Payee in Reports Tax Schedule is greyed out

fwrightson

I just upgraded to the new Quicken 2019 and when running a tax schedule report, the payee was not showing. So, I went to "customize" and the "payee" is greyed out so I can't select any options. How do I get the payee to display in the report?

jacobs

You're right, the Tax Schedule report doesn't include Payees; it's intended to show total spending in tax-related categories that you can use when doing your taxes.

The Tax Schedule is one of Quicken's old reports, which the developers are slowly replacing with functionality under "New Report". The new reports are much more configurable, but they haven't created a tax report using the new reports engine.

If you really need to see Payee names for tax purposes, you'll probably need to do a New Report> Transaction>Category report, and then customize it to include only the tax-related categories.

jacobs

I think some of your questions depend how you use Quicken. For instance: "what use is a tax schedule if you can's see who you donated to". Well, I don't use the Tax Schedule report for that. All my charitable donations use a charity category, and so I use a report to print all the transactions in that category for each year. I'd do the same for medical expenses (if I had enough of them for it to be a deductible expense). There's no reason to feel you can't get the data you need for doing your taxes out of Quicken 2019.

Also, I think you very much misunderstood what I was saying about the reports. What I said they were phasing out is the old-style reports which came over from the 2010-era Quicken Essentials Product, in favor of the New Report reports built using the newly-designed reports engine and interface. That transition isn't complete yet, which is why Tax Schedule still exists only as an "old-style" report -- but they certainly won't get rid of that report unless and until they have a new-generation one which does the same thing. I was only saying that if/when they create a new-style tax schedule report, the new reports allow you to add or remove columns, so such a new-style report might allow you to add Payees to your tax schedule report.

jacobs

@fwrightson Ah, I now see I was correct on one count, incorrect on another. The good news for you is that I was correct that the Tax Schedule report in Quicken 2019 works identically to the same report in Quicken 2016 -- including Payee names. I apologize that I was wrong about Payee names showing up in the first place; because have mine coded differently, and I don't regularly use that report, I didn't realize the Payee names do show up on that report. They do.

So if you're running this report in Quicken 2019, and it's not the same as your Quicken 2016, it's because your Categories aren't configured properly. Go to Windows > Categories. Find your Charity/Donations and check the Tax related checkbox. That makes the Tax Form part of the box show up. Scroll down to Schedule A and click on it, then in the middle column scroll down to Charity cash contributions and click on that. Then Save. Now, all your transactions using this Category will show up in the Tax Schedule report.



Why wasn't it set up correctly for you?  Because the Category "Charity/Donations" is one that either existed in a previous version of Quicken that you used or that you created yourself -- it isn't one of Quicken's pre-defined categories, which are pre-coded to link to the correct tax forms. (Quicken's default category for charitable contributions is "Gifts & Donations:Charity").

I hope that resolves some of the mystery about what was happening and the partial misinformation I shared earlier today.

jacobs

You're right, the Tax Schedule report doesn't include Payees; it's intended to show total spending in tax-related categories that you can use when doing your taxes.

The Tax Schedule is one of Quicken's old reports, which the developers are slowly replacing with functionality under "New Report". The new reports are much more configurable, but they haven't created a tax report using the new reports engine.

If you really need to see Payee names for tax purposes, you'll probably need to do a New Report> Transaction>Category report, and then customize it to include only the tax-related categories.

fwrightson

Thanks. Really, what use is a tax schedule if you can's see who you donated to or which doctor you paid. I really only use Quicken (probably for close to 20 years now) to pull together my three bank accounts and multiple credit cards and then organize the transactions (medical, charity, taxes, etc) using the tax schedules to give to my accountant. The fact that they are phasing it out means they are phasing me out. I can download each of those transactions from each of those institutions into a CSV file and sort them and send that to my accountant. Quicken tax schedules made it easy. I guess I'll go back to Quicken 2016 (until the end of the month, when it no longer connects to the banks, etc) and do this years activity (and feel sorry that I bought a 2 year license for 2019. I guess it's bye-bye Quicken - after many years. I'm sure that Quicken knows who their market audience is and I guess I'm no longer in it.

jacobs

I think some of your questions depend how you use Quicken. For instance: "what use is a tax schedule if you can's see who you donated to". Well, I don't use the Tax Schedule report for that. All my charitable donations use a charity category, and so I use a report to print all the transactions in that category for each year. I'd do the same for medical expenses (if I had enough of them for it to be a deductible expense). There's no reason to feel you can't get the data you need for doing your taxes out of Quicken 2019.

Also, I think you very much misunderstood what I was saying about the reports. What I said they were phasing out is the old-style reports which came over from the 2010-era Quicken Essentials Product, in favor of the New Report reports built using the newly-designed reports engine and interface. That transition isn't complete yet, which is why Tax Schedule still exists only as an "old-style" report -- but they certainly won't get rid of that report unless and until they have a new-generation one which does the same thing. I was only saying that if/when they create a new-style tax schedule report, the new reports allow you to add or remove columns, so such a new-style report might allow you to add Payees to your tax schedule report.

fwrightson

Jacobs, thanks for your reply. This is why I like these community discussion boards...their's always someone I can learn from (i.e., smarter than me ;-). I think you've pointed me in the right direction. (I've just gone back to my 2016 and running the tax schedule so I can send it to my account...but, after that I'll try your suggested sort). Thanks again for sharing your insight.

jacobs

@fwrightson Now I'm a little confused. The Tax Schedule report in Quicken 2019 is exactly the same as the one in Quicken 2016, as best I can see. There are no Payee names in the Quicken 2016 Tax Schedule report. So how does 2016 work acceptably for you?

fwrightson

OMG...please don't tell me that...I'm going to try to print it now (I'm doing the categories now). I'll report back

fwrightson

It does...here is a screenshot (I didn't bother to sort the dates)

fwrightson

BTW, I use the MAC version (if that makes any difference)

jacobs

@fwrightson Ah, I now see I was correct on one count, incorrect on another. The good news for you is that I was correct that the Tax Schedule report in Quicken 2019 works identically to the same report in Quicken 2016 -- including Payee names. I apologize that I was wrong about Payee names showing up in the first place; because have mine coded differently, and I don't regularly use that report, I didn't realize the Payee names do show up on that report. They do.

So if you're running this report in Quicken 2019, and it's not the same as your Quicken 2016, it's because your Categories aren't configured properly. Go to Windows > Categories. Find your Charity/Donations and check the Tax related checkbox. That makes the Tax Form part of the box show up. Scroll down to Schedule A and click on it, then in the middle column scroll down to Charity cash contributions and click on that. Then Save. Now, all your transactions using this Category will show up in the Tax Schedule report.



Why wasn't it set up correctly for you?  Because the Category "Charity/Donations" is one that either existed in a previous version of Quicken that you used or that you created yourself -- it isn't one of Quicken's pre-defined categories, which are pre-coded to link to the correct tax forms. (Quicken's default category for charitable contributions is "Gifts & Donations:Charity").

I hope that resolves some of the mystery about what was happening and the partial misinformation I shared earlier today.

fwrightson

@jacobs Thanks again. You've helped me tremendously (and, I'm happy that "payee" will display in 2019).
Have a great weekend.