Notes on Budgets (Q Mac)

ongosslake

Is there a way to put notes on budgets? When I have very unusual expenses, I would love to put down explanatory notes. For example, if I receive unexpected income for a month, I would be able to write a note about the actual reason for the unexpected income. I realize I can add detail through category choice and in the memo, but I would love a more all-inclusive ability to take budget notes for each month. It would be very helpful in future planning.

jacobs

@ongosslake  No, there is no place in the Quicken budget for you to enter notes. There is an existing Idea thread requesting this functionality, and I encourage you to click on this link [CORRECTED LINK: click here] to add your vote and add your comment about what you'd like to see and how you would use it. The more votes Idea topics get, the sooner they are passed to the development team; the comments help the developers understand why customers want the feature and expect to use it. 

jacobs

@ongosslake  No, there is no place in the Quicken budget for you to enter notes. There is an existing Idea thread requesting this functionality, and I encourage you to click on this link [CORRECTED LINK: click here] to add your vote and add your comment about what you'd like to see and how you would use it. The more votes Idea topics get, the sooner they are passed to the development team; the comments help the developers understand why customers want the feature and expect to use it. 

Chris_QPW

I would like to point out that link is to a Windows Idea thread.  Might need another for Quicken Mac.

jacobs

@Chris_QPW Thanks!

@ongosslake Oops, yup, that was the wrong link. There's only one I'm aware of for adding notes/comments to a budget for Quicken Mac… trying again… click here.

Add your vote and your comment, either for this proposed way to do it or any alternate way you think might be better or more helpful.

Wind_Woman

[SORRY COMMENTING ON AN OLDER DISCUSSION]

No Budget Notes Available. Drat! --Solution(s)

I too have long wished that there was a way to add notes in Quicken Budgets entries. I don't like having to keep an excel file to remind me what the one-off budget items are. Yucko!

For example: I have category AUTO. Expenses in that Category= Fuel (monthly- $60) and Buy New Tires ($1000, March 2022). <-- I would like a way to make note of what the $1000 was for when I wrote my Budget. {ONGOSSLAKE... keep reading. }

FOUND SEVERAL SOLUTIONS:
- You could add a 'once' Reminder, since reminders show in the Budget Actuals data. But this is a little clunky to me, since I may not know the vendor or account I will use for the actual expense.
- WHAT WORKS BEST FOR ME: I created a 'CASH- Budget Notes' account just for providing information on one-off budget items. This gives me an easy place for making note of all the expenses I might forget. The account entries show as Budget Actuals and they remain in one easy-to-read and modify place! TIP: When creating the rows in the account, put a unique 'Payee' so that it's easy to tell it's in the Budget Notes and you can remove it when the true purchase is in your account register. For example from scenario above: 'b Van Tires'.

ONGOSSLAKE'S EXAMPLE- Create a CASH ACCOUNT row with 1cent (so it shows in Budget screens) and make your notes. Exclude that Account from reports and it won't mess with your number crunching.


PS- I have used the same 'CASH account' trick to fix short-comings and oversights of how the Tax Planner functions. For example, I make significant non-cash donations which are tax deductions. Since those donations is not a cash transaction, they are not in my account registers, meaning that the Tax Planner is always inaccurate. SOLUTION: When I make a donations to Goodwill, I use It's Deductible to get the estimated value of all the items for that days donation. I enter this amount in a 'CASH- Tax Log', using categories which are linked to the tax form lines. This makes my Tax Planner data more accurate and my reports more inclusive! Yahoo!