How do I track individual cash expenses

jimsula

I would like to assignindividual cash expenditures to a catatogry. I obtain cash via my ATM which Quicken automatically posts to Cash & ATM category as an expense. If I post individual cash expenses to a category it seems that quicken would count the expense twice, once as part of the ATM withdrawal and once when posted manually in a category. Any suggestions?

NotACPA

Create a CASH account in Q.  When you withdraw from the ATM, record that as a transfer from your bank into the CASH account.

The transfer from your Bank to CASH won't be counted as an Expense.

JUST BEWARE, that you'll almost certainly miss some cash transactions, so I'd suggest that once a month your "count the cash" (literally) and make an adjusting entry in your CASH account to bring the 2 into agreement.

NotACPA

It's certainly your decision as to how to treat that Cash account ... but if you don't periodically "reconcile" it ... it will continue to grow (with the ATM txn) and won't decrease appropriately (due to missing cash transactions).

It will reflect that it's contributing more to your Assets (and, thus, Net Worth) than is actually the case.

jimsula

Good point. Thanks.

NotACPA

Create a CASH account in Q.  When you withdraw from the ATM, record that as a transfer from your bank into the CASH account.

The transfer from your Bank to CASH won't be counted as an Expense.

JUST BEWARE, that you'll almost certainly miss some cash transactions, so I'd suggest that once a month your "count the cash" (literally) and make an adjusting entry in your CASH account to bring the 2 into agreement.

jimsula

Thank you very much! I agree that I will miss some cash expenditures, but I am more interested in tracking total expenditures (Credit Card and cash) then being off by some amount

NotACPA

It's certainly your decision as to how to treat that Cash account ... but if you don't periodically "reconcile" it ... it will continue to grow (with the ATM txn) and won't decrease appropriately (due to missing cash transactions).

It will reflect that it's contributing more to your Assets (and, thus, Net Worth) than is actually the case.

jimsula

Good point. Thanks.