Budget does not include credit card charges, plus one other item (Q Mac)

Richard2021

Good Morning from Portugal,

1. I can't find anywhere how to designate the accounts that make up the budget.
2. how do I enter a positive amount in the check register? Currently I have to enter the amount and then go back and delete the minus sign.

Thank you 🙏

jacobs

Richard2021 said:

how do I enter a positive amount in the check register? Currently I have to enter the amount and then go back and delete the minus sign.

The other alternative to what John posted is that you can enable two columns, for money in and money out, instead of the single, signed Amount column. To do this in your checking register, click the Columns button in the bottom toolbar, uncheck Amount, check Payment, and check Deposit. Now you can always enter positive numbers for every transaction, putting the amount in either the Deposit or Payment field.

I happen to like this approach, probably because of years of using accounting software with separate debit and credit fields. I find it harder to mess up.  But some users don't like using the space required for two columns, so the single Amount column is a way to save space the register. It's a personal preference, and fortunately Quicken lets each user choose. (And you can choose on a register by register basis.)

John_in_NC

You still haven't noted if the checking and other accounts are different currencies as setup in each account's Settings. That will definitely affect which accounts it pulls transactions from.

Also, transfer transactions will not show up in budgets in Quicken 2017.

How you categorize transactions (i.e. if you use sub categories) and how you select them to track in Quicken also affect behavior.

Investment accounts are also not included in 2017 budgets. 

Without being there, it is difficult to diagnose. But, the above are the usual suspects.

John_in_NC

For the budget, look at the lower left of the budget window. You have buttons to select which accounts and categories to draw from:



As for making a positive number, that is easy: simply hit the +sign before the amount, and that overrides the category's default sign (be it expense (-) or income (+).

It works the same way if you want to make an income category negative-simply hit the negative key before the amount.

Richard2021

Thank you. I don't have this option. In the Edit Budget page, at the bottom there is only a Select Categories button. There is no option at all on the Budget page itself.

Got the + sign to work.

John_in_NC

You didn't mention which version of Quicken, but that really doesn't matter as if you if you didn't have that button such as older versions, then it included all cash and credit accounts. 

If you have mixed currencies (likely since you are in in Europe), then a Budget will only draw from a single currency. On the newer versions, the currency setting is at the top of the window. On older versions of Quicken, it will setup the budget based on what currency your Mac is in settings. The budget will only draw from that currency.  

jacobs

Richard2021 said:

how do I enter a positive amount in the check register? Currently I have to enter the amount and then go back and delete the minus sign.

The other alternative to what John posted is that you can enable two columns, for money in and money out, instead of the single, signed Amount column. To do this in your checking register, click the Columns button in the bottom toolbar, uncheck Amount, check Payment, and check Deposit. Now you can always enter positive numbers for every transaction, putting the amount in either the Deposit or Payment field.

I happen to like this approach, probably because of years of using accounting software with separate debit and credit fields. I find it harder to mess up.  But some users don't like using the space required for two columns, so the single Amount column is a way to save space the register. It's a personal preference, and fortunately Quicken lets each user choose. (And you can choose on a register by register basis.)

Richard2021

Thank you jacobs. Much easier 🤗

Richard2021

John, I don't have the option of choice of accounts, but it also only pulls from checking. I'm using Quicken 2017 4.8.6. I haven't upgraded because I don't want to use the cloud or pay the annual fee :(.

Richard2021

BTW, I'm only budgeting in one currency.

jacobs

Richard2021 said:

I don't have the option of choice of accounts, but it also only pulls from checking. I'm using Quicken 2017 4.8.6. I haven't upgraded because I don't want to use the cloud or pay the annual fee .

Yes, the ability to select which accounts to include in a budget was added more recently than Quicken 2017. It's one of those improvements that the subscription fees pay to fund. )

But John's correct that the budget in the older versions would pull from all accounts. I just fired up my old copy of Quicken 2017, and the budget is definitely pulling in actual spending from my checking and credit card accounts.

P.S. the current Quicken doesn't use the cloud any more or less than Quicken 2017. It's still the same desktop-used program as it has been all along. You can utilize some cloud services if you download transactions, or want to use the mobile app or web interface, but you can enter transactions manually if you wish (I enter most of my transactions manually), and if you don't enable the cloud sync services, none of your data is store in the cloud. The change in pricing to an annual subscription did not turn Quicken into a cloud-based program.

Richard2021

Well, this is a mystery. I have version 4.8.6 and it only pulls from checking.

John_in_NC

You still haven't noted if the checking and other accounts are different currencies as setup in each account's Settings. That will definitely affect which accounts it pulls transactions from.

Also, transfer transactions will not show up in budgets in Quicken 2017.

How you categorize transactions (i.e. if you use sub categories) and how you select them to track in Quicken also affect behavior.

Investment accounts are also not included in 2017 budgets. 

Without being there, it is difficult to diagnose. But, the above are the usual suspects.

Richard2021

Thank you. Problem solved! The new credit card account I set up selected $ instead of Euros, so naturally it didn't pull. Thank you very much for your perseverance 🙏