changing two accounts to use same categories

SteveCP

Hello: I have two accounts, mine and my Wife's. Mine uses the old Quicken categories and hers uses the new ones. There is some crossover but ideally I would like to have both accounts use the same category list so reports look uniform and everything gets categorized uniformly. Can anyone suggest a procedure to follow to accomplish this? It would involve somehow recategorizing hundreds of transactions to match in both accounts and then deleting the unused categories that will not be used. (Am not sure if it's better to move everything to the old Quicken categories or the newer ones)? Thanks for any help on how to tackle this thing.

RickO

Before tackling this, we need to clarify some terminology. When you say you have "two accounts", do you mean two accounts (reflecting two real world bank accounts) in a single Quicken data file? Or do you mean you have two separate Quicken data files, one for each spouse, each of which may contain multiple real-world bank accounts? The process will be different depending on the answer. But the good news: in neither case will need require manually recategorizing hundreds of transactions.

Let me tackle the latter case first. If you have separate Quicken data files, you can simply choose one to modify. In that file, open the Categories window (menu Window > Categories). Locate each category that you would like to be named as it is in the other file. Double click that category to edit the name, making it the same as the other file. This will be reflected everywhere that category is used. Repeat for other categories. You can do this for top level and also for subcategories. To re-arrange the hierarchy of categories to match the other file by changing the Subcategory Of field in the category edit pane. One trick here: if you want to make a subcategory into a top level category, you need to clear the Subcategory Of field (there isn't an option in the popup menu for this).

In the case where you have two accounts using different categories in the same Quicken data file, you will again want to open the Categories window. Find two categories that you want to be the same. Click on one, then Command-click on the other so you have to two categories selected. Now click the Merge Categories button at the bottom of the window. Choose which category you want to remain and click Merge. Repeat for each category pair.

Either of these processes will be a bunch of work depending on how many categories you need to change. But fortunately, neither involves editing individual transactions. There's one exception: if any of the categories you want to change are listed as Required in the Status column of the Categories window, Quicken will not let you rename or merge them. You will need to individually change the transactions that use those categories. To do this, select the All Transactions register and click the magnifying glass, top right. Choose Category from the dropdown, then enter the category name in the search box. Select all the resulting filtered transactions and click menu File > Get Info. Enter the new category and click OK. However, if any of the filtered transactions are split transaction, you'll need to edit each of these one by one.

When you are all done, you can scan the Status column in the Categories window for "unused" and delete these one by one. Or, you can click the three-dots-in-a-circle icon at the bottom of the window and choose Remove Unused Categories to delete them in one fell swoop.

When making massive global changes like this, you should definitely make backup(s) or your file(s) so you can revert if anything goes wrong or you're not happy with the results.

RickO

Before tackling this, we need to clarify some terminology. When you say you have "two accounts", do you mean two accounts (reflecting two real world bank accounts) in a single Quicken data file? Or do you mean you have two separate Quicken data files, one for each spouse, each of which may contain multiple real-world bank accounts? The process will be different depending on the answer. But the good news: in neither case will need require manually recategorizing hundreds of transactions.

Let me tackle the latter case first. If you have separate Quicken data files, you can simply choose one to modify. In that file, open the Categories window (menu Window > Categories). Locate each category that you would like to be named as it is in the other file. Double click that category to edit the name, making it the same as the other file. This will be reflected everywhere that category is used. Repeat for other categories. You can do this for top level and also for subcategories. To re-arrange the hierarchy of categories to match the other file by changing the Subcategory Of field in the category edit pane. One trick here: if you want to make a subcategory into a top level category, you need to clear the Subcategory Of field (there isn't an option in the popup menu for this).

In the case where you have two accounts using different categories in the same Quicken data file, you will again want to open the Categories window. Find two categories that you want to be the same. Click on one, then Command-click on the other so you have to two categories selected. Now click the Merge Categories button at the bottom of the window. Choose which category you want to remain and click Merge. Repeat for each category pair.

Either of these processes will be a bunch of work depending on how many categories you need to change. But fortunately, neither involves editing individual transactions. There's one exception: if any of the categories you want to change are listed as Required in the Status column of the Categories window, Quicken will not let you rename or merge them. You will need to individually change the transactions that use those categories. To do this, select the All Transactions register and click the magnifying glass, top right. Choose Category from the dropdown, then enter the category name in the search box. Select all the resulting filtered transactions and click menu File > Get Info. Enter the new category and click OK. However, if any of the filtered transactions are split transaction, you'll need to edit each of these one by one.

When you are all done, you can scan the Status column in the Categories window for "unused" and delete these one by one. Or, you can click the three-dots-in-a-circle icon at the bottom of the window and choose Remove Unused Categories to delete them in one fell swoop.

When making massive global changes like this, you should definitely make backup(s) or your file(s) so you can revert if anything goes wrong or you're not happy with the results.

SteveCP

Hi Rick: thanks so much for your thoughtful comments. I think we have two data files, but not sure how to tell. So I am going to describe the circumstances. I have always had Quicken and moved to the subscription version. I still only have one subscription but I have my Wife's quicken account separate from mine w/n this one account. When I have to change from one to the other (on Mac), i right click on the Quicken icon and choose from the resulting pop-up my acct or hers. -or- in Quicken I can click on File>open recent and select one of the two files. Does that answer your question?

RickO

Yes it does; that's a good explanation of what you're doing. You have two separate Quicken data files. When you click File > Open Recent, you are opening another data file (not an account). The terminology can be confusing, but it's important to use the correct terminology. You have a single Quicken Account (that is your subscription). Under a single Quicken Account, you can have multiple data files (which is what you have). Within a data file, you can have multiple bank/brokerage/asset accounts. These are reflected as individual accounts in the sidebar.

Since you have two data files, you would use the first process I described. There is one more way you can handle that first process. If you want to use the categories of her file (the "new" ones) going forward, you could click the three dot icon at the bottom of the Categories window in YOUR file, and select "Add Default Categories". You will then have both your old categories and the new categories in the file, with most or all of the new ones being unused for the time being. You could then use the Merge process I describe for the single-file case to merge each old category to a new one. This would save you having to type out the category names when renaming old categories to new.

By the way, there's nothing magic about Quicken categories (old or new). Someone could start using Quicken anew and immediately delete Quicken's categories and make up their own. Or they could use Quicken's categories combined with some of their own. I have many categories in my file that are unique to things I do (spend on) that Quicken would never include in their general list. It's totally up to you.

About using two vs one file. There are good reasons for both approaches. It is generally recommended that people use separate files for separate taxable entities for clean record keeping. If a couple were filing taxes separately, separate files. If filing jointly, a single file. But that's not a hard and fast rule. Another example: you use Quicken to manage finances for a charitable group. In that case, you'd definitely want separate files. Most married couples use a single file (so, for example, you don't have to run reports twice). But again, not a hard and fast rule. Some couples want to keep their data private from each other in which case two files makes sense. I using a single file, you can use Tags to mark transactions as to which spouse's (or both) expense/income it is, then use tags features in the reports separate these.

Having said all that, you are already using two files. Combining them into one can be done, but not super easily. So unless you really feel the need to combine them, it's probably best to just continue as is (after consolidating categories).

Hope that helps.

SteveCP

Hi Rick: that's a great, and thorough response, when I find some time I'm gonna start working on this project. Thanks so much and I really appreciate your thoughtfulness.

RickO

Good deal. Post back if you have further questions on this. And don't forget to backup frequently.