Spending over time

Unknown

Greetings, I'm running a Spending Over Time report which should be exactly what I need to show me sending trends over the last year. However, neither my house payment (principal) nor my car payment are showing up in the breakdown. therefore, I assume they are not included in the total amount either. Both the house and car were set up as loans so I could track them, do what-if, etc. That means I'm doing a transfer each month when I make the payment. I've read to get Transfers to you have to customize, click Advanced, and show transfers. That option does not exist for the Spending Over Time report. I guess I can download into Excel and set up what I need there, but that kind of defeats the purpose for having a report that shows you spending, but REALLY doesn't. thoughts? anyone?

jacobs

@NotACPA  "Spending Over Time" is an older-generation report in Quicken Mac which doesn't have the features built into the new reports engine that newer reports use. Asa a result, Spending Over Time does not have the "Advanced" tab on the Customize screen to change this report to a cash flow basis.

@sloeffler  If you want cash flow by month over the past year, the solution is to not use the Spending Over Time report for the reason above. Instead, try Create Summary Report, with Row=Category, Column=Time, and Interval=Month. On the Customize screen, let the date range to This Year or Last 12 Months or whatever time period you want. Then click on the Advanced tab, and change Organization from Income & Expense to Cash Flow, and set Transfers to Show All Transfers. 

Now the report will show all your transfer in and out. But that's probably still not quite what you want, because you probably don't want to see transfers like credit card payments. So make one more set of tweaks to the report. Go to Customize and click on the Accounts tab. Click to Include only transactions from selected accounts, and deselect your loan accounts. Click back on the Advanced tab and change the Transfers setting to Include only transfers with accounts outside of report. So now, the report won't show transfer to your credit car, because that's an account included in the report, but it will show transfer to your loan accounts, because they are not included in the report. If I correctly understood what you are looking for, this gives it to you.

NotACPA

The Principal portion of any loan payment is NOT an expense ... it's a transfer to reduce the amount owed.  The expense was when you originally made the purchase and took out the loan.  If you counted the Principal as an expense, you'd be counting the expense of that purchase twice.

It sounds like you report is "Income & Expense" based.  See if you can find a "Cash Flow" based report and adapt it.

Unknown

So, I talked to Quicken support who tells me Spending Over Time will not show transfers because Quicken doesn't consider it spending, but more of a left pocket right pocket thing. I get their explanation, but when I set up the car loans and mortgage I set them up as loans so I could track them and do what-if analysis on extra payments and see amortization tables. I don't think I can do that if it's a liability account - can I? so on one hand they force me to set my accounts one way to have functionality, but on the other hand I can see it as spend. Anyone?

NotACPA

A "Cash Flow report" will include transfers.  Because the cash is flowing/moving from checking to your loan account.

It will also include your other expenses.

jacobs

@NotACPA  "Spending Over Time" is an older-generation report in Quicken Mac which doesn't have the features built into the new reports engine that newer reports use. Asa a result, Spending Over Time does not have the "Advanced" tab on the Customize screen to change this report to a cash flow basis.

@sloeffler  If you want cash flow by month over the past year, the solution is to not use the Spending Over Time report for the reason above. Instead, try Create Summary Report, with Row=Category, Column=Time, and Interval=Month. On the Customize screen, let the date range to This Year or Last 12 Months or whatever time period you want. Then click on the Advanced tab, and change Organization from Income & Expense to Cash Flow, and set Transfers to Show All Transfers. 

Now the report will show all your transfer in and out. But that's probably still not quite what you want, because you probably don't want to see transfers like credit card payments. So make one more set of tweaks to the report. Go to Customize and click on the Accounts tab. Click to Include only transactions from selected accounts, and deselect your loan accounts. Click back on the Advanced tab and change the Transfers setting to Include only transfers with accounts outside of report. So now, the report won't show transfer to your credit car, because that's an account included in the report, but it will show transfer to your loan accounts, because they are not included in the report. If I correctly understood what you are looking for, this gives it to you.