Should I use one or two categories for related transactions?

Joe Sandfort

I have a basic understanding of how categories work in Quicken, but would like advice on what is the best way to assign categories to transactions that are related to each other. I realize that this is more of a philosophical question, but would still really appreciate your thoughts. I am the volunteer Treasurer of a small nonprofit group that raises money for our local library. Our group for example, has a plant sale each year. Each year, the plant sale usually makes about $8,000 and has expenses of about $1,000. My current method is to have an income category called "Plant Sale Income" and an expense category called "Plant Sale Expenses". When I run a yearly report, Plant Sale Income appears in the Income section as $8,000 and Plant Sale Expenses appears in the Expense section as $1,000. Several Board members have asked me to have just one category called "Plant Sale " in which all transactions, both income and expenses would be entered. Their thought is that they would have to look at one entry (Plant Sale) to find out how successful the Sale was instead of having to subtract the expense entry from the income entry. Which is considered the standard practice -- the two entry or one entry system? Which system would the people in the Quicken Community use in my situation? Thank you very much for your help.

Rocket J Squirrel

Have a top-level category Plant Sale. Create 2 subcategories under it, Income & Expenses. Then when your distribute your report, it will satisfy everyone by showing both the breakdown and the net.