Lost ability to subtotal across categories

John QW

Was the subtotal feature removed from itemized categories and/or spending by categories recently?

I had a working reporting organized with monthly columns, and subtotaling across each category for the entire year. I know it was working as I regularly export it into excel and use for some calculations. Recently the subtotals button disappeared from the report. I only noticed when I tried to update my excel data (by importing the exported quicken data).

And in 'report history', I can go back to an earlier version of the export same report, and the subtotal button functionality returns.

Boatnmaniac

Is the report in question a saved customize report?

There have been reports in the past that sometimes a version update will corrupt saved reports and they could not be fixed. It's happened to me at least a couple of times.

The only way to fix that kind of situation is to pull up the default report, customize it and then save it. In my case, I saved the new customized report so it overwrote over the previous one. I remember another person saying they first deleted the previous saved report and then customized and saved a new report.

Have you tried do this?

Jim_Harman

I'm not sure what you mean by the subtotals button.

The Itemized Categories report has an Update to show button at the top that lets you see the transaction details for each Category. It does not have monthly columns. The Category subtotals are in the Amount column.

The Spending by Category report has a Column dropdown at the top where you can select Month to get monthly subtotals.

John QW

I know what the reports are and what the provide, I was using them.

The pulldown/button is "subtotal by:" This is it from an earlier report.

subtotal1-2.gif

My report was organized by month, which subtotaled vertically for each month, and also subtotal by: category, which subtotaled horizontally across each category.

subtotal by: disappeared recently, Maybe on a recent quicken update.

Jim_Harman

Your screen shot looks like the report at Reports > Banking > Transaction. Deeps that report not have a Subtotal by: drop-down?

John QW

Once again, no, It was not a banking transaction report. It was spending by category. I was using and exporting the data. The subtotal by option has been removed. Maybe someone from Quicken can comment.

Jim_Harman

It is hard to tell from looking at a saved report what built-in report it is based on.

Here is what the built in Spending by Category report looks like in QWin R52.33. As far as I know there have not been any changes to this report in many years.

Here is what the current Banking Transaction report looks like. This is more like the screenshot you posted. When accessed from a banking account, this is filtered to include just the current account and is called the Register report.

John QW

OK, its not helpful to discuss other reports that Im not using. There have been changes to this one. If it was not intentional, then its a bug.

Jim_Harman

On further investigation, I find that I can get a report that looks just like the one in your screenshot by opening the built-in Spending by Category report and then double clicking on one of the numbers in the report to see the transaction detail for that Category. When I do that, the detail report (which is based on the Banking transaction report) has the Subtotal button you are looking for.

Do you see the same, or is the Subtotal button missing, or is there some other report you are looking for?

If you are looking for something different that you don't see anymore, please show us another screenshot with the column headers of the report that is missing the subtotal selection.

John QW

The problem is, that the subtotal by used to be available at the top level of the Spending by Category report. I cant show it, since my export was overwritten, and you can't configure it that way anymore. Either thats a change, or its a bug.

The Column option was set to "month", which provides a monthly subtotal vertically (still works) , AND the subtotal by (Category) produced a horizontal summary (across the category rows). Same report, without change, just dropped subtotal by at top level, which eliminated the horizontal category subtotal.

q_lurker

This is sounding to me like your screen view is not wide enough.

… the subtotal by (Category) produced a horizontal summary (across the category rows). 

When you have Spending by Category report set with Columns by time period, there is a final column to the far right with the sum across that row for the entire report period. No subtotal is necessary to get that total. If the report frame width is not wide enough, the bottom scroll bar will appear which you can use (or you can use your left-right arrow keys) to move through the columns from first period to the final total.

John QW

Its great how everyone is telling me what I see. ONCE again, I am exporting this report into Excel. Its not a screen issue.

And low and behold, all the values I was importing (which were said horizontal subtotals across rows (categories) into calculations were missing. The time frame of the report is the running last 12 months. I re-export this report from quicken, MONTHLY, to get the new rolling sums. This is what started the problem, the data disappeared, my sums went to blank cells.

