Budgeting credit card payments that go to a specific category

Quick Questions

I am using (and loving) the budget feature, However, just ran into an issue. There are a select few things that I use my credit card for - namely larger planned purchases which I immediately pay off. The issue I am having (and I'm probably doing something incorrectly) is that by default the payment to the credit card company defaults to a transfer from my checking to the credit card (rightfully so), but in the budget, I want to plan/see where that money goes. For example, if I'm doing a house project and I need $500 of stuff from the hardware store, i have a line item in my budget for house project, plan for the $500 and then when the transaction hits, I set the category to house project....which works perfectly for budgeting....but now there is no longer a transfer to the credit card and my balance (in Quicken) still shows as $500.

Is there any way to keep the transfer and add a budget category?? And Again, most likely I am doing something incorrectly. Any advice or direction would be greatly appreciated.

Scooterlam

I recall similar requests here in the past - allow both a transfer and category to be recorded in a register.

Here's the intended flow...

1. You pay for the house project stuff with your credit card ($500).
2. In Quicken's credit card register, you record the $500 purchase and assign the correct category that describes the purchase (ex Home:Improvement). 
3. At this point, both the "budgeted spend" and the "actual spend" amounts show up in your budget, provided that the CC account and category (Home:Improvement)  is selected to be included (Budget Actions>Select Categories (Select Accounts).
4. When you payoff your CC from your checking account, in your checking account, you simply record the "transfer" from checking to CC account -  no category is used in this transfer since the expense ($500) is already recorded in your CC account with the category your chose in your budget.  Also, no need to change categories in your payoff transaction for the same reason.
5. When you payoff your CC account, your CC account balance is net zero ($500 purchase to the HW store less the payoff of $500 from your checking account at the time the CC payment is due).

Does this help?

Scooterlam

...The one thing I am missing is showing the credit card account in my budget. I went to Budget Actions->Select Categories->Select accounts and the CC is marked (All of my accounts are)....but in the Manage Budget Categories, the CC is not listed. I went to tools->Category list and the CC is there...I just can't get it to show in the budget. What am I missing?

Glad to hear things are getting sorted.

So, all of your spending accounts (CC, Checking, et al.) you wish to budget are included, as you have done. 

However, there would be no CC account in "select categories" for your CC card account for "personal" type expenses.  CC is an account, which you have included in the "select accounts" dialog of the budget.  But, you will have one and only one category (ex. Home:Improvement) in your budget, regardless of the accounts (CC, Checking et al.) you use to make those kinds of purchases.  See image.

In other words, you can make "home: improvement" purchases in any one or more of your spending accounts.  Yet, in your budget, planned and actuals collect under the category "home:improvement", assuming you have those accounts selected to be in the budget.  There would be no need to budget (and track actuals) for both the expense ($500) as well as the transfer ($500) from Checking to CC to payoff that expense.  You would just budget for the $500, under the category home:improvement, for example.  When you spend $ using your, CC et al., you assign home:improvement as the category in your CC account.  Once that is done, you will see it show up as a $500 "actual" against your $500 plan in your budget. The payoff transfer from Checking to CC is not an expense in this case.  The original purchase from your CC is. Including both may double-dip your "actuals" in your budget. - payment from your CC AND a payment from your Checking, as one example.

That's the basic usage and explanation.   Judging from your question though, I think you might fall into the "basic usage" category.

A last note...There is, however, in "select categories", under the Category GROUP called "Transfers In" and "Transfers Out" the ability to include accounts.   These are used for cases where you are budgeting for account transfers.   Personally, I don't use these Transfers In/Out category groups to track income or expenses, other than a very specific usage to track business income, as a workaround to a Quicken bug.

Does this clear up your last question?

Scooterlam

I recall similar requests here in the past - allow both a transfer and category to be recorded in a register.

Here's the intended flow...

