Family budgeting & personal budgets

Rogi

I track 8 accounts in one Quicken file; Personal Checking, Savings, and Credit Cards for my wife and I, which makes 6 accounts.  The two extra are our Joint Savings and Joint Checking.  I would like to know how to link up separate Quicken files.  I'd like to make three different Quicken files, one for each Individual and one for the Joint accounts.  That way each file would be able to differentiate its spending without having to create infinite sub-categories; like when we buys shoes.  The trick comes in when the Joint Acct. is where we track out bills, food, and miscellaneous joint expenses.  We transfer money into the Joint Checking based on the Joint Account's budget.

I tried creating a new file with just my own accounts, but could not quickly switch between the different files.

I thought that there might have been a way to have certain transactions not show up in the different budgets by separating them into different Quicken files, but I don't think there would be a way to properly account for transferring funds around.

I feel like I wish I knew a Quicken expert next door.

jacobs

@Rogi you might want to explore keeping everything in one Quicken file and using TAGS to identify which purchases belong to you, your wife, or both of you. This avoids the need to create separate categories for everything. Create a tag for you and a tag for your wife. you may or may not want a tag for joint expenses. Tag your transactions appropriately, and then you can create reports that include or exclude tags however you need. I don't do this for budgeting purposes, but I don't think you can separate by Tags for budgeting; however, you can have Reports by Tags, so if your Dining Out category is over-budget for April, you could do a quick report using tags to see which of you spent all the money!

Quicken_Tyka

Hello Rogi,

When creating a new Quicken file, this file is separate from the other Quicken files and cannot be linked to one another.

You can create more than one budget in a file but accounts can't be removed from the budget at this time.

I have included a handful of articles that explain how the budget works.
ttps://www.quicken.com/support/learning-about-budgets-quicken-mac

https://www.quicken.com/support/how-do-i-work-budget

https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-mac-12-month-budget-overview-and-getting-started

Hope this helps!

-Quicken Tyka

jacobs

@Rogi you might want to explore keeping everything in one Quicken file and using TAGS to identify which purchases belong to you, your wife, or both of you. This avoids the need to create separate categories for everything. Create a tag for you and a tag for your wife. you may or may not want a tag for joint expenses. Tag your transactions appropriately, and then you can create reports that include or exclude tags however you need. I don't do this for budgeting purposes, but I don't think you can separate by Tags for budgeting; however, you can have Reports by Tags, so if your Dining Out category is over-budget for April, you could do a quick report using tags to see which of you spent all the money!