongoing balance. You can also reconcile at that point either manually or online as you wish.

jacobs

You might want to consider Savings Goals under the Planning tab. You can establish from $5,000 in savings, $1,000 Entertainment, $2,000 Travel, and $2,000 Medical. You add and withdrawal however you decide and move the funds to checking at the time funds are needed.

As to your latest example, you do not split the transaction for the credit card payment. As jacobs pointed out previously you transfer the funds from [checking account] to [credit card account] when paid monthly. You have already captured what was spent (category) through the credit card register.

Andrew, yes, when I wrote "being clear about how to handle credit cards in Quicken," everything that followed was how it should be done, not necessarily the way Jim was already doing it. If my clarification was unclear, thanks for clarifying.

unknown

You might want to consider Savings Goals under the Planning tab. You can establish from $5,000 in savings, $1,000 Entertainment, $2,000 Travel, and $2,000 Medical. You add and withdrawal however you decide and move the funds to checking at the time funds are needed.

As to your latest example, you do not split the transaction for the credit card payment. As jacobs pointed out previously you transfer the funds from [checking account] to [credit card account] when paid monthly. You have already captured what was spent (category) through the credit card register.

Thanks to all for your help. I have been thinking through the consequences of the suggestions and checking out the Savings Goals.

I don't see how Savings Goals save me any time or effort. In fact, it seems like more work than categorizing transfers in and out of savings because the Savings Goal is disconnected from each account's deposits and withdrawals - it exists as a separate entity. If I categorize the transfers in and out of savings, then I can run a categorized report on that account and it accurately reflects the balance in each category - moment by moment. This is one step and connected directly to reality (actual deposits and withdrawals). If I missed how to directly connect real deposits and withdrawals to the Goals, please let me know.

I have each credit card in a separate account and download and categorize regularly. Currently, I use my checking account as the master account for all reporting. Every
transaction in or out of checking is categorized. For each CC, the
purchases and payments are categorized so each CC and each category in each CC nets
to 0 each month.

I understand what you are saying jacobs about categorizing CC purchases and running reports. This would be simpler than what I have been doing. My spending reports would then be based on Checking and CC instead of Checking only - easy peasy.

Here are my conclusions at this point:
1) I change my spending reports so they pull from Checking and CC accounts and stop categorizing CC payments. Saves me time and effort!

2) If I want to be able to run a report to know how much is allocated to each category in Savings then I still need to categorize transfers to and from savings - on both the savings and checking sides. Savings accounts have to be excluded from overall monthly spending reports - checking is the master account for all things savings related.

If I misunderstood something, or you all see an easier way, please let me know.
Thanks again!!!