reimbursement as negative income (Q Mac)
I want an item to be an expense. On the forum, it says taht this is a flaw in an old report, but I ahve 14,0 for Mac so I would think that I would not be getting old reports. How can I make a reimbursement as an expense?
Best Answer
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Oh, yes, I definitely recommend using a credit to the category of the original charge rather than a separate category for miscellaneous reimbursements. If you've been reimbursed for something you purchased, the original expense should be negated, as it is no longer an expense you incurred.
As for the reimbursement category showing up as income, I wonder if you were using a category which is defined as Income rather than Expense.
I've never used it, but I see that Quicken creates a category by default called "Personal Income > Reimbursement", and since they call it "income", the category is defined as income. In most cases, that would be improper accounting.
But should you need something like this tracked as a separate category, you can create your own category for it, and define it as an expense:
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930
Answers
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But there are some old reports still in the current Quicken Mac. Do you have Quicken Mac version 7.3.2? (You refer to version 14, which I assume refers to macOS Sonoma.)
If you read a post that this is an issue with an old report, I'm wondering if you switched to the recommended report? This issue is the old report called Category Summary, which is under the "Other" group in the Reports menu. That report will show categories as income or expense based on the total amount in the category: positives are shown as income, irrespective of whether the category is an expense So if you have an overpayment, refund, or other credit in an expense category, this report will show it as income. Perhaps more importantly, this report will sometimes omit some data. Bottom line: Do. Not. Use. that report.
The old Category Summary report is a holdover from the original 2010 code which was used in the first version of the modern Quicken Mac. Back in 2017, the developers re-wrote the reports engine and most of the current reports use this modern reports engine. The developer shave said they will eventually remove the old Category Summary report from the program; I don't know why this hasn't been a priority, but I'd guess they don't want to disrupt users who have built and continue to use reports using the old reports engine.
There's an easy solution. Use any of the modern reports. Use "Reports > Transaction > Transactions by Category" (or any of the "Transactions by xxx") reports, or "Reports > Summary > Category Summary Year to Date" (or any of the "Category Summary by xxx") reports. The modern reports will show expense categories under expenses, as expected, even when there's a positive amount.
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930 -
Thanks… I did try using the reports that you identify but I still had the problem. At least I think I did. I found an easier solution… I just didn't use "reimbursement" in the category. I changed it to the category of the purchase being reimbursed. Supplies, Workshop. More than one way to skin a cat.
Holly
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Oh, yes, I definitely recommend using a credit to the category of the original charge rather than a separate category for miscellaneous reimbursements. If you've been reimbursed for something you purchased, the original expense should be negated, as it is no longer an expense you incurred.
As for the reimbursement category showing up as income, I wonder if you were using a category which is defined as Income rather than Expense.
I've never used it, but I see that Quicken creates a category by default called "Personal Income > Reimbursement", and since they call it "income", the category is defined as income. In most cases, that would be improper accounting.
But should you need something like this tracked as a separate category, you can create your own category for it, and define it as an expense:
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930 -
Thanks!! that's the key… the fact that they pur reimbursement under income. Presumably the program thinks that it's the organization/individual that is being reimbursed, rather than paying out reimbursement. That actually makes sense.
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