How do I do this for Category Groups...?

oldngrmpy1

Over the years we have saved $XX.XX a month and transferred it from out checking account, to each of 4 savings accounts for our children. Now we have an empty nest, The kids have used the money we set aside for them, for various things like help with home purchase, as a wedding gift, for a new car, or for whatever, after our acceptance of what they would spend it on. Now there's 4 empty savings accounts that we over the years we transferred money into, upon which time they took the money from. They are savings accounts, with various withdrawals,  but all are just transfers. What I'd like to do is put each one of the withdrawal transactions in to a specific Category Group, but the only Identifier I have for each of those transactions is tag that is "Spl Gift". How can I assign each of those transfer transactions into its own Category Group? I've just a 'block" on how to do this.

Chris_QPW

@TJ102

First off category groups are for grouping categories in a report, giving every transfer their own group doesn't make much sense, so seems that you are trying to use the wrong "tool for the job".

"They are savings accounts, with various withdrawals, but all are just transfers."

I'm confused at what you are doing here. Yes there should be transfers into those savings accounts for each kid, but the withdraws shouldn't be transfers.

If you take money out of XXX savings account and give it to your kid it isn't in any of your accounts, and as such should have been assigned a category not a transfer to some other account.

oldngrmpy1

Yea, it came out of my savings, and transferred to his savings so it's an expense to me, so I'm trying to use it in reports Category Group (Gift Charity) along with the other Gifts & Charity contributions I've given in 2019. It was a gift that instead of writing a check from my acct for, I just transferred it instead. Either  / or would be a - (minus) out of my account equivalent to an expense. I could use the tag, but I use that for the name of who I gave the gift to.

Jim_Harman

It sounds like you think of the gifts to your kids as money you have spent, i.e. money in the kids' accounts is not part of your net worth and the money they take out is not expenses that you track along with your other expenses. Also it sounds like you are tracking these accounts in the same Quicken file as your other accounts.

It this case I think it would be best to mark the kid's accounts as "Separate"  so that they will be excluded by default from your reports.

If you want to track your gifts as expenses, you can record them as withdrawals with appropriate Categories and corresponding deposits in the kids' accounts. The downside of this approach is that if you edit or delete one side of the transaction you must remember to make corresponding changes on the other side.

As far as categories and category groups are concerned, I would have a main category "Gifts" with subcategories "Charity" and "Kids" or something. It is important to keep these separate because charitable gifts are potentially tax deductible.

Scooterlam

If I understand the scenario correctly, you have 4 savings accounts that you transferred money into over the years.  From each of those accounts, your kids spent them down on various purchases or expenses.   Now, you would like to report on these "gifts to kids" as well as any other gifts you made over the year, from your original account. 

I assume that you are the owner of these 4 accounts at the FI.  And, you also mention that you "approve" the spending from the savings accounts.   What I am getting at here is that it still appears to be your money under your control (even though you have ear-marked it for a kid).

So, the way I would approach this is:

1.  The transfers you made to the 4 accounts are just that, transfers.  You still own the money and the spending approval.   Nothing has been spent yet.

2.  When your kid requests the money and you approve it...that then becomes an expense to you.   I would categorize that as a "gift given" and make a note in the memo of the purpose (wedding) and a tag as to whom it went to (Kid # 1).

3.  When reporting for gifts given (or charity or whatever), I ensure those 4 saving accounts are included in the account selection tab.  That way, all 5 (or more) accounts are tracking your gifting activity.

If you don't own these 4 accounts at the FI, then I would report the gift to your kids as an expense category (gifts given), memo it (Wedding)  and tab it (Kid # 1) and report on it using only the source account where the expense occurred (excluding the 4 savings accounts).

my approach!