Adding Groups and Assigning Accounts to them
I noted people have been requesting to Add Groups for several years. It's 2023, isn't it time to get this done? For example, you have 1 Group for Property and Debt. Those things do NOT belong together. It's simply improper accounting. We should have Groups for: Accounts Receivable (or Receivables), Other Assets, Fixed Assets and Long-term Debt. If one selects Credit as a group (which should mean credit card debt or short-term debt) Quicken places those accounts in the Bank group. That's ridiculous and 100% incorrect accounting. Credit should be it's own group and it is a Liability.
This should be user edited/added data, much like Categories, in the Tools area.
Comments
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Quicken is designed as a personal finance management program; it is not a true full-fledged accounting program in many ways. (Entries are not double-entry accounting; there is no posting, so transactions can always be modified; there's no audit trail; transfers can have categories applied, where proper accounting does not allow a movement of funds from one account to another to be designated as income or expense; and the list goes on.)
You're correct about what would be done in a true accounting program. Credit cards would be part of liabilities; cash accounts would be part of assets. But Quicken's focus is on the accounts most people have and how people interact with them rather than the way an accountant or bookkeeper would.
There have been requests in the past for the Quicken Mac developers to allow users to create custom account groups, but the developers have stated that the way the program is built — complexities in the database, register, reports and budgets — make it such that they either cannot or do not plan to allow users to create their own account groups. In this Idea post, the developers have said that the "development team is considering allowing re-ordering accounts within their subgroup only; groups and subgroups cannot be re-ordered."
It would seem they could abstract the display of accounts from their internal organization to allow this customization, but in the past they've said no. Nonetheless, there is another Idea thread requesting this functionality which is slowly gaining votes; I'd encourage you to add your vote and comments in this thread, even thought the developers have rejected this functionality in the past.
That all said, it applies to the organization of the left sidebar. But I should note that the Net Worth report — which is basically a balance sheet (without retained earnings/owner's equity) — is organized and groups accounts as you're seeking and as one would expect for proper accounting, separating Assets and Liabilities. Under Assets, one has Cash accounts, Investment accounts, and Property/other asset accounts; under Liabilities, one has Credit Card accounts, Loans and other liabilities.
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930
