Why does "memo" show up for "number" for credit card and cash transactions in spending report ?

Phil Burton

I have yearly spending reports for each major expense category. These reports include checking, credit card, and cash accounts. The reports include the "number" column, which is relevant only for the checking account and should be blank for all credit card and cash accounts. However, for some transactions, the number column has the text "memo." When I go to the actual transaction in the account register, I can't see any way to eliminate this text.

I use some of these reports to justify tax deductions and I don't want to confuse the IRS. How can I get rid of this text?

UKR

You're saying that you use "POS" and "memo" to earmark certain transactions in a checking account.

But you also have similar transactions in other account types.
If you have just added the Reference # column to these registers, to make the text visible, you can now delete the unwanted text, either by editing each transaction and blanking out the unwanted text one at a time, or by using Edit / Find/Replace to (very carefully!) select the transactions you need to change and then replacing Check # with [press space bar]

If you use memorized transactions using the same Payee Name in both checking and credit card accounts and you want "POS" or "Memo" to only appear in transactions in the checking account ... there's nothing you can do to prevent that from happening in the future. There's only one memorized transaction per Payee Name. You'd have to remember to blank out the Reference # field in the credit card transaction before you save it.

Is that what you're asking about?

Bob_L

Could be corruption with the particular transactions.  Have you tried deleting and re-entering the transaction.  

UKR

Where a Checking account has a "Check #" column, credit card and other account types have a "Reference #" column which is used just like the Check #. Add this column to your registers.

If that doesn't shed light on the issue ...
Can you please capture one or more images of the parts of your Quicken window showing the issue, sensitive information blacked out as necessary to protect your privacy but annotated to describe the situation, and attach the image(s) here?
The Windows Snipping Tool (available with Windows 7 and up) can be used to capture a partial screen image and save it to a file.  Microsoft Paint can be used to annotate the image.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13776/windows-use-snipping-tool-to-capture-screenshots
To take a screenshot in Mac please see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201361
Please create image files of type PNG, JPG or GIF only.
To attach the image here, start composing your reply in the "Type your comment" box at the bottom of this webpage. Drag and drop the image or, at the top of the text entry window you'll see a row of icons possibly beginning with B I S
Click the "Attach image" icon (the one that looks like a tiny landscape with mountain and sun). It will allow you to select and upload the captured image file(s) from your computer. The captured image(s) will be inserted at wherever the cursor is located in the text.

Phil Burton

UKR,

Thank you for responding. I really appreciate the help. I've attached 3 screenshots. With "creative" adjustment of the column margins in the Quicken report and tight cropping, there was no reason to actually black out anything.

The first image shows a range of transactions for a credit card account. Note that some of the charge items have no "num" text, some have "memo" and some have "POS." I use both the POS and memo as the "number" in in some checking account transactions. However, even when I limit the report to just this one credit card account, I still get that unwanted text.

The second and third images are for transactions from my "cash" account. There were only 3 such transactions for this spending category in 2019, but they all had either the memo or POS text. I had to do 2 screenshots so as not to expose the spending category, which is confidential.

If you need me to run variations on this report, I will be happy to do so.

UKR

You're saying that you use "POS" and "memo" to earmark certain transactions in a checking account.

But you also have similar transactions in other account types.
If you have just added the Reference # column to these registers, to make the text visible, you can now delete the unwanted text, either by editing each transaction and blanking out the unwanted text one at a time, or by using Edit / Find/Replace to (very carefully!) select the transactions you need to change and then replacing Check # with [press space bar]

If you use memorized transactions using the same Payee Name in both checking and credit card accounts and you want "POS" or "Memo" to only appear in transactions in the checking account ... there's nothing you can do to prevent that from happening in the future. There's only one memorized transaction per Payee Name. You'd have to remember to blank out the Reference # field in the credit card transaction before you save it.

Is that what you're asking about?

Phil Burton

Yes, that is exactly what I was asking about and yes, your explanation was completely on target. Easy and quick to fix, and it removes an "annoyance" with reports that I have to show my accountant.