What report do I use to answer the question "Where do I spend most of my money?"

Bertilak

What report do I use to answer the question "Where do I spend most of my money?"

I was expecting to find a report of expenses that I could sort by amount. Does not appear to be such a report!

NotACPA

You're right, there's no report that you can sort by amount.  SO, your options are to use the spending GRAPH to see where most of your money goes ... OR export the regular report to Excel and sort it there.

Unknown

Wait a second!  Why can't one run a report of transactions (for whatever time frame he is interested in, perhaps last 12 months or last year or customer or whatever), then click the column head to sort by amount? That does what he wants, right?  "I was expecting to find a report of expenses that I could sort by amount. "

q_lurker

Andrew said:

Wait a second!  Why can't one run a report of transactions (for whatever time frame he is interested in, perhaps last 12 months or last year or customer or whatever), then click the column head to sort by amount? That does what he wants, right?  "I was expecting to find a report of expenses that I could sort by amount. "

I took the question to be at the category level.  Do I spend more on Groceries, Auto service, health insurance, etc.?  The individual transactions won't answer that.  

Bertilak

Andrew said:

Wait a second!  Why can't one run a report of transactions (for whatever time frame he is interested in, perhaps last 12 months or last year or customer or whatever), then click the column head to sort by amount? That does what he wants, right?  "I was expecting to find a report of expenses that I could sort by amount. "

Yes, I wanted report by category then sort categories by amount.

When I get the chance I will try exporting to Excel. Seems like that ought to do the job.

I'm just surprised Quicken can't pump out a report like that on its own -- a very basic capability for a program that prides itself analysis of spending!

Jim_Harman

Andrew said:

Wait a second!  Why can't one run a report of transactions (for whatever time frame he is interested in, perhaps last 12 months or last year or customer or whatever), then click the column head to sort by amount? That does what he wants, right?  "I was expecting to find a report of expenses that I could sort by amount. "

It would certainly be nice if the Banking Transactions report would sort by the subtotals if you don't have the transactions displayed. Then you could subtotal by category or payee and sort by highest to lowest, not just alphabetical

Unknown

Andrew said:

Wait a second!  Why can't one run a report of transactions (for whatever time frame he is interested in, perhaps last 12 months or last year or customer or whatever), then click the column head to sort by amount? That does what he wants, right?  "I was expecting to find a report of expenses that I could sort by amount. "

Ah, at the CATEGORY level. Ok.. Didn't say that originally. I hope the Excel thing works out. When you look at the transaction report, you can group it by category, but you're right, at that point, clicking on amount doesn't sort at the category level. Strange. You would think you should be able to sort by whatever subtotal you'd elected to display.

Jim_Harman

There is also the pie chart and accompanying table on the Spending tab, and "See where your money goes" on the Home tab. These show spending by Category, largest to smallest, with or without taxes. You can drill down by clicking on the chart segments or the table items.

These are a good starting point, but unfortunately can't be printed.