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Budget doesn't add up

GLDFlorida

I recently upgraded to Quicken Deluxe from 2017. Everything looks identical which is why I upgraded because numbers in my 2017 version of Quicken Deluxe budget don't add up. On the planning tab for my 2024 budget, if I look at the spending graph at the top it accurately shows my spending for 2024. However, in the details below that lists all my spending categories (all discretionary spending) the total roll-up for discretionary spending should be identical to the grand total in the bar graph and it's not even close. I do not budget the non-discretionary items. Why is there a difference??

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Quicken Kristina

Hello @GLDFlorida,

To help troubleshoot this issue, please provide additional information. Is this a new budget that you're starting in the subscription version of Quicken, or is this the budget from Quicken 2017, converted to the subscription version, and carrying forward to 2024? Is it off due to being over, or under what it should be? Are there any categories missing or any extra categories showing?

I look forward to your response!

GLDFlorida

Hello Kristina,

A few days ago I upgraded to Deluxe from 2017. I have been using the annual budget feature every year. Part of the reason I upgraded was the bugs in 2017. Budget numbers not adding up was one of the issues. I did validate the file before upgrading to Deluxe with no errors found. So yes, the 2024 budget was created in 2017. I do not use non-discretionary items and have quadruple checked that there are no hidden accounts. If you look at the "discretionary" budget line ($80,457) I would think it would be the same as budget total ($108,473) found on the Spending graph (green check mark). I used a calculator and added the Discretionary line and it equals the budget line of $108,473. How is the $80,457 calculated?

Marinauser

I reported two weeks ago that in budgeting, the software was treating investment purchases and sales as a Fees and Charges - Everything Else expense and income. Spending tracking is not doing this so budget expenses and spending don't match up. I was told by Quicken support that it looked like it was an issue brought on with last update and that they would get a fix started.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply @GLDFlorida,

It is possible, if something didn't convert properly when converting your file from the 2017 version to the subscription version, that could be throwing things off. Have you tried creating a second, brand new, budget in Quicken to see if the issue reoccurs in that new budget? That can help narrow down if it's something file specific or if it's an issue in the program itself.

Please let me know how it goes!

GLDFlorida

It appears to me something is seriously broken. As you suggested, I spent the necessary time to build a new 2024 budget from scratch. The good news is that the budget number (upper right corner) and the discretionary Budget number (1st line of budget Summary) match! I created the budget so they SHOULD BE equal. As shown below, I had selected "Budget Only" in the budget drop down. Now for the bad news…

The bad news is when I select "Details" in the drop down as shown below, the Budget total stays constant (upper right corner) but the discretionary budget line gets wonky and it's not even close to the budget total ($1103,311 vs $58,948). Yes, there should be a $5k difference since some expenses have occurred in January, but not a $45k difference as shown. This is the exact reason I switched from 2017 to Deluxe, thinking these issues were resolved. The Balance Total (bottom right corner) of $77,950 makes even less sense. Shouldn't the Discretionary Total ($58,948) be the same as the Total in that column ($77,950)?

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

The behavior you describe sounds like a file specific issue. I suggest that you try validating and/or super validating your data file. Please save a backup file prior to performing these steps.

Validate:

File
Validate and Repair File...
Validate File
Click OK
Close the Data Log
Close Quicken (leave it closed for at least 5 secs)
Reopen Quicken and see if the issue persists.

If the issue persists, proceed to Super Validate. If the issue is resolved after performing validation, then please disregard the instructions to Super Validate.

Super Validate:

File
Hold CTRL + Shift and click Validate and Repair File...
Super Validate File
Click OK
Close the Data Log
Close Quicken (leave it closed for at least 5 secs)
Reopen Quicken and see if the issue persists.

Let me know how it goes!

GLDFlorida

I have followed all of your advice. The totals have changed but the some of the rows don't add up. Some lines do add up, others aren't even close. I can add them with a calculator, and they do not equal. Something you should know: I have been using Quicken since possibly the late 90s, early 2000s and there have been "bugs" that moved with the budget each year. Some of the bugs disappeared when I upgraded to Deluxe. Again, the reason I upgraded was that the totals in the rows didn't add up. I'm at the point that I don't trust the budget numbers which makes the software unreliable and worse, unusable.

Any more suggestions before I pull the plug on your product?

Chris_QPW

Are any of your categories set as income instead of expense?

Quicken does weird things if you mix the two in a category group. There is a setting for it that helps, but it tends to still bite you in other places.

GLDFlorida

Thanks for your response. I'm an old software guy and I've triple-checked all my inputs for the budget. My next step will be to eliminate all the budget categories and add them one at a time to see when the totals go wonky. It's interesting because some category line items in the budget add up perfectly and some aren't even close. Painful process….

GLDFlorida

I found the problem. Quicken budget has what I would call two software bugs. As circled below, "Everything Else" appears in some categories and not others. WHY? It is not a user selectable item and I'd like to turn it off. If there are any budget numbers in this sub-category it won't roll up to the category total. How can I get this "feature" out of my budget? Secondly, if you select the sub-category of "other" in any Category, Quicken will not include the budget amount in that particular Category as part of the summary rollup. So I turned off all the sub-categories of "other" in every category and created very specific sub-categories to eliminate the summary issues being inaccurate. My annual budget is now within $9 which could be rounding errors since I copied the budget over from the previous year. Hope this helps!

Chris_QPW

Everything Else is wanky, mostly because it isn't treated the same on the Graph View, Annual View, and reports.

On the Graph View it shows up whenever there are categories that have actuals that have no budget amounts. I think there is a belief that the user has to be warned out "actuals" that have never been budgeted, because they might have done this by mistake. It has been requested several times to at least make this optional, but they haven't changed it.

On the Annual View it is when you mix "all" and individual selections. And this probably also relates to your other problem. I don't think most people understand how these parent/child category selections work.

Individual child only categories selected:

Parent and child categories selected.

Note what you expected? Selecting the Parent category means, I want amounts for everything under Auto. So, it already included Insurance and Registration, so what does this selection mean? They take it to mean you want to include everything, but only show those two individually. Where are the other ones like New Car to go? Everything Else is the answer.

People that select the Parent (Auto) in this case most likely really wanted Other.

So, what is "Other"? It is transactions that have the parent category, in this case Auto. See selecting Auto, has a dual meaning that has to be separated out. Without "Other" selecting the Parent category might mean "include all categories of from the parent down" or it might means select only the parent category. In this case it is the later. Other covers the other case.

And I do believe that bugs have been identified and not fixed when there is this kind of mixing, probably especially when Everything Else shows up in the annual view.

The general rule a lot of SuperUsers use to avoid every even wanting to go do this path is that if you have subcategories, only categorize using the subcategories, never the parent category. And when it comes to selecting categories in the budget you are either select "All" by selecting the parent category or you are selecting "some" by selecting the subcategories you are interested in, never both.

Reports don't have Everything Else at all.

GLDFlorida

Awesome, thank you for your input. Bug vs feature! I will do further "experiments" as you have shown to see what works best for me. Thanks again!