Category subtotals don't match line items

Spencer46

Have a situation where budget category subtotals are not matching the sum of the line item amount in that category. For example, in January 2021 in the Auto & Transport budget category the total for the month is $268, but the line items are Service & Parts $150, Gas & Fuel $150, and Car Wash $16 ($316 total). In February 2021, the budget category total for Auto & Transport is $1,311 but the line items for that category are exactly the same as January (totaling $316). Any ideas??

jacobs

This is typically because of either or both of two reasons: (1) You have selected the main category, and some but not all sub-categories to include in your budget. (2) You have entered a value in your budget for the main category which isn't the sum of the values you've entered for the sub-categories. 

Some weird things happen as you edit the budget if you add or remove sub-categories. If you remove a sub-category previously included in the budget, for instance, the main category total changes to the negative of the removed sub-categories(s). You need to go back to the main category and zero out the values; when you enter zero, Quicken will replace the zero with the sum of the sub-categories. 

If you want your budget to show some but not all sub-categories of a category, the key is to not include the main category in your selection of categories for the budget -- only check the sub-categories you want. In your budget, you'll see the total line is present and totals the sum of the selected sub-categories -- and it's italicized to let you know it is not the complete total of all sub-categories of this category.

Spencer46

Here is a screenshot showing the details.

jacobs

This is typically because of either or both of two reasons: (1) You have selected the main category, and some but not all sub-categories to include in your budget. (2) You have entered a value in your budget for the main category which isn't the sum of the values you've entered for the sub-categories. 

Some weird things happen as you edit the budget if you add or remove sub-categories. If you remove a sub-category previously included in the budget, for instance, the main category total changes to the negative of the removed sub-categories(s). You need to go back to the main category and zero out the values; when you enter zero, Quicken will replace the zero with the sum of the sub-categories. 

If you want your budget to show some but not all sub-categories of a category, the key is to not include the main category in your selection of categories for the budget -- only check the sub-categories you want. In your budget, you'll see the total line is present and totals the sum of the selected sub-categories -- and it's italicized to let you know it is not the complete total of all sub-categories of this category.

Spencer46

Thank you @jacobs , this may have been what caused the condition I was observing:

"Some weird things happen as you edit the budget if you add or remove sub-categories. If you remove a sub-category previously included in the budget, for instance, the main category total changes to the negative of the removed sub-categories(s). You need to go back to the main category and zero out the values; when you enter zero, Quicken will replace the zero with the sum of the sub-categories."

Zeroing out the values of the main category totals worked and all totals are now accurate.

This seems like a bug....hopefully it's in the backlog. Caused me many hours of unproductive time trying to figure out what was happening.

Thanks again for your help!