I looked in the report, the sums are gone, the button is gone.

Jim_Harman

Let's take a step back. You haven't shown us the column headers or any of the body of the report you are looking for. As I understand it, the report you want has a column for each of the last 12 months and the 12-month total at the right. It also has a "Subtotal by:" dropdown where you can select Category and you get one row for each Category.

Do I have that right?

Is the issue that you can't get the correct data to display, or that data is missing from the export, or is it something else?

Either the Spending by Category or the confusingly named Banking > Cash Flow by Tag report can make a column for each month and a row for each Category, but neither has a "Subtotal by:" dropdown. Spending by Category always has one line per Category, and in the Cash flow by Tag report the the row selection is made in the report customization. As far as I know, neither of these reports has changed recently.

John QW

"Is the issue that you can't get the correct data to display, or that data is missing from the export, or is it something else?"

The SAVED spending by category report was working, and I exported it regularly. Ive been using its for years. The saved report stopped subtotaling horizontally by category. and the button left. Since its no longer in the report, its no longer in the export. I noticed because the spreadsheet failed.

Jim_Harman

I am sorry to be so persistent, but what about the other questions I asked?

Can you explain exactly what you mean by "subtotaling horizontally by Category"? Does that mean a column for each month followed by a Total column and one row for each Category with the monthly Category numbers and the Category total in the last column?

What is no longer in the report?

Boatnmaniac

Is the report in question a saved customize report?

There have been reports in the past that sometimes a version update will corrupt saved reports and they could not be fixed. It's happened to me at least a couple of times.

The only way to fix that kind of situation is to pull up the default report, customize it and then save it. In my case, I saved the new customized report so it overwrote over the previous one. I remember another person saying they first deleted the previous saved report and then customized and saved a new report.

Have you tried do this?

Jim_Harman

@Boatnmaniac The issue here is that @John QW says his saved report does not work and the original default report is no longer available. But he has not provided a complete screenshot or described clearly enough (for me at least) exactly what that report looks like.

When he provides that information, we may be able to help him.

Boatnmaniac

@Jim_Harman - Ah, I missed that part about the default report no longer being available.

@John QW - The default Spending by Category report does not have the Subtotal drop-down but it does have the Column drop-down. When I selected "Month" from the Column drop-down I got the following report which shows all of the categories and sub-categories as well as the subtotals for each month. Is this what you are wanting to see? If it is, you cannot pull up this default Spending by Category report or cannot customize it to show "Month" for the Column drop-down?

mshiggins

If you think a recent Quicken patch version update is causing the report issue, you can try reverting to a previous patch level:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7930368/how-do-i-revert-to-an-older-version-of-quicken

q_lurker

Below is an excerpt of my Spending by Category report with Monthly columns (limited account selection). Thirteen columns for the 12 months and a sum of those 12 months. The sum of the 12 months (11/1/22 - 10/31/23 in this case) is automatic. It is not a subtotal by category. By the way, this is with Quicken for Windows Release R48.8 from March 2023.

We are telling you there never has been a Subtotal by: ____ option for that report at that top level. You somehow think there was.

You said:

The Column option was set to "month", which provides a monthly subtotal vertically (still works)

Agreed.

the subtotal by (Category) produced a horizontal summary (across the category rows).

No, the horizontal summation is and always has been automatic and naturally included (when a time-based column selection is made).

And low and behold, all the values I was importing (which were said horizontal subtotals across rows (categories) into calculations were missing. The time frame of the report is the running last 12 months. I re-export this report from quicken, MONTHLY, to get the new rolling sums. This is what started the problem, the data disappeared, my sums went to blank cells.

I looked in the report, the sums are gone, the button is gone.

The button was never there.

Do we understand correctly that the report in Quicken is missing the data you expect? That this is not an issue with the export and import to Excel.

Are the sums "gone" (no 13th column) or are the sums 0.00 - likely with monthly columns 0.00 also?

