Allow “Transfers” to have a category

taswope

Hi,

I’ve been using Quicken to try to budget and control my finances since August last year. It’s been mostly a great experience.

I have a suggestion, which seem more like a discrepancy than a new feature request.

Could you please make it possible to categorize transfers?

Let me explain:
I have a budget with a line set up called “Auto Replacement.” When I get paid, I want to disperse $167 to “Auto Replacement” (which involves me transferring money from my checking account to my savings account).

When I create the transaction, the only way I know to transfer the money to savings is by selecting, for example, the category [Transfer: Savings].

This is technically an expense as far as my budget is concerned and as such, I want it to show in my budget that I spent that money on “Auto Replacement.”

There are several other lines in my budget for which I wish to do the same, but it looks like you can do only one or the other: categorize it as a transfer or the category that it is for the budget’s sake, but not both, as it is in reality.

I would like my transfer to savings to show up in my “Auto Replacement” category in my budget.

I hope my presentation of the issue is clear enough. Thanks for considering.

jacobs

Quicken Mac used to allow categorized transfers -- and still does if you hit the fields in the correct order -- but Quicken management has made it clear that they are getting rid of categorized transfers because they violate basic rules of accounting and can create misleading reports for users.

A transfer is not an expense, as you wrote above, although it may feel like one to you. A transfer is a movement of funds between accounts which generates neither income nor expense. It sounds like you are wanting to put aside money from your paycheck to save for a new car. The actual expense will occur when you purchase a new car; the transfer you're doing is simply moving money from a checking account to a savings account.

One of the changes the developers made last year is allowing you to include selected transfers in your budget -- and I think that will help you achieve what you want. Click on Edit Budget, and click on Select Categories. Scroll down to Transfers, and you'll see you can select transfers into or out of specific accounts to include as line items in your budget.