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Sub-accounts for Savings Accounts

JimReese

I would like to see an option added to create sub-accounts within a Savings Account, similar to what is done with sub-categories for expenses or income categories. For example, a single savings account might include the emergency fund, funds for the next car purchase, funds for a home improvement project, etc. Instead of having separate savings accounts for each of these at the same institution, one could have a single account and have Quicken track how much is allocated to each purpose. Overall account management, reconciling, etc, would be done with the main account, but I could deposit $1000 and allocate $300 to the car fund, $300 to the home improvement fund, and $400 to the emergency fund, all within the same account. It would make goals management easier.

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UKR

Quicken for Windows has a feature called "Savings Goals", something that still is missing from the Quicken for Mac version.

See this discussion / Idea for more details: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7333033/qmac-savings-goals-110-legacy-votes/p1

JimReese

Savings Goals seems like a good feature, but it's not what I was requesting. I'm not trying to "hide" money from the register balance. I want to see an option to create sub-categories within the savings account so it shows up the sidebar with the full account balance and the balance allocated to each sub-category (savings goal). Perhaps what you refer to works the same way, but it doesn't sound like it reading the information described in the link.

jacobs

Other than the savings goal feature described for Quicken Windows, what you're seeking sounds more like a concept called "envelope budgeting" (where you have separate "envelopes" or buckets for different types of spending, to compare versus a budget). Quicken doesn't work that way. The accounts in Quicken are designed to mirror real-world financial accounts, not budget or aspirational goals.

That said, I wonder if you could achieve most of what you want by applying Tags for each of the "sub-accounts" you described. you'd create tags for "Emergency fund", "Vacation Fund", "Car Fund", "Home Improvement Fund", etc. and attach these tags to both deposit and spending transactions as appropriate. (For your deposit of $1,000, you'd enter it as a deposit transaction, with split lines having different tags for the different fund amounts.) You wouldn't see the results in your left sidebar, but you could create a saved report based on the tags which would let you see where you stand with each "fund" at the click of a button.

DABrisson

JimReese, I came here looking for answers for your exact same question. I looked into Savings Goals and setting special tags. Both failed my requirements.
The idea of savings goals indicated a finish date. I want to use these sub accounts for escrow funds for home and vehicle insurance and taxes, which are reoccurring transactions in and out.
When I attempted to use tags to separate funds, I wasn't able to split tags in the same manner as you can split categories, so associating values with each tag could not be accomplished.

So, yes, I'd like to see sub accounts added to Quicken.

jsl7997

I'm looking for the same thing! I have 21 subcategories in my savings account. I can't even figure out how to make the tags work correctly. I took the initial deposit Quicken downloaded from my bank statement and split the transaction - each line being my savings account. Now how do I go back into that transaction and tag the 21 lines for each category?

db7133

Like others, I am also looking for saving sub accounts in Quicken. I know that some banks offer sub accounts, as I have seen them in action where I work. As a programmer for 40 plus years working on financial software and having to reconcile bank statements, I know this is possible. I am not an accountant but have worked with some for many years.

As a work around, I offer this until Quicken has a sub account feature. I am setting up several savings accounts. The first one is a normal savings accounts as the main account. Then there are any number of sub accounts, created as offline accounts as these accounts are not real account (they are virtual accounts). The set up another online savings account as a clearing account (more on that in a minute).
Enter a transfer from my checking account (direct deposit checking account) to as many sub accounts in one transaction (split items) with differing amounts. In the same transaction, enter the total amount of the transfer as a deposit into the main account (true account at the bank). The last split item is a negative amount to offset the main account deposit). Working from the checking account:

Transfer/Deposit to Savings (500.00)
Emergency fund 100.00
Insurance 50.00
Taxes 200.00
Vacation 150.00
Savings 500.00
Clearing Account (500.00)

The checking account is decreased, the savings account is increased along with the virtual accounts and the clearing account is decreased. So, we have a balanced transfer without over stating the amount of money in the banking accounts.

Each month, copy the transfer to create the transfer for the next month adjustment as needed. You can watch the sub account grow along with the main savings account each month. The clearing account is growing in reverse to keep the total money in the bank correct (not overstating the banking balance).

When the time comes to transfer the money back to cover the expense, remember to transfer from the correct sub account and the main savings account along with a positive clearing account amount. Working from the checking account:

Transfer/Deposit To Checking 700.00
Emergency fund (700.00)
Savings (700.00)
Clearing Account 700.00

There are two catches that I see. First, you must remember to have the main savings and the clearing account balance to zero. Second, that the virtual accounts must be manually reconcile including the clearing account. The main savings account can be reconciled by your normal method.

Happy envelope budgeting/escrowing your money.

jacobs

Anyone interested in this functionality should also visit another thread for Envelope Budgeting and add your vote. I believe these two requests are basically identical, but using different terminology -- "sub-accounts" and "envelope budget" -- to describe the same enhancement users are looking for.

