Multi account transfer reminder

RobB

I make a monthly transfer that consists of three withdrawals grouped into one deposit. Is there a way to use a reminder that allows for this type of split?

Tom Young

Record the deposit in the "to Account" and split that deposit amount among the three "from Accounts."  A reminder set up that way should work.

RobB

Thanks Tom. There are three types of reminders: Income, Transfer, Paycheck, and Invoice. The transfer reminder allows only one "from" account.

RobB

I guess that is actually four types of reminders

Boatnmaniac

@RobB - I would set it up as an Income Reminder for the account that will receive the funds.  I've done that before and it worked well for me.

RobB

Thanks Boatnmaniac. I tried that. The Built in reports of the Rental Property tab then show that as income and the planning feature shows me getting rich based on all the income. Unfortunately, labeling transfers as income fools Quicken. Thanks for the idea though.
Rob

Boatnmaniac

So, you don't want to get rich, @RobB ? 

I'm not real familiar with your version of Quicken but in all other versions of Quicken most of the various reports and tools (including those on tabs) can be customized.  Is there a way to customize your reports to exclude transfers?

Chris_QPW

RobB said:

Unfortunately, labeling transfers as income fools Quicken. Thanks for the idea 

It is impossible to label transfers as income using a reminder.
You have income and expense categories, and you have transfers.

The fact that you used an income reminder has no bearing on what type of category/income or expense or if it is a transfer or not.

Whether you use a income or bill or a transfer reminder only sets up putting a transaction into the register.

An Income reminder assumes that you are making a deposit, as in it puts in a positive amount in say a checking account.
A bill reminder assumes that you are making a withdraw, as in it puts in a negative amount in say a checking account (even though you are typing in positive numbers).
A transfer reminder does what its name implies as far as what kind of transaction ends up in the account.  And as you have seen both an income and bill reminder can be used for a much more flexible transfer reminder by just using the [Account] syntax in the category to record it as a transfer (or lines in a split in this case).

What makes the transaction income or expense is what category you assign to it.
And in the case of a transfer it is neither.

In the split of of the Income or bill reminder you can even override the sign for a given reminder.  Say I start with a bill reminder and put in 100.00 and then select split. It will show -100.  I can then change that to 100.00 and hit Adjust.  And when that transaction is put into a checking account it will be positive (payment) of 100.00 (it will show as a -100 on the Manage Income and Bill reminder window).

I'm also not very familiar with the Rental Property usage either, but this part can't be "changed" it is fundamental to how Quicken works.  So if these transfers are showing up as income in some tab then I suspect that ANY transfer into that type of account will be treated as income, provided that it is "money into the account" and not withdrawn.

Chris_QPW

I found a Quicken 2014 RPM version and installed it. and looked at this.
And I believe you are talking about the Profit/Loss and The Cash Flow.   And at least in the Quicken 2014 version about the only thing you can customize it which account you select. And in this case "Income" and "Expense" all about what gets deposited and and withdrawn.

@Boatnmaniac these views are like the "In/Out/What's Left" "widget" that you can add to your Home tab.

Looking at the both of these views transfers are "invisible" to them, so I suspect that you aren't using transfers, instead you are recording categories into the business account(s).

Did you record the split lines like like this?

RobB

Thank you @Chris_QPW for your feedback. I'm actually using the current version of Quicken for Windows, subscription. You are correct that a transfer cannot be categorized, but an income reminder shows up as income in the planning tab. I've tried to us the expense reminder and change the sign to a negative and quicken gives a pop up box with the message that I do not need the negative and automatically changes the sign back for me. So I've tried these adaptions and each time quicken stymies my efforts. What is the best way to request an enhancement to quicken?

Thanks again,
Rob

RobB

Thanks @Boatnmaniac. The "Home, Business & Rental Property" version of Quicken has some tabs with prefilled calculations for profit and loss, cash flow, and projected balances. These are hard coded and I cannot alter them. I realize that reports can be altered somewhat, so I may have misspoke when I said report, these are hard coded screens that provide good info at a glance provided I stay within the narrow guidelines of Quicken.

Chris_QPW

@RobB To request an enhancement just post it as an "Idea".  That will get a thread with a Vote button on it (you can vote for your own idea).


Note on the Income reminder, yes you can't enter a negative amount in the main amount field.  But if you select split, you can enter whatever sign you want for each split line, and that can add up to a negative value.

Basically what is happening here that you are using a "wizard" that is "trying to help" by expecting that people don't know how to put the proper sign in front of the amount and as such it starts with a "concept" Income or Bill and then the user is expected to enter "non signed" values that line up with hat "concept".  But underline the system is really just one kind of reminder that uses the signs.

Its just like the debate on should people use the Amount column (and used a signed number) or use Credit and Debit columns with unsigned numbers.