Split transactions showing up in Tag Column

ksrothschild

Why are my split categories (which are already categorized in their own respective categories) are also showing up in the "Tag" column in my register. I prefer not to have the categorized transaction not showing up in the "Tag" column, but remain in the "Category" column. What can I do to turn this "option" off, if any. Thank you...

Tom Young

I guess I can only respond to your literal words:

"Why are my split categories (which are already categorized in their own respective categories) are also showing up in the "Tag" column in my register."

So I guess the answer to my question is "No."

Boatnmaniac

ksrothschild said:

Yes, Boatnmaniac described the scenario that I am having!!!

My point is why is there a need for the "--Split--" to show up in the Tag column and is redundant??? The Category column is sufficient enough for my split categories.

Any rationale why this is so??? Could the Quicken gods explain this unnecessary duplication??? Or am I missing out on something???

I do use tags for proper recording wherever applicable.

Thank you!!!

I wish I had a better answer for you but I don't understand the rationale, either.  At least if Quicken were consistent in this approach you'd think we'd also be seeing "--Split--" in the Memo field but that's not the case.

There are quite a few other quirky things in Quicken that make me raise my eyebrows but about which I can do nothing to change it.  So about the best advice I can give is to grin and bear it.

Boatnmaniac

You are welcome.

You can post ideas for Quicken Community and/or Quicken improvement at https://community.quicken.com/categories/community-improvement-suggestions. 

Quicken folks do review this list.  I know because one suggestion I'd made about a year ago was for Quicken to automatically select which securities lots to sell (FIFO or LIFO) based upon the default set by users in their preferences.  That change was implemented within the last few months so now when we sell a security it will automatically use that method instead of us having to manually select it during the transaction acceptance process.

Chris_QPW

For what it is worth I think that the reason that the memo field behaves differently than the category and tag fields is that the internal data structure is "surfacing".

You see this kind of thing in certainly places in programs and certainly in Quicken. For instance I would bet a lot that internally the database really does reused the category field for transfers.

The first guess is that internally there isn't a tag field.

Originally tags were entered like this: category/tag. And that still works everywhere in Quicken even when there isn't a tag field. If you enter it like that Quicken will "push" the tag to the tag field, but it is my bet that is just for display purposes. Most likely internally it has never changed. You will see the same thing in a QIF file. There is only one line for both categories and tags.

So now we only have one real internal field "category/tag". And it is again my bet that when you split the transaction they reuse the field as a pointer to the split data.

Note again the QIF format tends to bear this out. There is a field for the main memo, and fields for a memo on every split line.

Tom Young

Are you saying literally that if you Categorize a transaction as say, "Groceries", that "Groceries" is also showing up in the Tag column? 

As far as I know there's no option like that.  The Tag is a completely separate and distinct field in the Quicken database and is there to provide more "granularity" to classifying a transaction in a way that's meaningful to you. Clearly just repeating the Category in the Tag field doesn't do that.  My best guess would be that memorized transactions with this duplication are what you're seeing, though if that happens even with a new, never before used payee,  then that guess would be wrong. 

Boatnmaniac

If what you are seeing in the register Tag column is "--Split--" it is only a reference to the split categories.  When you bring your cursor over the "--Split--" in the Tag column it will show the split categories but not the tags themselves.

If you do use tags, then I know of no way to get Quicken to stop showing it this way.

If you do not use tags, click on the Gear icon at the top right of the register, then click on "Register Columns" and then uncheck "Tag".  Note that if you do this you will not see any tags in the register nor in the split categories popup.

ksrothschild

Yes, Boatnmaniac described the scenario that I am having!!!

My point is why is there a need for the "--Split--" to show up in the Tag column and is redundant??? The Category column is sufficient enough for my split categories.

Any rationale why this is so??? Could the Quicken gods explain this unnecessary duplication??? Or am I missing out on something???

I do use tags for proper recording wherever applicable.

Thank you!!!

Tom Young

I guess I can only respond to your literal words:

"Why are my split categories (which are already categorized in their own respective categories) are also showing up in the "Tag" column in my register."

So I guess the answer to my question is "No."

Boatnmaniac

ksrothschild said:

Yes, Boatnmaniac described the scenario that I am having!!!

My point is why is there a need for the "--Split--" to show up in the Tag column and is redundant??? The Category column is sufficient enough for my split categories.

Any rationale why this is so??? Could the Quicken gods explain this unnecessary duplication??? Or am I missing out on something???

I do use tags for proper recording wherever applicable.

Thank you!!!

I wish I had a better answer for you but I don't understand the rationale, either.  At least if Quicken were consistent in this approach you'd think we'd also be seeing "--Split--" in the Memo field but that's not the case.

There are quite a few other quirky things in Quicken that make me raise my eyebrows but about which I can do nothing to change it.  So about the best advice I can give is to grin and bear it.

ksrothschild

Thank you Boatnmanaic... I hope these Quicken personnel will see this and realize their misgivings, if any... is there a conduit for me to bring this thoughts up to these Quicken programmers??? Thanks a bunch, again!!!

Boatnmaniac

You are welcome.

You can post ideas for Quicken Community and/or Quicken improvement at https://community.quicken.com/categories/community-improvement-suggestions. 

Quicken folks do review this list.  I know because one suggestion I'd made about a year ago was for Quicken to automatically select which securities lots to sell (FIFO or LIFO) based upon the default set by users in their preferences.  That change was implemented within the last few months so now when we sell a security it will automatically use that method instead of us having to manually select it during the transaction acceptance process.

Chris_QPW

For what it is worth I think that the reason that the memo field behaves differently than the category and tag fields is that the internal data structure is "surfacing".

You see this kind of thing in certainly places in programs and certainly in Quicken. For instance I would bet a lot that internally the database really does reused the category field for transfers.

The first guess is that internally there isn't a tag field.

Originally tags were entered like this: category/tag. And that still works everywhere in Quicken even when there isn't a tag field. If you enter it like that Quicken will "push" the tag to the tag field, but it is my bet that is just for display purposes. Most likely internally it has never changed. You will see the same thing in a QIF file. There is only one line for both categories and tags.

So now we only have one real internal field "category/tag". And it is again my bet that when you split the transaction they reuse the field as a pointer to the split data.

Note again the QIF format tends to bear this out. There is a field for the main memo, and fields for a memo on every split line.