Possible to display actual future balance when filtering transactions?

bob2021

(This is related to checking account(s).) I have future transactions with discretionary amounts (e.g., 'reserving' funds for certain purposes, such as investing, for a new vehicle (or other 'financial freedom' 'jars'), etc. When I filter on those transactions, the Balance column shows the balance of (just) those transactions. I understand the math behind that, and the utility of that, but what would *also* be very useful is a column to show the balance *as of* (the date) each transaction as it appears in the register, without filtering. That way, I could change the amount of such transactions to 'tune' things to make the actual balance what I want it to be.

To explain further, I get paid twice a month, and I 'set' my discretionary transactions so that my balance the day before the next paydate is $0 (I have temporary 'payment' buffer so I don't cut things too closely). If I have more than $0 'left' in such a period, I increase the amount of the discretionary transaction for the current period so the balance I referred to becomes $0 (and reduce the amount of that transaction if that balance is negative). I can tune things in the current period without the need to filter transactions, but for future periods, it would be much easier to filter on those transactions and be able to edit the amounts in the filtered view, rather than scrolling forward in my unfiltered register to do so (I have a lot of future transactions in my register).

garysmith87

You're attempting to create Quicken Mac to do some convoluted method of envelope budgeting...which Quicken does not support.

Creating mythical Scheduled Transactions and accepting them into the register might accomplish what you want...and then you can constantly change their amounts to get you to a zero balance.  

This seems like an awful lot of work to do.

Personally, I think there are better options:

Use Quicken Mac's budget feature.  

Export your actual posted transactions for the month to some sort of spreadsheet (Numbers, Excel, Google Sheets) and add in your mythical discretionary expenditures there.

[Removed - NO Soliciting]  

bob2021

> @garysmith87 said:
> You're attempting to create Quicken Mac to do some convoluted method of envelope budgeting...which Quicken does not support.

Agreed that Quicken does not support envelope budgeting.

It's not "convoluted", insofar as it's not overly complicated or complex for me to do.

> Creating mythical Scheduled Transactions and accepting them into the register might accomplish what you want...and then you can constantly change their amounts to get you to a zero balance.  

(They're not "mythical" (imaginary; fictitious). They're provisional, but 100% real for the purposes of my planning. But your language did make me laugh a bit : ) )

I don't have to "constantly" change the amounts; only when things change (I come into an unexpected need for a debit (beyond my budget), or an unexpected deposit). And when I do, I find it helps me keep on top of things, budget-wise.

I entered my use case because Quicken moderators ask for us to do so, to help put things in perspective.

However I must reiterate and emphasize that my request is to be able to (also) see the balance as of the date of each transactions in filtered view. That seems like reasonable feature request, and one with utility well beyond my (perhaps?) niche workflow. I might filter on specific (recurring) deposits (pay 'checks', etc.) or payments, and want to see the balance *as of* those dates. If I'm in a very small minority of people who would like to see that, then I don't expect the feature to be added. And if the actual balance *were* made available in filtered view, it could be off by default, and 'exposed' by the user.

> This seems like an awful lot of work to do.
>
> Personally, I think there are better options:
>
> Use Quicken Mac's budget feature.

[Removed-NO Soliciting]

> Export your actual posted transactions for the month to some sort of spreadsheet (Numbers, Excel, Google Sheets) and add in your mythical discretionary expenditures there.

That's too much work for me. It's faster to do as I've stated in Quicken.

> Or better yet, Quicken might not be for you...and finding a different software that uses Envelope Budgeting might be a better fit for your method of accounting.

While I do use the (only one transaction type, bi-monthly, for only about 6 months into the future) described method, I *do* have a spreadsheet where I track 'envelopes' ('jar'), which is a shadow budget of my (one) savings account. Doing so works better for me than finding a dedicated envelope system—Quicken has features that I wouldn't want to give up. (The other option would be to get a bank that has sub/virtual accounts within one 'main' account.)

Thank you for your feedback and suggestions.

garysmith87

[Removed - Disruptive] I'm glad you've somehow gotten this to work for you. [Removed - Speculation]

Whether I call them mythical transactions or you call them provisional...they AREN'T transactions in the sense they haven't occurred and they likely will never occur.  They are placeholder transactions getting you to a zero net income.

[Removed-Violation of Community Guidelines]

Here's what I do...and I sorta use a net zero income type of budgeting too.  

I have Quicken Mac automatically enter ALL my scheduled income and expenses (fixed and variable) for the entire month on the first of the month.  So if a bill is due on the 28th, I have the scheduled transaction set to automatically enter into the register 27 days in advance.  The actual dates are the date paid (the 28th), but entered on the first.  I can change the variable amounts as I get the bill with the new amount (such as my water bill which varies month to month), but the water bill is entered "provisionally" [Removed-Disruptive]

I've then created an Income/Expense Cash Flow report.  This gives me how much I have left for the month...which becomes my discretionary spending amount.  As the month progresses and I add things like groceries, dining, etc...that net income amount obviously gets smaller and smaller.  The goal, of course, is to not get to zero or negative...or to still be as large a positive as possible at the end of the month.

This, of course, gives me accurate current balances to date...and somewhat predicts the future.  I also have reminders set to 30 days in all my cash flow accounts, so I can see those transactions that have already been posted and the balance in the account WITH those transactions in the future. 

Now if Quicken Mac had Savings Goals, this might even be easier to do.  And it certainly would facilitate allocating funds to long term expenses much easier.  Even if Quicken Mac had a true "rollover" budgeting feature and an Everything Else catch all budget bucket, that would probably make this easier too.  I can't get that granular to budget every single category I use...and thus the Budget aspect only takes into account the categories I have budgeted amounts from and is not able to account for any spillovers to non-budgeted categories.  

This technique may or may not get you to what you need.  And as to ease, this is as easy and simple as it gets.  It's pretty much automatic. [Removed-Violation of Community Guidelines] 

To each their own.  Good luck.

Quicken Anja

Hello All,

This post has deteriorated, become argumentative, and is now closed for further discussion.

Thank you!