Exclude Mortgage from Spending tab

Philip107

When I click on the Spending tab I get a donut graph showing my spending. There's a dropdown to show spending without taxes. I'd like to also eliminate my Mortgage payments from this so as to just show discretionary spending. That is spending minus taxes and mortgage. I see that you can customize what accounts but that doesn't help remove the mortgage.
Any ideas?

[Deleted User]

@philip107 usually a mortgage has it's own account, so you can exclude the mortgage by excluding the mortgage account.

Chris_QPW

EDIT:  Fixed typos.

I recommend using a report instead.

The Spending tab is not what a lot of people think it is, especially when the "without taxes" is selected.

The first surprise is that it is in fact the "result" for several features in Quicken.
Go to the Home tab (Classic Dashboard) and add/look at "See Where Your Money Goes".  Customize it for a given date range and such and then click on the graph or the "Examine Your Spending" button.

What is going to happen is it is going to take you to the Spending tab with it customized for what you had setup on the "See Where Your Money Goes".

The second surprise will be if you use "without taxes" for any length of time.  For most people they would think that means income taxes, sales tax, ..., but would be surprised to learn it also includes their charity donations.  What it really does is exclude any category that has a tax line on it.

Philip107

Damian said:

@philip107 usually a mortgage has it's own account, so you can exclude the mortgage by excluding the mortgage account.

I have the mortgage account excluded but it still is showing the mortgage payments. It appears to do that because the payments are coming out of the Checking Account which is not excluded. So I can't have my cake and eat it to.

[Deleted User]

@philip107 - ah now I understand your dilemma.  It seems like that spending tab is not that customizable.  Creating and using a report, as @chris_qpw suggests is a better option to get a more accurate spending report.  It would allow categories to be included or excluded from your report.

Philip107

Chris_QPW said:

EDIT:  Fixed typos.

I recommend using a report instead.

.....

I agree. Like many other predefined screens the Spending Display doesn't do me much good. They actually can't be used for any serious financial analysis. The underlying logic is seldom sensible towards that goal.

Chris_QPW

Philip107 said:

Chris_QPW said:

EDIT:  Fixed typos.

I recommend using a report instead.

.....

I agree. Like many other predefined screens the Spending Display doesn't do me much good. They actually can't be used for any serious financial analysis. The underlying logic is seldom sensible towards that goal.

My wife actually really likes the Spending tab, but her workflow is.
Start Quicken, look at Home tab for here spending, if she needs more details on the transactions click on the graph in "See Where Your Money Goes" and then use the Spending tab for any "drill downs".

So, for these quick "drill downs" it is quite useful.  Two different kinds of users, two different results.