Quicken Community is moving to Single Sign On! Starting 1/22/21, you'll sign in to the community with your Quicken ID. For more information: http://bit.ly/CommunitySSO
Budget should include an (optional) "Everything Else" area for categories used that are not budgeted

Somebody posted this as a question. I think it is important as I could accidentally use an incorrect and unbudgeted category and there is nothing to tell me.
In Quicken Windows, everything that isn't budgeted for the month goes into the "Everything Else" area.
In Quicken Mac, this is not an option. Either I budget for every single category/subcategory, or those discretionary expenditures don't get counted in the budget.
Could this be changed so that transactions to categories not budgeted are displayed and the budget added at that time or the category can be "ignored".
[2 Merged Votes]
In Quicken Windows, everything that isn't budgeted for the month goes into the "Everything Else" area.
In Quicken Mac, this is not an option. Either I budget for every single category/subcategory, or those discretionary expenditures don't get counted in the budget.
Could this be changed so that transactions to categories not budgeted are displayed and the budget added at that time or the category can be "ignored".
[2 Merged Votes]
Tagged:
14
Comments
I like budgets but what happens when an expenditure is against a category not on the budget? Where does it show
Chris
There isn't a way to get categories to show in the budget screen that have not been added to the budget.
I was able to click on the actual amount for June and view the transactions for that month.
That took me to a report that showed spending for transactions that I didn't budget for, which is shown below.
There isn't a way to get categories to show in the budget window without them being added to the budget.
Hope this helps!
-Quicken Tyka
That is correct, if the category isn't listed in the budget the amount spent in that category won't be included in the budget summary screen.
Below, I have created a transaction with the category 'Example Utility'
In the edit budget screen this category hasn't been added.
When I click on the total for June in the budget screen, that $500 expense doesn't show because the budget hasn't been set to track the spending of that category.
Hope this helps!
-Quicken Tyka
While I appreciate the response I see this is a big hole in budgeting. In essence, from a total budget perspective, one cannot trust whether one is over or under budget. If the transactions don't show as you have explained, then why is there a total at all?
The software needs to be changed to pull in any category (including unassigned) that has a cost in the current period...period.
Chris
I do believe the budget is working as designed so there most likely won't be a change to how it currently functions, some people have a business and a personal budget and it wouldn't be useful to everyone if the budget wasn't able to be filtered.
I would suggest running a category summary report on all of the categories and accounts if you would like to see your total spending.
I would review https://www.quicken.com/support/learn-about-reports-quicken-mac and https://www.quicken.com/support/customizing-reports-quicken-mac
Let me know how it goes or you need further steps!
-Quicken Tyka
Monthly i run a report to see how my budget went.
If i miscategorize items to a non budgeted category, then it does not capture it as a spend.
In the advanced tab, i select Non-Zero Actual/Budgeted as an option, but then the totals are all wrong, and i cannot drill down on spending details Please fix this issue.
Quicken for Windows 2017 R16.2
Perhaps Quicken would/could recognize Chris' need as an
idea for future MAC version implementation. Consider, as Jerry
referenced below (for windows), an "everything else" category that can
be budgeted (or not) and capture these small, off-budget expenditures.
Joe,
If you are using Windows version of Quicken, you might try Jerry's suggestion. Also, here are a couple of threads describing how I use "everything else" (for QW).
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/everything-else-in-budgets?topic-reply-list[sett...
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/why-does-budget-add-a-planned-amout-to-everythin...
Scott
2018 QW HBR R10.11
As Scott suggested back nearer the beginning of the thread, it would be a good idea to create a new IDEA post to request the Everything Else feature in the Mac version, which would save time versus the work-around of doing a separate spending report and comparing it line-by-line with the budget.
I concur with Scott that it would a Great Idea to create an Idea post requesting the Everything Else category. BUT, he might not have to do that for I imagine the Development Team is proceeding with the Plan to (enhance -grin) the MAC Versions with the existing features of those found in the Window Versions.
Retired - former Computer System Analyst
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/idea-print-budget-feature-using-current-budge-st...
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/print-budget-fixes-in-qw2018r6-11-a-step-backwar...
Scott
2018 QW HBR R10.11
Whether this particular feature will be added to the budget section of Quicken Mac is unknown. We do know they are working on some significant changes to the budget part of the program, particularly to allow users to selectively include transfers (like loan payments or savings) in their budgets, and clues point to this coming in months, not years. Beyond that, we won't know what other budget feature changes there will be until they release something; Quicken rarely discusses future features.
And note that "Everything Else" is only on the "Graph View" and not on the "Annual View" or in reports, so it is also very inconsistently used.
Hopefully if it is implemented on the Mac will be implemented better.
Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community to ask your question, although I apologize for the late reply.
To add your vote, please navigate to the top of this post and click the up arrow.
Ideas are reviewed by our development team to see what people would like to be available in the future.
Thank you,
-Quicken Tyka
I also migrated all to Mac and not having an “everything else” category is a barrier for me that causes me to need to use it on PC, which I prefer not to.
You’ll make a lot of people happy!
You’ll make a lot of people happy!