When creating a Category Report more results occur than just the selected category.

genej

I have a single category selected but the resulting report includes items from several categories. None of which are a part of a split. What can cause an item with a non selected category to be included in the report?

Quicken Jared

genej said:

I have a single category selected but the resulting report includes items from several categories. None of which are a part of a split. What can cause an item with a non selected category to be included in the report?

Hello @genej, 

I am sorry about this problem with unwanted categories appearing in reports. Thank you for asking about this here on the Quicken Community.

Before I speculate at all on the exact origin of this behavior, I want to ask: when did this issue seem to begin? Do you have any backups saved just prior to when you first noticed this issue? We recommend saving backups frequently by going to File > Save a Backup... in the upper menu at the top of the screen while Quicken is open. Provided that this has been done regularly, you should have recent backups available that can be restored by going to File > Restore from Backup... in the same menu mentioned previously.

I hope to hear more from you about this, if you should have the chance to get back to us with a reply.

Thank you,

Quicken Jared 

genej

i do perform regular backups. What about my problem of more categories showing up in my reports than those I selected? Thanks

Quicken Jared

genej said:

i do perform regular backups. What about my problem of more categories showing up in my reports than those I selected? Thanks

Hello @genej, 

Thanks for reaching out again.

To be clear: I am wondering about whether or not this issue continues after you have restored from a backup saved prior to when you first noticed the problem. Have you previously been able to use report categories as expected? When did this seem to begin?

I look forward to your replies. 

Thank you,

Quicken Jared 

jacobs

@genej With respect to the Quicken moderators, I don't know why the first response to many questions is to revert to a backup; it's possible there's something corrupted in your data, but it's pretty unlikely, and not the place I'd start for troubleshooting a question like this. 

I'd start with asking: which exact report are you using? There are two versions of a Category report in Quicken Mac, an old one and a new one — and the old one is known to have data errors. (The developers have said it will be removed eventually, but it's still there, and causing problems for some users.)

If you click Reports, there is a Category Summary report under "Other Reports".



This is the old report; you can tell because the icon next to it is gray, while all the other reports are color icons with a letter in them. If you're using this report, stop.

Instead, you should be using one of the reports under the Transaction or Summary categories, or selecting "New" and creating a custom transaction or summary report. Is this what you've done?

Let's say you try selecting New, and clicking Transaction. In the next screen, you select Row=Category, to create a category report, and click Continue to Customize. Now you click on the Categories tab. Click Clear All, and then click just the single category you want. When you click OK, you should see a report of just transactions using that category. Are you doing that, but seeing something else? If so, if you're able to post screen shots of the category selection screen and part of the report, it might be helpful in getting to the bottom of it.