Fixed and Discretionary Expenses (Q Mac Budgets)
The user should be able to do the classification themselves. Of course, being able to include the classification field in reports would also be helpful.
Thank you....love the Mac version...i switched from Windows and have never looked back...
Comments
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Yes, please. Then the budget should allow you to quickly show or hide fixed expenses so that they don't clutter the full view when you're managing discretionary expenses.4
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This would also be very helpful in tracking the difference expense types for tax and budgeting purposes.2
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Yes, missing this from Windows version.2
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Sounds the same as Category Groups capability from QWin. This is a key budgeting capability for me that was lost when I transitioned to QMac.
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Yes, being able to see Fixed vs Discretionary (which can go by other names, depending on repeated dates, repeated amounts, etc.) is one attribute I consider Urgent and Important.
BTW, unlike some, I never used Quicken/Windows — my antecedent is Quicken/DOS.
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That is exactly what it should be, not just "Fixed or Discretionary" I believe in the distant past Quicken Windows had these two "category groups" as defaults, but then moved past that to generic category groups.
Both this Idea and this one:
Are really the same thing in the Quicken Windows world and should be implemented in Quicken Mac in the same way, as category groups.
In fact, the way this Idea is stated, would be useless if implement verbatim.
You can't just put something in the Category data and be done. What needs to be decided is where this data will show up in Quicken. The Idea that posted above is a better description because it states that you are going to be able to see this in the budget.
The "implied" but not stated for the Idea in this thread is that you would be able to select to view by category groups in reports. And these days, maybe in "Dashboard cards".
Anyway, you cut this, this a major project. But it can be done in incremental steps. Which is more important, reports or budget? Hard to say. But I think I would lean towards doing reports first. Note that this wouldn't make sense for every report. In fact, looking through the ones that Quicken Windows has it as an option it is very rare. So far, a quick look I come up with Cash Flow and Budget reports. And of course, the budget one would really depend on the budgets getting category grouping in the first place.
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I think that fixed (non-discretionary) vs discretionary at that category level would be nice, but it should be an option on the transaction level as well. Some categories contain can fixed and discretionary transactions.
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It would be near impossible to implement that way, it would be a much better idea for the user to pick their categories better.
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This would be a great feature, especially for those planning for or managing a fixed income - such as retirees. The way I've solved for that is to create two highest-level budget categories: Essential and Discretionary. To allow for space considerations in on-screen viewing, I abbreviate these as (ESS) and (DES). Then, set-up all expenses as sub-categories under one or the other of these two Uber-categories. I do maintain Taxes as a third category so I can keep my high-level expense ratios unencumbered by tax-related expenses. I hope this helps.
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I recently submitted an idea very similar to this. People suggested re-organizing my Categories to support it, but it wouldn't work for me. For instance, I want to keep Food all rolling up to one subtotal, but groceries are necessities while dining out is something I can control. I have a pretty complex and detailed category structure. :-) I used to be a bookkeeper in my former career, so categorizing and analyzing my data is meaningful and important to me.
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Yes, please create a way to see and compare fixed and discretionary spending.
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