Can Qmac forecast next months payment to Credit Card?

I pay the total credit card balance each month. Qwin allows one to set the monthly credit card payment to the amount owed on the credit card. When I look at next months calendar I see the total amount of the credit card being deducted from my checking account. I can't find a way to do the same in Qmac. Is this possible? Thank you.
Quicken user since 1986

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Answers

  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    I don;'t think so, but I don't use the calendar view, so perhaps someone else will provide a more detailed answer.

    But… since you pay the balance in full, can't you simply glance to the left sidebar and see the balance/amount owed for the account at any time? That's what I do if I want a quick view of my upcoming cash flow needs.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Lakedaisy
    Lakedaisy Member ✭✭✭
    The Qwin method is much better as one can look at the calendar and see several weeks in advance the amount of cash available for each day. And the amounts vary according to credit card balance.
    Quicken user since 1986
  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    I'm not sure I understand. Why would your cash balance (checking account, prsumably) vary day by day due to credit card charges?

    In Quicken Mac, if you create a calendar for just your checking account, you can see your checking balance every day. Over on the left, you can see the accumulated charges on your credit card. So if my checking accont balance on the calendar shows I'm at $10,000 today, and my credit card balance over on the left shows $15,000 today, I can see at a glance that I've got a problem as of now with more money to pay out than I have available. Now, it's not showing the payment out of checking on the date my credit card statement period ends or the due date, but you can see at a glance where you stand. And when your credit card statement ending date passes and you can see the full amount of payment due, you can enter the payment as a transaction in the future, so your balance in the calendar will reflect the drop in funds in the future. It doesn't do this automatically, but it's pretty easy to do manually. If you set up a recurring monthly payment transaction with an estimated/average payment amount, then all you need to do is update the amount each month when your actual balance due become available. 

    Alternatively, you could create a calendar which includes your checking account AND your credit card account. This would make the daily balance in the calendar show the net of checking balance minus credit card balance. 
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Lakedaisy
    Lakedaisy Member ✭✭✭
    "So if my checking accont balance on the calendar shows I'm at $10,000 today, and my credit card balance over on the left shows $15,000 today, I can see at a glance that I've got a problem as of now with more money to pay out than I have available."

    This is exactly what Qwin does, but I don't have to guess at the difference between the credit card balance and cash on hand. The correct amount remaining in the checking account shows on the calendar.
    Quicken user since 1986
  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    So would my suggestion above work for your need: create a calendar which includes your checking account AND your credit card account (and not other accounts). This would make the daily balance in the calendar show the net of checking balance minus credit card balance. 
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Lakedaisy
    Lakedaisy Member ✭✭✭
    Hi jacobs. Yes it would. But it's a mess as the calendar fills with all the charges. I had tried this a couple years ago. Problem is I make a lot of charges on my credit card (rather than using cash or a check) to get cash back. So every month MC and Visa pay me to use the card. Been doing this for about 15 years. Because of this, each day of the calendar fills with the charges. Not pretty. The way Qwin does it is the cash balance minus the credit card balance is the only number shown. There have been improvements to Qmac since Quicken was bought out. Was hoping this was an improvement I had missed or couldn't find. Maybe someone from Quicken will read this and add it to Qmac.
    Quicken user since 1986
  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    @Lakedaisy Quicken Mac can easily do what you want. If you don't want the calendar cluttered with individual transactions, just click on the little down arrow at the far right of the calendar screen to toggle off Show Transactions.


    In Customize, if you set the accounts to be only your checking account and your credit card account, now the calendar will do what you say you want: show only the daily net balance of your checking account minus your credit card account.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Lakedaisy
    Lakedaisy Member ✭✭✭
    edited September 2019
    Thanks jacobs. I know that. But that won't work as I use Show Transactions to check incoming/outgoing deposits/withdrawals in the checking account.
    Quicken user since 1986
  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    So you want a calendar that shows all your transacitons in your checking account, shows none of your transactions in your credit card account, and shows the net balance of your checking account minus your credit card charges. Well, I can't think of a way to create that.

    I'd suggest you might want to make different calendars for the diffent puposes: one could show your checking account transacitons and balances, while a second could show just the runnig balance of checking minus credit card. It takes one click to switch between calendars.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Lakedaisy
    Lakedaisy Member ✭✭✭
    Thank you jacobs. I'll continue to use the calendar in Qwin. Maybe at some day the programmers will improve Qmac to be aligned with the robustness of Qwin.
    Quicken user since 1986
  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Lakedaisy said:
    Thank you jacobs. I'll continue to use the calendar in Qwin. Maybe at some day the programmers will improve Qmac to be aligned with the robustness of Qwin.
    I think they work on that every day. ;) But there are so many big features and moderate features and fine points and nuances over 30+ years of development for Quicken Windows, it's just unlikely all the details will become equivalent anytime soon.

    Right now, there are many bigger holes to fill than an issue like this one, which can be worked around as I've described with a single click. As I've said above, I'm not diminishing or putting down your request, I'm just trying to be realistic about what issues the developers are likely to tackle over the next year or so. Yours is the first request I've heard for a specific feature like this, while there are probably many dozens of ideas which have more than 100 requests on this site. Unless they are doing other work on program changes to the calendar and happen to decide to fit this in while they're in the area -- which does happen from time to time -- I'd guess this would fall pretty far down on the list of current priorities for Quicken Mac development.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Lakedaisy
    Lakedaisy Member ✭✭✭
    Believe Quicken has been working on Qmac for about 15 years right? Maybe more. Don't really remember for sure. I started with Quicken DOS in the 80's

    Inelegant work arounds shouldn't be necessary for a Premium product.
    Quicken user since 1986
  • Lakedaisy
    Lakedaisy Member ✭✭✭
    Wow jacobs. What a great overview of the years. I had forgotten some of what you outline and there's some I didn't know. Did you work for Quicken back in the early 2000's? I tried the older Qmac's but there was never anything I liked. I've been running the new Quicken 2018/2019 for 2 years (in the background while still running and trusting Qwin.) Just updated to another 2 year subscription.

    Guess I'd call myself #3. Since I've been retired for over 10 years, I really only use Quicken for checking and Stocks and Options. Qwin2018/2019 can't handle Options correctly. I reported the problems several times. Qmac still can't handle buy/sell of Options correctly.

    I'm assuming Quicken's Mac user base was never large enough for them to devote serious resources to it. Looks like this may have changed with the new owners. Though not really sure since I have reported the errors in handling Options several times over the past 2 years and nothing has been corrected.

    I would agree that the current version of Qmac is so much better than anything Quicken has offered before.
    Quicken user since 1986
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