How to view transactions from categories list? (Q Mac)

Sad Mac Convert

New Mac conversion, trying to navigate the loss of ux. My categories list is a mess post-conversion. I'm trying to clean it up. In the windows version, I could double click any category or subcategory in the list and that would generate a report of all of the transactions assigned to that category. In Mac, when I double click the category or sub-category, it just opens an edit box. I've poked around the top menu but I'm not figuring it out. If this question has been answered already my apologies; I did search but didn't come up with any answers.

RickO

QMac is not a stripped down version of QWin because it did not evolve from QWin. There was a complete rewrite of the program a few years back as Quicken Essentials Mac and that has slowly evolved to what we have today. The stated goal has been for it to eventually catch up to QWin, but that is a long, slow process because it is a completely separate code base.

RickO

If you want to see a category report, you will need to generate on using the Transactions by Category template in the Report section. Another alternative is to right click on any transaction that uses the category and and choose Report on "category name". Unfortunately, there is no quick report available from the Categories window.

Sad Mac Convert

That's lame. Do we know why Quicken for Mac is a stripped down version of Quicken for Windows? I mean, I know the answer is pennies, but other than that? Is there any explanation? Had I known the Mac version was lacking so much basic functionality I never would have done the conversion.

RickO

QMac is not a stripped down version of QWin because it did not evolve from QWin. There was a complete rewrite of the program a few years back as Quicken Essentials Mac and that has slowly evolved to what we have today. The stated goal has been for it to eventually catch up to QWin, but that is a long, slow process because it is a completely separate code base.

Sad Mac Convert

Well, that's a reasonable response. I wish I had done more homework before I converted. Thanks for your help.

jacobs

While Quicken Mac doesn't have the feature to generate a category from the category window, you can pretty readily get what you want. I want to suggest one additional option to what RickO mentioned above. Create a Category Summary report for all dates. This is basically the same as the Category window's list of categories (for all categories which are used in your database*). The report will have a dollar value for each category. Just click on the dollar amount and Quicken will open a window showing all the transactions using that category. So this is basically what you were seeking, except you're browsing a Category Summary report instead of the Category Window list. 


(*If you want to weed out some of the unused categories, you can easily do so in the Category window, by setting the filter at the top to Unused Categories.)

Sad Mac Convert

Thank you. I was able to get the information I needed by going through the extra steps you recommended, but this is a cumbersome workaround. Accessing transactions from a category list/report really should be native.

jacobs

Sad Mac Convert said:

Thank you. I was able to get the information I needed by going through the extra steps you recommended, but this is a cumbersome workaround. Accessing transactions from a category list/report really should be native.

I hear ya. I'd just say that if you create the Category Summary report and save it, then it takes no more clicks to open the report and click on a category in the report than it does to open the Category window and click on a category there. It requires mental acceptance to do it this way rather than the way you wish it would work, but I don't think it's actually a cumbersome workaround because it doesn't require any more steps or clicks.

(If you're doing active renaming/merging of categories to clean up your list, then I'll agree that is more of a workaround, because you need to open the both the Category Summary report and the Categories window, and jump back and forth between them to view your transactions and edit categories. But as this isn't something most people need to do on an ongoing basis, I don't find it too problematic, either.)

Sad Mac Convert

> If you're doing active renaming/merging of categories to clean up your list

Yes, that is exactly what I'm doing. When I did the Mac conversion, hundreds of categories were added, hidden categories were unhidden, and instead of a tidy list I had a nightmare to deal with. I'm on week two of cleaning up this dumpster fire. I wish I had just started from scratch rather than bringing over 10+ years worth of data.

But regardless, in the windows version, the categories list was a workable list. Not just a list.

jacobs

Sad Mac Convert said:

But regardless, in the windows version, the categories list was a workable list. Not just a list.

Yes, you've made that clear multiple times.  Understand that I'm not arguing against such a feature, just trying to help you work with what we've got. 

There is such a feature in the Payees window, so perhaps they'll add it to the Categories window at some point.

Sad Mac Convert said:

When I did the Mac conversion, hundreds of categories were added

There are about 185 categories in a blank new Quicken data file, so I don't think it added more than that. All the categories which didn't match the ones you had in Quicken Windows would be unused, so filtering the window to show only Unused Categories should give you a pretty quick shot at eliminating many/most of the ones you don't want pretty quickly. Or you can merge one of your existing categories into a default Quicken Mac category. (That's only really useful if you rely a lot on Quicken's automatic categorization of downloaded transactions; if you create your own local QuickFill rules to categorize things, then it really doesn't matter if you use Quicken's default categories.)

Sad Mac Convert said:

hidden categories were unhidden

Yes, Quicken Mac doesn't have hidden categories. You may want to add your vote for that feature by taking a second to visit this Idea thread.

Meanwhile, you may want to merge some of those previously-hidden categories into existing ones; post back if you need help doing so. Many of us have taken to renaming categories we want to hide with a prefix like "z-" so those categories don't get in the way when categorizing transactions using the drop-down category menu.

Sad Mac Convert said:

I wish I had just started from scratch rather than bringing over 10+ years worth of data.

If your data is that messed up, you still can.  Just select File > New and carry on with a new, clean data file. Keep the old one around for historical reference if/when you need it.

Or persevere with your underway clean-up, knowing that it's a one-time transition pain that you'll soon be done with.

Best wishes!

Sad Mac Convert

Well, after 80 hours, I'm almost done cleaning up this mess so I'm not going to start over with a clean slate now. Unless you have a time machine perhaps?

I already voted up hidden categories and functional categories list. I have a list of about a dozen other missing features that I'll be addressing in the future when my cortisol levels return to normal.

Thanks again for your suggested workarounds. I'm hopeful that one day I will again have the features that I relied upon in Quicken for Windows.

jacobs

Sorry, my time machine is currently not functioning. Neither is my transporter. Damn technology.

As someone who has been actively engaged since the modern Quicken Mac came through its first beta tests 8 years ago, I can tell you that (a) the program has improved leaps and bounds over that time, and is steadily getting better; (b) the developers do listen to and act on user feature requests; and (c) don't count on anything you want happening quickly! (While many things on my feature wishlist have been implemented and crossed off the list, there's still a lot of things on my list!)