Are reports supposed to update or does the user have to generate new reports?

tvpro@

I'm creating a category report for a category called Home:Construction:Garage. I looked at it today and saw that the last entry was in January, though I made some purchases today and added them to the category. Do reports like these update as entries are added to them, which is what I would expect? Or does the user have to regenerate a new report each time?

Is there such a thing in Quicken as a running report that updates as entries are added that meet the criteria, like a smart report?

Thanks very much.

tvpro@

Apparently categories that are in splits are not included in category reports. Is that really the case? Is there some setting to have reports look in splits? Basically I have to go through each account to make sure nothing is missed.

tvpro@

I guess to the first problem you set a report for some date well into the future.

tvpro@

And to the second one, it looks like the software can look in splits for Home:Construction, but not for a further subcategory. At least that's what I'm seeing as I try different procedures.

jacobs

Reports do update in real-time -- as long as you're not using one of the "old reports" (the ones with a gray icon in on the Reports screen. the old reports need to be closed and re-opened to refresh; the majority of the reports which use the new reports engine do update any time you enter or edit and entry.

You can have multiple levels of sub-categories and they will be reported correctly in reports. Whether the category is in the main transaction or a split shouldn't matter.

Here's a single $20 transaction which is a split between two different categories: one is a second-level subcategory (Auto:Parking&Tolls:Parking) for $5 and the other is a first-level sub-category (Dining:Meals Out) for $15:



A transaction report properly shows all the category levels of these split lines:


And yes, you do need to check the date range you specified when you create a report. The default when you open most reports is Yet To Date. If you leave Quicken open and the report open, the data won't update when the date changes -- but if you close the report and re-open it on another day, it will reflect the then-current date. (That is, if create a YTD report today, and I enter a transaction dated tomorrow, the transaction won't show up in the report today. But it I launch Quicken and open the report tomorrow, it will be included the report.) In the case of your report, what is the date range specified? If it's something like This Month or Last Month, you'll obviously get different results when you open the report in February compared to when you opened it in January. But if you used Year to Date, or This Year, then the report should accurately pick up the transactions you entered today.

tvpro@

Thank you very much for this great explanation.

I'm seeing the default report as Year to Date. If I need to bridge a year for a project that began last year, I change the start date, which sets custom dates. That seems to lock in the end date as today's date. I set the end date for the end of the year.

I'll have to experiment with splits as the subcategory items for ATM withdrawals didn't seem to work.

Thanks again. It's very much appreciated.

jacobs

You're correct: as soon as you switch to custom dates, there is no longer the ability to apply a variable ending date (such as YTD). So if you need to specify a specific starting date, then you'll need a specific ending date. If it's an ongoing project, you could just enter 12/31/2030 so it will pick up new matching transactions indefinitely.

If you still have problems getting your subcategories to show up in your report, post back showing both the set-up of the category in the Category list and a portion of your report showing it failing to do what you expect.