OR maybe you are only wanting top-level categories line-itemed, not sub-categories. That is what the Expand All and Collapse All buttons do.

Historically, there have arisen issues with saved reports getting dinged by new releases, though that seems to me to be less common recently. This is what @Boatnmaniac mentioned.

As such, have you re-created the report from scratch or tried creating any other similar report rather than your saved one?

John QW

@Boatnmaniac,

Thank you.

"Is the report in question a saved customize report?"

Yes, this is a customized and saved report from "Spending by Category", with account, tag, category selection customizations. I also exported it to an excel file monthly, and then pulled into quicken.

"There have
been reports in the past that sometimes a version update will corrupt
saved reports and they could not be fixed. It's happened to me at least a
couple of times.

The only way to fix that kind of situation is to
pull up the default report, customize it and then save it. In my case, I
saved the new customized report so it overwrote over the previous one. I
remember another person saying they first deleted the previous saved
report and then customized and saved a new report."

I think I saw those issue reports while searching for this issue. I have vague memories that may have happened a long time ago (different symptoms, different report).

I did try to recreate the report from scratch, starting with Spending by Category, but I cant even get there from standard report now and recustomizing, as the categorize by: is missing.

I did not try deleting the original report though before trying to rebuild it. I guess I can try that. I may have some other older saved reports (different customizations) though, I will have to look.

I didnt physically change the report (other than to open and export) but there were quicken updates in the timeframe, and if i recall there were report fixes/changes in release notes in this range.

mshiggins

If the Quicken patch version is not the issue and the report format you want was in an older data file, why not restore a backup from before the older format report was overwritten?

Jim_Harman

@John QW Even if the original report is no longer available, you still haven't explained what you want in the report, and what is missing when you re-create it using the standard reports available today.

You say,

I cant even get there from standard report now and recustomizing, as the categorize by: is missing.

You say there is a missing control which you are now calling "Categorize by" but earlier you said it was "Subtotal by". If you are starting with the standard Spending by Category report, why do you need that control? The report is already subtotaled by Category.

q_lurker

and if you need the report to only list some categories, that is done by customizing the report and the Category tab customization offers.

Jim_Harman

One thing that has changed about the reports in the past few years is the export process. I tried the following, which might explain this issue.

1. Open the Spending by Category report.
2. Set the Date range to Last 12 months and the column to Month. The report has the Categories in the first column, 13 monthly columns, and a final column with the Category totals. The first and last monthly columns are partial months. If you run this report on the last day of the month, you only get 12 monthly columns and the totals are one column to the left.
3. Click on the Export icon and select Copy to clipboard.
4. Open Excel, select the top left column, and hit Ctrl-V to paste.

With the report ending in mid-month, the totals are in column P and the pasted area includes column Q. If the report ends on the last day of the month, the totals are in column O ad the pasted area includes column P.

So there are two possible issues:

• The totals are in a different column depending on the date range
• The pasted area extends one column beyond the data, which might over-write formulas in the spreadsheet.

John QW

@q_lurker,

"The button was never there. "

OK, I'll stand corrected. I was so used to seeing it in the drill down, and given the horizontal sum (as you more accurately call, the thirteenth column) was gone, I made mistaken connection that the thirteen column was driven by that selection.

"Do we understand correctly that
the report in Quicken is missing the data you expect? That this is not
an issue with the export and import to Excel. "

Yes.

"Are the sums "gone" (no 13th column) or are the sums 0.00 - likely with monthly columns 0.00 also?"

There is no 13th column, its blank. (but it used to be there). This was the issue. The monthly columns are not blank, and have valid subtotals.

So yes, the report is bad, so the export was bad. no 13th column in report, so no 13th column in export.

Re-creating attempts from the standard spending by category failed (still no 13th) UNTIL I deleted the failed/corrupted (saved) report.

I deleted that saved report, and then the 13th column returns when I recreated it from the standard expense by category.

@Boatnmaniac, you had the right call.