Why does my category dropdown on a new transaction only show Income and Expense accounts (Q Mac)

genemike1

How can I create a new transaction in a checking account to buy an asset or pay a debt if I can't access the appropriate asset or liability account in the Category field?

jacobs

RickO said:

1. Enter the transfer in the Category field using the notation Transfer:[accountname]. Unfortunately, as you start to type this notation, Quicken does not provide a dropdown list of available accounts. Therefore, you have to type out the entire notation, including the full account name.

Hmmm, that's not what I experience. As soon as I type "tr", Quicken displays a list of all possible transfer accounts with the proper notation. 

genemike1

RickO - I'm not sure why you had to guess the problem because you answered it perfectly! Like the eyeglass commercial with the owl - seemed clear to me!

I am a recent migrant from Quicken for Mac 2007 which I have been using since its inception in 2007 to replace another financial program (MYM) which was far better than either.

What I am doing is creating a recurring transaction for a new credit card payment that draws from my checking account. Interestingly, an existing credit card payment came through perfectly in the migration but I couldn't seem to replicate it for a new card because the asset and liability accounts do not appear in the Category drop down. My guess is that Jacobs is not on a Mac if his Category drop down has the [ ] accounts.

Thanks for your help! Solution 2 worked for me. BTW, I am a retired CPA but don't tell anyone!

jacobs

You guess incorrectly! I'm definitely on Quicken Mac.

In this screenshot, I've typed "tran" in the Category column, and you can see the resulting pop-up:

jwfirestone

I have the same question

jacobs

@RickO Yees, I had never poked around that preference setting as you did; I always just had it set to being checked. So thanks for getting to the bottom of it.

@jwfirestone What question is it that you have, as the post above addressed the original and spin-off questions?

genemike1

This is an example of the kind of things that kept me on Quicken for Mac 2007 for so long. One catch 22 after another. Why not just simply show the drop down including all accounts?

jacobs

@genemike1 I'm not sure I understand your comment. Quicken Mac gives you the choice of whether to see all transfer options in the Category menu or not. How is that worse than Quicken 2007, which offered no choice? (Some users have lots and lots of accounts, unlike my modest list of about 25; one user recently mentioned having 180 accounts! So you can imagine that user might not want to try to navigate a menu of 180 accounts available for a transfer.) 

We all use Quicken differently, so there are many, many requests for the developers to offer options/preferences/settings to accommodate what different users perceive as the best or preferred way to use various features. The developers must balance trying to accommodate those different preferences against adding so many settings that the product isn't intuitive and easy enough for most users to figure out. The more preference settings they add, they satisfy some users but end up confusing others who don't find or understand the preference setting. 

In this case, check that preference setting checkbox, and you'll have exactly what you want, right?