Business Expenses Categories don't include some schedule E categories

GaryNair

Since Mac version was advertised as supporting both personal and Biz, I assigned the biz accounts to the Biz I created under Quicken. But when I try to assign a Biz to a line item that has a traditional Sched E category such as SchedE Ln10 "Legal and other professional fees" I get error "A transaction (or split line) can only have a business when it is also using a business category".

Under 'Business Expense>Categories' I do see a similar category "Legal Services" and if I set it to that, it saves, but thats not a sched E line item category. List below shows the Sched E lines that dont have a great match to Biz Expense categories.

So, could someone please explain, why I cannot see all the exact SchedE categories for a Business. Can the list be extended to include exat Sched E category matches

Sched E Categories that have no exact match (under Business Expense>Categories)

6 Auto and travel . .. . . . . .(Closest Biz Expense Category is CarTruck Exp)
8 Commissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(Closest Biz Expense Category is 'Commisions & Fees')
10 Legal and other professional fees . . . (Closest Biz Expense Category is 'Legal Svc')
15 Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(Closest Biz Expense Category is 'Other Supplies (not COGS)')
19 Other (list) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(No bucket for Other such such as Postal Expenses, Bank Charges etc)

John_in_NC

I am not a fan of the default categories that Quicken provides, but I am sure their market research is why we end up with them.

I often create my own categories, as you should. Isn't this what you want? (I appended your name simply for example-you can omit.)

John_in_NC

I am not a fan of the default categories that Quicken provides, but I am sure their market research is why we end up with them.

I often create my own categories, as you should. Isn't this what you want? (I appended your name simply for example-you can omit.)

jacobs

Maybe I'm not fully understanding the problem @GaryNair.

All the default business categories Quicken creates are assigned to Schedule C tax lines. I think that's because they figure most people who will be using Quicken for mixing business and personal income and expenses will be filing a Schedule C; I think most people who have a separate S corporation or partnership tend to have a separate Quicken data file for their business. In either case, it's easy to edit the existing default categories from Schedule C to Schedule E. For one of the ones you cited, Quicken has a default business category for Legal Services assigned to Schedule C. But if you edit the category, you can change the Tax Schedule/Form to Schedule E, and then select the appropriate Schedule E tax line, Legal and Professional Services. (Or, as John said, you can delete Quicken's default categories and create your own categories, assigning them to the appropriate Schedule E tax line.)

GaryNair

Thanks so much! I was not aware the Categories were editable. Did not see that until I went into help and searched for Categories. And that loaded up all the categories with ability to add/edit.

I think now I can create multiple business, and have the same Sched E line items I am used to, and in this way get separate SchedE reports for each biz.