Categorization for business transactions and to separate insurance claim transactions

Question

I'm new to Quicken and selected the Home & Business to help me keep my small business (contract labor) and the settlement/expenses of an ongoing hurricane insurance claim separate from my personal spending/budget.

I can see the "business" and "rental" categories.  Thinking that I should just use the "rental" category for the insurance claim as a way to keep those transactions separated from personal?  I initially created a category for this in personal, but the ins/outs of the claim proceeds, and the cost of ongoing repairs, skew the report view where I just want to see monthly spending trends.  Just want to explore options before getting too far down the road.

Also wondering if there is a way to set up multiple businesses for reporting, or are these the only two categorization options for separation of these transactions?

Thanks for any tips and insights that you can share.

Jim_Harman · Answer

You can customize your budget and any of the reports to exclude selected Categories if you want.

If the hurricane damage was to a personal rather than business property and the money is flowing through your personal accounts, I would group it with your personal categories. I like to use Categories for ongoing expenses that are likely to continue for several years and Tags to track specific events or projects. Tags let you select and group transactions across multiple Categories.

So you might set up a "Major repairs" Category and a "Hurricane Ida" or whatever Tag. Then you would apply the tag to any hurricane related expenses and you could make a report that shows or excludes just those expenses.

Also when you get an insurance reimbursement, you can either enter it as a negative expense or in a separate income category, using the same Tag.