1. You pay for the house project stuff with your credit card ($500).
2. In Quicken's credit card register, you record the $500 purchase and assign the correct category that describes the purchase (ex Home:Improvement). 
3. At this point, both the "budgeted spend" and the "actual spend" amounts show up in your budget, provided that the CC account and category (Home:Improvement)  is selected to be included (Budget Actions>Select Categories (Select Accounts).
4. When you payoff your CC from your checking account, in your checking account, you simply record the "transfer" from checking to CC account -  no category is used in this transfer since the expense ($500) is already recorded in your CC account with the category your chose in your budget.  Also, no need to change categories in your payoff transaction for the same reason.
5. When you payoff your CC account, your CC account balance is net zero ($500 purchase to the HW store less the payoff of $500 from your checking account at the time the CC payment is due).

Does this help?

Quick Questions

Thank you very much Scooterlam!!! Huge step forward for what I'm trying to do. The process you identified makes total sense. And has me almost there. Again, I think it's a user issue, so thanks in advance for your patience. I recorded as you showed above and in the accounts it works perfectly (correct balances) and for the house project in the budget, it's perfect too. The one thing I am missing is showing the credit card account in my budget. I went to Budget Actions->Select Categories->Select accounts and the CC is marked (All of my accounts are)....but in the Manage Budget Categories, the CC is not listed. I went to tools->Category list and the CC is there...I just can't get it to show in the budget. What am I missing?

Thank you again for your help!

Quick follow up - perhaps I just needed to remove the Transfer Out from the budget. That seems to eliminate the "double dip" that was happening in my budget. Am I on the right path?

Scooterlam

...The one thing I am missing is showing the credit card account in my budget. I went to Budget Actions->Select Categories->Select accounts and the CC is marked (All of my accounts are)....but in the Manage Budget Categories, the CC is not listed. I went to tools->Category list and the CC is there...I just can't get it to show in the budget. What am I missing?

Glad to hear things are getting sorted.

So, all of your spending accounts (CC, Checking, et al.) you wish to budget are included, as you have done. 

However, there would be no CC account in "select categories" for your CC card account for "personal" type expenses.  CC is an account, which you have included in the "select accounts" dialog of the budget.  But, you will have one and only one category (ex. Home:Improvement) in your budget, regardless of the accounts (CC, Checking et al.) you use to make those kinds of purchases.  See image.

In other words, you can make "home: improvement" purchases in any one or more of your spending accounts.  Yet, in your budget, planned and actuals collect under the category "home:improvement", assuming you have those accounts selected to be in the budget.  There would be no need to budget (and track actuals) for both the expense ($500) as well as the transfer ($500) from Checking to CC to payoff that expense.  You would just budget for the $500, under the category home:improvement, for example.  When you spend $ using your, CC et al., you assign home:improvement as the category in your CC account.  Once that is done, you will see it show up as a $500 "actual" against your $500 plan in your budget. The payoff transfer from Checking to CC is not an expense in this case.  The original purchase from your CC is. Including both may double-dip your "actuals" in your budget. - payment from your CC AND a payment from your Checking, as one example.

That's the basic usage and explanation.   Judging from your question though, I think you might fall into the "basic usage" category.

A last note...There is, however, in "select categories", under the Category GROUP called "Transfers In" and "Transfers Out" the ability to include accounts.   These are used for cases where you are budgeting for account transfers.   Personally, I don't use these Transfers In/Out category groups to track income or expenses, other than a very specific usage to track business income, as a workaround to a Quicken bug.

Does this clear up your last question?

NotACPA

@scooterlam, that's a GREAT graphic.  Where did it come from, OR how did you produce it?

Scooterlam

NotACPA said:

@scooterlam, that's a GREAT graphic.  Where did it come from, OR how did you produce it?

Thanks. I put it together using Powerpoint.

Quick Questions

@Scooterlam - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Very thorough answer!! And I agree with @NotACPA - the graphic was very helpful.
This 100% answered my question!