Different results for a custom report between Quicken for PC and Quicken for Mac

kv0rmwald

I'm migrating from Windows to Mac. All worked perfectly except for a custom Tag report which produces different results between the PC Quicken and the Mac Quicken. The PC Quicken report shows all transactions where e.g., Tag = Misc including account transfers and bill payments. The Mac Quicken report seems to only show transactions where Tag = Misc and the transaction is a check. It doesn't report transfers between accounts nor electronic bill payment transactions and thus is of little value. Is there a way to create a "Tag=value" report that includes every single transaction in an account regardless of the type of transaction where the Tag = value?

jacobs

I probably should have thought to ask this earlier: which report are you using? 

The reason I ask is that the reports in Quicken Mac are in an odd transitionary state with some "old reports" using an old reports engine that was passed down from the 2010-era predecessor program Quicken Essentials. The reports in the bottom section of the Reports menu are the "old reports." The Category Summary report in particular has been observed by users to have some bugs which cause some transactions to be omitted.

The developers have been working for several years on building a completely new reports engine to add flexibility users have asked for. These are the reports you get from "Create xxx Report…" on the Reports menu. The new reports allow much more customization, and the transaction reports have no known problems with omitting data. If you're using the old Category Summary report, please try re-creating your report using Create Transaction Report or Create Summary Report and see if that solves the mystery of missing transactions. Report back on whether that helps or not.

jacobs

Until recently, Quicken Mac reports for income and expenses did not include transfers between accounts, intentionally, since they are neither income nor expense. But users want some reporting on a cash flow basis, and the developers are in the process of allowing that.

In the latest release, it's possible to specify a report on a cash flow basis, and to specify whether to include all transfers or just transfers with accounts not selected for inclusion in the report. you find these settings on the Advanced tab in the report's Customize window. But -- and it's unfortunately a big but  -- this only works currently on Summary ad Comparison reports, not on Transaction detail reports. (The product manager has said this will be added for Transaction reports in a future release.)

kv0rmwald

Thanks for the quick reply. What I've observed though is that a Tag=Value transaction report from Quicken for Mac really doesn't provide even an accurate report on income and expenses. In addition to it not including account transfers, it also doesn't include Bill Payments (which are expenses) nor does it include EFT transactions such as automated withdrawals from my checking account (which also are expenses). It seems to only include transactions that have a check number associated with them. Which is interesting too in that the Bill Pay transactions do have an associated reference number in the check number field, yet they are still skipped in the report. I hate the idea that I may have to keep my Quicken for PC synchronized with the Mac version just to support running my Miscellaneous Transactions report. I'm hoping I can come up with a solution that will work in my new Mac version.

jacobs

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about bill payments not being included in reports. If I pay a tax bill by writing a check, that's an expense, and it's included in reports like any other expense. If I pay my utility bill by EFT withdrawal from my checking account, that, too, is an expense and shows up in reports. But if I pay my credit card bill, that's a transfer to my credit card account, and is not an expense, because the expenses have already been recorded as the individual transactions in the credit card account. I'm not aware of how a check number, or absence thereof, has any bearing on what's included in or omitted from a report. 

kv0rmwald

Hey, thanks for your interest, I appreciate your time. What I meant by bill payments are the scheduled bill payments made by Quicken sending instructions to my bank to make the electronic payment to e.g., my electricity provider or cable TV provider, etc. They show up in Quicken with a reference number in the check # field (probably provided by my bank). I then add the Tag=Misc to the transaction. But the transactions do not show up in my Tag=Misc custom report. The EFTs are like a withdrawal pulled from my checking account or say interest added to my checking account by my bank. They have a NULL check # and even though I've added Tag=Misc, they do not get pulled into the report. Because the only records that do show up in the report are those with a check#, I tried adding "EFT" in the Check# field to see if that would help, but to no avail. The only transactions I see in my Tag=Misc report are those associated with a written check. Maybe I still don't have this Tag=Misc custom report configured correctly in Quicken and that's the holdup.

jacobs

I probably should have thought to ask this earlier: which report are you using? 

The reason I ask is that the reports in Quicken Mac are in an odd transitionary state with some "old reports" using an old reports engine that was passed down from the 2010-era predecessor program Quicken Essentials. The reports in the bottom section of the Reports menu are the "old reports." The Category Summary report in particular has been observed by users to have some bugs which cause some transactions to be omitted.

The developers have been working for several years on building a completely new reports engine to add flexibility users have asked for. These are the reports you get from "Create xxx Report…" on the Reports menu. The new reports allow much more customization, and the transaction reports have no known problems with omitting data. If you're using the old Category Summary report, please try re-creating your report using Create Transaction Report or Create Summary Report and see if that solves the mystery of missing transactions. Report back on whether that helps or not.

kv0rmwald

Thanks for your help - that was certainly the issue! I re-created the report as you suggested and now it pulls in both the EFT transactions, the Bill Pay transactions and the banking transactions such as interest income. The only transactions not included were the account transfers as you mentioned in your first reply. And those I can live without. Fantastic. And also, if you do get a chance to talk directly to the Quicken PMs, do let them know that I am enjoying the Mac version a lot and that the Quicken conversion from the PC to the Mac was virtually seamless. 91 accounts and 37,000 transactions and it tied out completely.

jacobs

Great! Glad it's working now. I wish they would hurry up and get rid of the old Category Summary report, because it clearly has bugs and gives no indication to users that there's a better version of the same report. And hopefully they'll add the ability to optionally include transfers in the Transaction report, as they recently added for the Summary and Comparison reports, in the near future.