Additionally, users who have come from Quicken Windows have asked for the Savings Goals feature of that product to be added to Quicken Mac. I haven't used that product, but I believe it serves much the same purpose as is being requested here. That topic has the most votes of the three, so you should visit that post and add your vote there as well.

garysmith87

I don't see how you could possibly reconcile your checking account if you're making fictional withdrawals to fictional sub accounts.

I also don't see how you can figure out an accurate current and future balance.

Personally, a simple Income/Expense report over a specified period of time can tell you if you have a net income or loss...without all the manipulations and chicanery.

Also, Quicken's Budget feature, set up correctly, can account for specific category allocations. If my auto insurance is $1200 a year, I can either allocate $100 a month in my budget or the entire $1200 when it is due. My choice. But wouldn't allocating $100 a month work?

My opinion, for what it's worth, is Savings Goals could probably be a welcome addition to Quicken Mac.

But I've never really been an "envelope budgeting" fan, in the strictest sense.

db7133

Questions asked: I don't see how you could possibly reconcile your checking account if you're making fictional withdrawals to fictional sub accounts.

I also don't see how you can figure out an accurate current and future balance.

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The answer to the first part, is you are making actual withdrawal/deposits. You are withdrawing from the checking account and depositing in the savings accounts just like any transfer from one bank account to another. The difference is you are adding additional items to the withdrawal to fund your virtual accounts with an offset to the clearing account. The virtual accounts increase as you virtually deposit amount and the clearing account is a virtual wash of the virtual accounts, so only the actual checking account and savings account are real.

For those that want/need a visual, the virtual accounts and clearing accounts are like the envelope budgets and the money is play/unreal money. Take the $500.00 in play money from the game and place in the individual envelopes. Only you are putting the real money in the savings account. When the time comes, take the play money out of the envelope to make expense payments virtually and place back into the game. Be sure to transfer the real money from the saving to the checking account.

So reconciliating the checking account and saving accounts are done as you normally would. The virtual account reconciliation is manual, so you just clean each transaction when you want to reconcile. These virtual accounts are not real.

As to the second part, you can watch the accounts increase when you have the account list opened and the balances shown. The balances of the virtual accounts increase as you deposit and decrease as you withdraw money.

You are correct that you cannot see the expected goals for the different virtual accounts.

I have never been a budget person, lived each month with the income/expenses as they came in. Looking at retirement with a fixed/less income reality has me thinking and planning differently. Looking to cut some expenses and do better money management.

This is not for everyone, just one way to work around a missing feature.

michaelpaschalmp

I vote for the creation of bar-visible sub-accounts, without association to budgets or envelopes, like what some banks have (e.g., Ally Bank). My particular application would be for tracking checking account deposits, held for multiple people.

mdavid

I also would love to see this a feature added for sub accounts within a savings account.

Divemaster

I am a Windows user, but would also like sub accounts under the checking. Now I use saving goals like sub accounts. Say I get a bid to build a shed, I put funds I expect to use from bid amount in a saving goal and then as I spend from checking I move from the shed building saving goal to checking. It works, but seems I should be able to have sub accounts under checking just like I can have sub categories. Quicken seems to spend all their efforts on keeping up with all the interfaces with the many financial/brokers. Being a retired programmer that would be a programming nightmare. Much easier being a handyman, just when I want to be.

raykolafa

I second the desire for subaccounts and will share my workaround.

First, some context. We allocate a certain amount per month for charitable contributions. My wife utterly enjoys donating to her favorite charities, so she handles the philanthropic side of our budget, while I love whisking excess cash off to investment accounts. From time to time, she doesn't give away the charity allocation as fast as I am investing excess cash, so we wind up in a bit of a cash crunch.

So, in Quicken, I created a checking account called "charity" and have a recurring, scheduled expense for our charity budget. This account only exists in Quicken. When the donations are actually made, I record it in Quicken as a transfer from the charity checking account back to the real checking account, since the actual expense has already been recorded in the charity account. When she doesn't give away money as fast as we budget it to be given away, the account goes negative. When I run Quicken reports to see how much excess cash I can invest, the negative charity checking account offsets the checking balance by the amount of charity contributions we budged for, but haven't yet given away.

I've essentially created a sub-account that I use to earmark money from our main checking account that has been budgeted for a donation, but hasn't yet been given away. This would probably work for other savings goals, but the only downside is seeing the account balance as a negative amount.

Mike_jMGS

I want sub-accounts for All asset and liability accounts. Credit cards, Investments, Debt, and Property accounts. Grouping them by family members, banks/providers, or any sub-types.

i.e., Spouse#1 (retirement): IRA1, IRA2, 401K & Spouse#2 (retirement): IRA1, Roth, IRA2 or House (total value): purchase, addition, major upgrades, appreciation; etc.

