Spending reports by category with split transactions

Question

I run many reports for spending by single categories. I'm not sure if I had blind trust in these reports or I have missed something. I just ran a report that  I know what the report should have shown and it was wrong. I traced it back to the transaction and found it was a split transaction. Even though the transaction was split be between 2 different categories, the report for a single category is showing the entire amount of the transaction. I would have expected only the amount of the transaction that was allocated to the category selected in the report.

I have been missing this all these years? What is the purpose of "split" transactions if they don't report the actually category?

I hope it is a setting I changed somewhere!

mwollert · Answer

Thank you for the reply. I think I have solved my issue. I found a box in the customize section of the report "Show Splits". If I check that box, the report shows only the amount of the transaction that was allocated to the category selected for the report.

My original issue was a checking, savings or credit card account transaction that was split in to 2 or more categories.

For example an ATM Withdrawal for $100 with $50 allocated to Category A and $50 allocated to Category B.

Then I would generate a report to show only transactions for a year in Category A. The report is saved in "My Saved Reports & Graphs" and "Add automatically (Update the report)" was selected. I receive the same results when creating the report on the fly by selecting Reports>Spending>Itemized Payees. I then customized the report by changing "Date range" to "yearly". In the "Customize itemized payees" section, I  select "categories" tab, select "Include only transaction with the selected categories, "Clear All" and then select only "Category A".

The report correctly only displays Payees that have "Category A" in the "Category" field of the transactions, except for the example split transaction above, the report shows $100. I would be expecting the report to show $50 for the above example.

If I go back to the "Customize itemized payees" section, there is box "Show Splits", when I check that box, the report correctly shows $50 for the above example transaction.

So in short, I have solved my issue, I just have to make sure "Show Splits" is checked.

Thank you again.

q_lurker · Answer

More info needed.  
What report?
Is this a saved report, or are you generating it on the fly?
How have you customized the report (if at all)?
What about the split transaction?  Was it from a banking, cc, investment, other account?
Basically, to get a helpful answer, we would need to try to recreate your circumstance.  Then we might be able to explain an alternate path to the same info.