Credit card payments.

crkoker

How can I stop my credit card monthly payments from being included in my spending summary (and budget)? The actual spending is recorded in the credit card account. The payment should not be included in spending, but I cannot see how to prevent this from happening. The payment should be included in my checking register, but it is duplicating my spending in my budget.

Boatnmaniac

You are correct that a credit card bill payment should not be seen as an expense. Instead it is simply a transfer of cash asset between accounts which will correctly result in no change to net worth.

In keeping with this, the normal practice is to set up the credit card payment as a transfer from the checking account to the credit card account. In the checking account register the transaction category would be the name of the credit card enclosed in square brackets….[credit card name]. This would result in a corresponding transaction automatically entered into that credit card account with the name of the checking account enclosed in square brackets….[checking account name]. If you do it this way (or the reverse of that where the transfer transaction originates in the credit card account and the transfer then pulls the cash from the checking account), then you should not be seeing the credit card payment being expensed in your budget.

Is that how you are categorizing (as transfers) those transactions or are you categorizing it as "Credit Card Payment"?

Boatnmaniac

Entering EFT has no functional purpose. It is simply something to identify which kind of transaction it is. It's kind of like entering the check number in a payment by check. It is for reference only.

Getting that message about the payment being a transfer to the same account means that you have a category of [credit card account name] in the transaction. It's a circular reference which will exclude that transaction from reports. There are some types of transactions where that circular reference is desired but that is not the case with credit card payment transactions.

What you want to do is what I posted above.

Since you have automatic payments set up you might want to first set up a manual Bill Reminder. Do this on the Bills & Income tab. Click on the + sign on the right and then click on Manual Bill. Here is an example of one that I set up.

A few days before the bill payment is actually transacted, Enter the Reminder. During the Enter process you can modify the actual amount of the payment to be made (if it varies from month to month). Entering the Reminder will add the payment transactions into both the credit card account and the checking account and they will be linked to each other.

When the payment transaction later downloads from the credit card company, Quicken will match it to the Reminder transaction that was entered there. (Well, usually it will get matched properly. Once is a great while it will not automatically match and then it can be manually matched.)

When the payment transaction downloads from the checking account (usually 1-2 days later), Quicken will usually match it to the Reminder transaction in the checking account.

When you have your credit card payments set up like this, they will not show up in any reports or in the budget against any standard categories (unless you optionally choose to include them in reports and the budget).

Questions?

Boatnmaniac

You are correct that a credit card bill payment should not be seen as an expense. Instead it is simply a transfer of cash asset between accounts which will correctly result in no change to net worth.

In keeping with this, the normal practice is to set up the credit card payment as a transfer from the checking account to the credit card account. In the checking account register the transaction category would be the name of the credit card enclosed in square brackets….[credit card name]. This would result in a corresponding transaction automatically entered into that credit card account with the name of the checking account enclosed in square brackets….[checking account name]. If you do it this way (or the reverse of that where the transfer transaction originates in the credit card account and the transfer then pulls the cash from the checking account), then you should not be seeing the credit card payment being expensed in your budget.

Is that how you are categorizing (as transfers) those transactions or are you categorizing it as "Credit Card Payment"?

crkoker

The payment is an automatic payment from our checking account to the bank. When I set it up as an EFT to the credit card I get a response that I am transfering to the same account, do I want to continue?

Boatnmaniac

Entering EFT has no functional purpose. It is simply something to identify which kind of transaction it is. It's kind of like entering the check number in a payment by check. It is for reference only.

Getting that message about the payment being a transfer to the same account means that you have a category of [credit card account name] in the transaction. It's a circular reference which will exclude that transaction from reports. There are some types of transactions where that circular reference is desired but that is not the case with credit card payment transactions.

What you want to do is what I posted above.

Since you have automatic payments set up you might want to first set up a manual Bill Reminder. Do this on the Bills & Income tab. Click on the + sign on the right and then click on Manual Bill. Here is an example of one that I set up.

A few days before the bill payment is actually transacted, Enter the Reminder. During the Enter process you can modify the actual amount of the payment to be made (if it varies from month to month). Entering the Reminder will add the payment transactions into both the credit card account and the checking account and they will be linked to each other.

When the payment transaction later downloads from the credit card company, Quicken will match it to the Reminder transaction that was entered there. (Well, usually it will get matched properly. Once is a great while it will not automatically match and then it can be manually matched.)

When the payment transaction downloads from the checking account (usually 1-2 days later), Quicken will usually match it to the Reminder transaction in the checking account.

When you have your credit card payments set up like this, they will not show up in any reports or in the budget against any standard categories (unless you optionally choose to include them in reports and the budget).

Questions?

crkoker

Thank you. I got the transfer to work correctly. Much appreciated.