Including transfer accounts in transaction reporting

dkaplin

I am not trying to reignite the debate of old Quicken for new Quicken, but there is one thing I have been unable to do since finally upgrading recently. Using the new report functionality, I have been trying to produce a category report that also shows charges to transfer accounts. For instance, a mortgage payment has both interest and principal components; I would like to show both. Then I would have a full accounting of the use of our funds.

I have noted that clicking the transfer checkbox shows transfers - but it shows both sides. So I don't get the true effect on the use of our money.

What am I missing here?

jacobs

You're not missing anything. Except the ability to do this in Quicken Mac currently.

Quicken Mac currently does things from a strictly accounting viewpoint, where payment of loan principle is a transfer from an asset (your checking account) to a liability (your loan account) and is not an expense. That's absolutely correct, accounting-wise. But it's not practical for most consumers; a loan payment may be a cash flow transaction, but for all practical purposes, it feels like an expense. We need to plan for that cash flow as if it's an expense. What we need is a way to reflect this cash flow -- transfers between accounts -- in our budgeting.

This can't currently be done, but the product manager has acknowledged that it is one of the top customer requests -- it got nearly 500 votes in this thread on this site -- and it is something they will be working to implement in the near-term future. It's a little hard to understand how this issue has remained on the features wish list for as long as it has without being acted on, except to say that the developers have had an overwhelming number of feature requests to implement and they just can't get to them fast enough. But they have stated this is now a planned feature -- but as with all promised new features, we don't know how long it will take to be implemented, tested and released.

jacobs

You're not missing anything. Except the ability to do this in Quicken Mac currently.

Quicken Mac currently does things from a strictly accounting viewpoint, where payment of loan principle is a transfer from an asset (your checking account) to a liability (your loan account) and is not an expense. That's absolutely correct, accounting-wise. But it's not practical for most consumers; a loan payment may be a cash flow transaction, but for all practical purposes, it feels like an expense. We need to plan for that cash flow as if it's an expense. What we need is a way to reflect this cash flow -- transfers between accounts -- in our budgeting.

This can't currently be done, but the product manager has acknowledged that it is one of the top customer requests -- it got nearly 500 votes in this thread on this site -- and it is something they will be working to implement in the near-term future. It's a little hard to understand how this issue has remained on the features wish list for as long as it has without being acted on, except to say that the developers have had an overwhelming number of feature requests to implement and they just can't get to them fast enough. But they have stated this is now a planned feature -- but as with all promised new features, we don't know how long it will take to be implemented, tested and released.

dkaplin

Thank you Jacobs!!! I was trying to avoid the words "Cash Flow Report" since, although it is a standard business view of information, I was afraid it would erupt in an "Old Quicken vs New Quicken" thread. I actually like the current version and I'm glad they are working on it. Thanks a bunch!