Spending by Category report pie chart (Q Mac)

jefferyn
jefferyn Member ✭✭
edited March 2023 in Reports (Mac)
greetings,
i'm trying to figure out how to create a report that has a pie chart like the one that shows up in the "home" tab, "spending by category".
i searched and found a similar post on the website, but it was in the windows version.

alternatively, is there a way to print the module in the "home" tab?

i'd also like to print the "income & expense" module, either directly from the "home" tab or create a report to do so.

i've looked thru and tried nearly all of the existing reports and creating new report. but can't find anything that has plots/charts.

i've been using quicken since the 1990's and am very happy with how this new version has evolved over the last 6 or 7 years. the reports are the only part that could use a little more improvement. tabular reports are great, but reports with plots, bar charts, pie charts are the ones i'm missing. thanks to the quicken developers for the good work!

any suggestions appreciated.
thank you!
jeffery

my installed version: Version 6.12.2 (Build 612.47862.100)
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Best Answer

  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓
    @jefferyn The Net Worth Over time report is a carry-over from the predecessor Quicken Essentials program which formed the code core for the current Quicken Mac. The old reports engine from Quicken Essentials was very limited in user-configurability, but it did offer some pre-defined reports. The reports engine was redeveloped a few years ago, and most of the reports now use the modern reports engine. It is better in every way -- except there are no graphs. 
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993

Answers

  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    1) There is no way to create charts in Quicken Mac beyond those you see on various screens.

    2) There is no way to print the Home > Dashboard page, nor the individual cards. If you want to print anything from this screen, you can take a screen shot and print that. (Command-Shift-4 allows you to drag a rectangle to capture only what you want.)

    3) You can definitely create reports to show the data in the Dashboard cards. In many cases, clicking on a part of the card will generate a Report in a window for you.

    For instance, in the Income & Expense card, click on any of the bars in the chart, and it will open a window with a transactions-by-category for that month or year. Then you can edit the report parameters if you wish. For instance, let's say you set the Income & Expense card to show Last Year. Then you click on the December income/expense bars, and Quicken opens a report of income and expenses for December 2022. But if you want your income and expenses for the whole year, click Edit, change the date range to Last Year, and now you have a report for the year. 

    In the Spending by Category card, clicking on any category will open a report showing the transactions for that category for the selected timeframe. But what if you want a report on all spending categories? You can just go to Reports and generate a Summary or Transaction report by category for the time period you want. Similarly, for Top Spending Payees, go to Reports and generate Summary or Transaction report by payee. 
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    One other suggestion would be to create the report with the data you want, then export the report to a CSV file. Open that file with Excel or Numbers and use that app to create the pie chart. It's fairly easy to learn how to make basic pie charts in those apps.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • jefferyn
    jefferyn Member ✭✭
    ok thank you! i supposed i should request this feature.

    something interesting, i found an older report "net worth over time" that has a line plot of the data and the table beneath it. i vaguely remember either finding or making it maybe 5 or 6 years ago. but i see no other "over time" report. so maybe they had this kind of report when they were more in the development phase.

    yes, i know about using other apps for plotting. but i really believe that programs should be able to print all their windows, like the dashboard.

    anyway, thank you again for your replies!
    jeffery
  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓
    @jefferyn The Net Worth Over time report is a carry-over from the predecessor Quicken Essentials program which formed the code core for the current Quicken Mac. The old reports engine from Quicken Essentials was very limited in user-configurability, but it did offer some pre-defined reports. The reports engine was redeveloped a few years ago, and most of the reports now use the modern reports engine. It is better in every way -- except there are no graphs. 
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • jefferyn
    jefferyn Member ✭✭
    yes, i remember when quicken team was developing the reports. i vaguely recall running across the "over time" reports. since i used the reports and needed them, i was still using the old quicken on mac and just played around with this newer version until the reports were usable. i'd say i bought it for about 3 years to help keep it going before the reports were usable. i'm really glad the development work succeeded and the program is quite good now.
    yes, the interactive plots, charts, etc. are very useful in excel, openoffice, etc. i used them all the time. it is unfortunate that they didn't preserve or include the ability to add a few basic plots for the data in the reports. in the 80s and 90s before using quicken, i did my budgeting in excel. and even back then, it was pretty simple to add in a bar chart for the total income and expenses or pie chart for expenses, which i did regularly. graphical representation of data is so much more intuitive than pages of numbers. i hope they might consider adding some basic plots like the had before.

    anyway, thank you for your replies!
    jeffery
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