Recurring Expenses

Skavy

I am looking for a report or mechanism that will highlight my monthly/annual recurring charges in an easy to see manner. The goal is to find all those companies where I am being charged monthly or annual fees. An example would be Door Dash where I am charged for meals but also might pay a monthly or annual fee. Any ideas on how to do this?

volvogirl

You can sort the account register (or all transactions at the top of the side bar) by Description or payee.  Click on the column heading to sort.  That's what I do to see the last time I got charged.  

Skavy

Thanks that sort of help and I also do that. The down side is one has to remember all the bills. I am trying to find the ones I forgot. Like service I signed up for during Covid and no longer need/want.

Frankx

Hi @Skavy,

I believe that the best way to track those transactions would be to enter all of them in Quicken with a specific "Category" (that you would need to create in your Quicken datafile - like "Recurring fees").  You can then periodically run a report showing only the entries (for whatever time frame you choose) of that type of transaction.  I understand that this may not help your current problem but will allow you to get the information you need going forward.

Frankx

Jim_Harman

This might be useful, but how would you propose that Quicken should distinguish between recurring charges and per-use charges? Often recurring charges don't come on the same day each month, or they are included in a statement along with other charges.

Perhaps the best way to handle this (and catch a lot of errors also) is to not automatically accept downloaded transactions but to look at each one before accepting. Every time I get that monthly bill from Dropbox I ask myself whether it is worth it.

Jim_Harman

Frankx said:

Hi @Skavy,

I believe that the best way to track those transactions would be to enter all of them in Quicken with a specific "Category" (that you would need to create in your Quicken datafile - like "Recurring fees").  You can then periodically run a report showing only the entries (for whatever time frame you choose) of that type of transaction.

Frankx

That would be a good use for a Tag (Deluxe or higher required) and add the Tag to each transaction you want to track as a recurring charge. Then you wouldn't have to put all the recurring charges in one Category. You could run a Spending by Payee report and select just the "Fee" tag or whatever you call it to see a list of the Payees you have tagged and how much you have paid.

I think I will start doing that!

Skavy

I was thinking of a report that looks for recurrence on a monthly or annual basis. It would find both false positives and negatives. Then some mechanism (like the suggested category) to mark them. Over time you hone the result.

UKR

Have you tried the report Spending by Payee, customized to show the desired Date Range and set Column to Month.

Given a long enough Date Range and maybe setting Column to Quarter or Year, this should show you where your money goes.
Double-click on a Payee Name or a non-zero amount field to zoom in on the transactions for this payee.

mshiggins

Most of the suggestions rely on your payee names being consistent. If you are not using Renaming Rules to normalize your payee names, it’s going to be harder to scan for repeat payees. My suggestion also relies on consistent payees names.

In the Manage Bill and Income Reminders window (Tools | Manage Bill & Income Reminders), under Options, there is an option to have Quicken scan for repeated transactions and suggest reminders.  This feature is intended to do exactly what you are looking for - identify patterns in the transactions that may be recurring transactions. 

Skavy

mshiggins - thanks for the suggestion. It did not find very many and none from the credit card.