How to categorize bank-deducted Venmo payments

BK

I pay a merchant via Venmo for goods/services which is immediately deducted from my bank account.  Once downloaded to Quicken it translates to a linked Transfer category between the bank and Venmo.  This restricts the ability to properly categorize the transaction.  I can think of a few inelegant and creative manual entries to categorize this but as the Venmo usage increases, the creativity becomes burdensome.  How do you properly categorize such scenarios?  TIA.

volvogirl

Do you have Venmo set up as a separate account in Quicken?  You need to treat it like a credit card account or not use it at all.  You either categorize the purchase in the Venmo account or in your bank account.  

BK

Thank you @volvogirl .  I fully understand your suggestions since that is how I treat PayPal where I didn't add my PayPal account to Quicken and works as it should.  And my use of PayPal is now very little.

Venmo is different for me and I have added it to Quicken as a separate account because:

- Balance: Typically I carry a balance in Venmo and therefore when I pay for something, I can easily categorize it within Venmo's register - so far so good.  But there are also times where the Venmo balance is zero and hence the payment is deducted from my bank account, which is when I run into this challenge.

- Description: When downloaded into Quicken, Venmo provides some transaction description.  Hence I don't have to chase down whom I paid for what which save me time.

In short I want to have it both ways which is why wanted to know about other users' creative methods.

volvogirl

Oh, I don't know how Venmo exactly works.  My husband uses it to pay 1 person and it just comes directly out of the checking account.  He doesn't have a balance at Venmo.