JED307

They have had this exact functionality in QuickBooks for over a decade. "Savings Goals" was a similar, but more cumbersome function what was in the Windows version for years. Im not sure if it still has it.

The Sub Account functionality for Bank Accounts is great feature in QuickBooks. I greatly miss it in Quicken Mac.

Sampapi

I would like to have sub-accounts available for all accounts (checking, savings & investments).

Is Quicken finally going to implement this functionality?

If not, I am seriously thinking of writing my own software to address this issue. As a retired IT professional, I do not consider this task very complex but it will take some time to do.

The interest rates payed by banks in Canada is pathetic, very low. I currently have a Wealthsimple cash account that pays 4.0% on the balance. There are also RBC mutual funds RBF2010 that give out 4.5% interest in a Registered investment accounts.

I would like to transfer my savings accounts from RBC to either a Wealthsimple cash account or a registered savings account and be able to split the account into different sub-accounts, which Quicken lacks this functionality. This would allow me to get benefit from a much higher interest rate than the banks currently provide.

jacobs

Is Quicken finally going to implement this functionality?

@Sampapi Quicken doesn’t ever say what they are going to implement when. This Idea thread has not been yet marked as “Planned” or “Under Consideration”, so the odds are this isn’t coming any time soon. I’d note that this Idea request has so far garnered only 12 votes, so that doesn’t place it very high on the list of features users are requesting here. They doesn’t mean it won’t get done; it’s just a clue that it may not be high on the priority list. (The developers get input from other sources than this forum.)

As for being easy to implement, I feel pretty sure it isn’t. Sub-accounts would require changes through every part of the program, from registers to reports to budgets to payee rules, etc., etc. Additionally Quicken Mobile would need to be revamped to support it, and because Quicken Mobile has to work with Quicken Windows as well, the Windows app would also need to support it. The concept might seem easy, but for a program and ecosystem with the complexity of Quicken, it’s not.

bob2021

+1 for sub accounts. That would be enormously helpful for me.

UKR

Using this example from an earlier comment in this discussion:

Transfer/Deposit to Savings (500.00)
Emergency fund 100.00
Insurance 50.00
Taxes 200.00
Vacation 150.00
Savings 500.00
Clearing Account (500.00)

Have you considered using Tags to achieve the desired results? This would work similar to sub-accounts, but is already available in both Quicken Mac and Windows.

Here's how the above example would look like in Quicken Windows (I don't have Q Mac. Sorry.)
The last two lines in the example are not needed here, because there's only one Transfer To Savings transaction with splits for each Tag. Additional helper accounts are not needed:

AFAIK, the same result can be achieved in Q Mac using Splits and Tags.

In my Savings account, the resulting transactions look like this:

In both accounts, the balance increases or decreases as desired, by $500.00
Note that both account registers are sorted by Date in descending order with newest transactions on top and prior transactions below. The Running Balance needs to be read from the bottom up towards the top.

Now that your transactions are tagged as desired, try reports and views by Tag to see the progress / results.

RedWolf06

Tags can work in a pinch, but having sub-accounts would be the right way to do this in my mind. It's like fund accounting. Just like we have categories and sub-categories for budgeting and tracking transactions, we should have accounts and sub-accounts for bunching our money (on paper) while not really messing with the actual account balance. One of the sub-accounts would be the default for the account and that's where all the transactions would download and sync to, but if we needed to move it to a sub-account we could, or we could split it. The big benefit of sub-accounts (i.e. Savings:Vacation, and Savings:Christmas) as opposed to tags, is I can easily manage transactions in the register, see my total for each bucket, and see the grand total for each account.

I use tags for a lot of other things which is good for tracking spending on specific projects (new bathroom reno), vacations (2025 Beach Trip), tax deductible transactions, etc. that may be coming from multiple accounts and I'll use those tags to choose where those funds are coming from manually when I pay off the cards. Having Tags to also track running totals in my accounts would get messy in a hurry.

I basically can't automatically import transactions for my single checking account or single savings account because I have separate "funds" in each of those accounts that are their own ledgers. For my Checking account I have an Operating Budget, My personal fund, Spouse personal fund, Kids fund, and Project fund. I use the "all transactions" screen limited to those funds to see the actual account reconciliation for my checking account which lines up with my bank website. I just pull up the bank on one screen, Quicken on the other, and manually enter transactions.

I started budgeting the Dave Ramsey envelope system a long time ago, and was doing it manually in AceMoney, so when I moved to Quicken, I just kept it that way. Old dog I guess… I suppose there may be a "proper" way to do this. When I asked my bank about adding a feature to separate my checking account into buckets or funds so I could do this on their website without needing something like Quicken their response was "just open multiple checking accounts" lol.