Printing Category Names

kenterm

I have a report with specified categories. I need the category name to appear on the report even if there are no items in that category. How do I do this?

UKR

kenterm said:

I have a report with specified categories. I need the category name to appear on the report even if there are no items in that category. How do I do this?

Reports are transaction based, therefore if an existing category has no transactions within the selected Date Range (e.g., Year to Date), this category will not be shown in the report.

There is no customization option available to change that, AFAIK.

The only exception to this would be Budget - based reports showing all categories included in the budget, with or without transactions in the date range.

Frankx

Hi @kenterm,

To print a report of all your categories (by name) do this:
1) Go to "Tools" > "Category List";
2) Click on the "Show hidden categories" box at the bottom of the screen;
3) Click in the little "printer icon" at the bottom left hand side of the screen;
4) Click "Print"

That should do it.  Let me know if you have any followup questions.

Frankx

UKR

kenterm said:

I have a report with specified categories. I need the category name to appear on the report even if there are no items in that category. How do I do this?

Reports are transaction based, therefore if an existing category has no transactions within the selected Date Range (e.g., Year to Date), this category will not be shown in the report.

There is no customization option available to change that, AFAIK.

The only exception to this would be Budget - based reports showing all categories included in the budget, with or without transactions in the date range.

UKR

I forgot to mention that Budget - based reports can be customized to optionally show all Categories in the Category List, whether included in a budget or not.

kenterm

Thanks UKR. Handling the report as a budget solved the dilemma. One strange thing did happen though that you may also have the answer to.
I selected the income & expense categories and organized everything by Income & Expense in the display customization.
The report was correct except for one thing: The income categories were perfect. The expense categories started with Cable TV and ended with Telephone. BUT right after Telephone were the “Auto” & “Insurance” categories - Out of sequence.
These two categories are classified as expense items like all of the others. Do you have any idea why this is happening?

Thanks. - Ken

UKR

Ken,

look in the Category List. What Category Groups are you using for these categories? Are they different from the other expense categories?

By default, the budget view is organized by Category Groups, not necessarily in alphabetic order. In my budget, Personal Income comes first, then Personal Expenses. If I add Business categories, the groups would be ordered Business Income, Personal Income, Business Expenses, Personal Expenses.

kenterm

You led me right to the issue. I found the problem but do not know how to fix it. In customization, if I select only Personal Expenses and Personal Income in the Category Groups, the two offending categories disappear! If I then include the Non-Discretionary category then the two offending categories reappear. They are categories that I added when I set up the system just like the rest of the Personal Expenses that are displaying correctly. Can I change them from Non-Discretionary to Personal Expenses?

UKR

Yes, you can change the Category Group names in those two categories.

Edit the category from the Category List and overtype the Group Name. You may have to type it if the desired Group Name doesn't show in the pulldown selection list

kenterm

It all worked as you said it would. Thank you for all of your help. You do know this program!