How do I track my cash transactions?

kward

How can I track my cash transactions? I cant seem to find a clear answer here. Something about adding a cash account, but I have to put a balance there. What balance? Some detail would be appreciated thank you!

Frankx

Hi @kward

There isn't really a hard and fast answer to your question.

However assuming that you will be tracking your cash transactions from this point in time forward - you should probably start with a cash balance that approximates the amount of cash that you have on hand right now.  Then, as you use cash you'll need to replenish it, and when you do, you should make a habit of recording the the cash transactions that you've made in Quicken.

Let me know if you have any followups.

Frankx

jacobs

I have one cash account for me and one for my wife.

What's the balance? What's in your wallet right now!

When you spend cash, enter a transaction just like any for spending from your bank account or credit card account: who was the Payee, what category, how much? When you receive cash, such as an ATM withdrawal from your checking account, record a transfer from the checking account to the cash account. Every now and then, reconcile the account to the balance in your wallet. You may not want to record every little detail, or you might. We joke when we find a quarter on the street, or a coin in the couch, that we need to enter it in Quicken. (We don't!) I usually reconcile my cash less frequently than I should, and walk around the house trying to recall what cash I've spent that I didn't think to record. Often, it takes a miscellaneous adjustment to account for what's missing from the wallet. I'd probably do better if I counted and reconciled my cash more frequently, but I just don't spend a lot of cash, so what I dod works well enough for me. 

garysmith87

I rarely use cash (last I checked it was less than $100 a year).  When I make an ATM withdrawal from my checking account, I categorize it as Cash ATM in the checking account...and then spend it on anything.

I'm not that granular that I need to know where every single cent is spent on trivial cash items.

But I can see that if you use quite a bit of cash, you may want to track it in a CASH account in Quicken.  

Needshelp411

If you scan your cash receipts into a system like Neat, you can import/transfer the entries electronically into a Quicken cash account (or at least a few months ago you could. Things change so fast, I haven't checked recently).