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Is there a way to have a report show a running total?

LMillsap1

I have a basic report that shows debit and credit transactions for a specific category. The transactions for that category are made from multiple different accounts (checking, different credit cards, etc). Is there a way to get a running total for that category (or within each category if multiple categories are reported on)?

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[Deleted User]

@LMillsap1 - I haven't found a way to do it in Quicken, but if I need a report that requires running totals, I bring it into a spreadsheet and then add a "running total" column to the report.

Jim_Harman

Most Quicken reports do not support a running total. If you need a report subtotaled by Category with a running total of each Category, you could start with a Banking Transaction report subtotaled by Category or and Itemized Categories report. Either of these will give the total for each Category.

To get the running total, you could export the report to Excel and produce the running total there.

LMillsap1

I was afraid that would be the answer. I would think if Quicken can do a category report, by category, in date order, with a total for each category, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to kick out the "current balance" as each transaction is added. Crystal Reports can do it. Why can't Quicken?

Jim_Harman

This has been requested many times over the years but it appears that all the Idea posts have been closed and archived because they have not received enough votes to be considered by the developers.

Perhaps we should start another Idea for this enhancement.

I can see how a running total or balance would be useful in a report organized by account, but to help promote this idea, can you explain how you would use the running total in a report organized by Category?

LMillsap1

I'm the Trustee of a family trust and I frequently purchase goods and services for the Trust and then periodically get reimbursed for these expenses as the Trust has the cash flow (I have a "Trust" category I use to keep track of this). Other similar scenarios might be purchasing reimbursable goods and services (travel expenses for example) as an agent of my employer (maybe a "Work" category), or helping my teenage son to keep his car running by purchasing big ticket items and then him paying me back over time (maybe "Bobby's Bomb" category). In any case, I would most likely make the purchases using multiple accounts or credit cards. Being able to see the remaining balance of these categories (regardless of which accounts were used) over time would be helpful. Seeing just the "bottom line" is helpful, but being able to see how it got there is also helpful.

[Deleted User]

@LMillsap1 you might want to look into using Savings Goals for some of the things you mentioned. That feature is located on the Planning tab.

mshiggins

@LMillsap1 you might want to consider using Tags. You can add your Trust Tag along with any category as another way of classifying your transactions. There are reports utilizing Tags as well that would let you total by Tag across categories and accounts.

LMillsap1

Thanks for the input. I'll look into the Planning angle and see what's there.

I get the idea of Tags to further classify transactions within a category (or per tag regardless of category. I've used them before and, yes, there will be a total for each Tag (as children) for each category, however, I'm looking for a running total per transaction per category or per tag.

LMillsap1

When I look at the Q blog on Savings Goals, I saw a couple of things that I thought wouldn't really work for me.

1) I'm dealing with real transactions that are actually coming out of or going to real accounts that relate to a specific purpose (Trust expenses).

2) It requires entering additional "transactions" (contribute or withdraw) from the Planning tab in order to manage the (hidden funds) goal.

3) The Planning tab has issues with negative values.

However, after some poking around, I did discover a few things. The savings goal shows up similar to any other account with a register. If I enter a transaction from a real account register (a credit card for example), I can use the Trust Savings Goal "account" in the Category field instead of the regular Trust category. Transactions made in the register itself (or from a different register) seems to bypass the Planning tab's aversion to negative numbers. The Savings Goal register has a running total. The down side is that, since the credit card transactions are now going to the Savings Goal register and not the Trust category, I will have to run a register report to see totals for the Trust since the Trust category will no longer have transactions assigned to it.

I guess I could also just set up an Trust "account" register (rather than a Savings Goal through the Planning tab) if I'm not needing the stealth capabilities of a Savings Goal.

mshiggins

How about two tags: Trust Expense and Trust Reimbursed. Tag initially when money is spent with Trust Expense. Update the tag to Trust Reimbursed one the expense has been reimbursed. I use something similar for tracking my FSA expenditures and reimbursements.

Combine with search filtering in the All Transactions register and you can get instant totals. The All Transactions register is accessible via link at the top of the Account Bar.

LMillsap1

Ok,I've come up with something that seems to work.

I have the old Trust category with historical transactions from different accounts. I have the new Trust Account (initially created from the Planning tab, but could have been created like any other account) with a half dozen test transactions assigned to it instead of the Trust Category. I run a generic Easy Answer "How much did I spend on …" report for YTD and get previously entered transactions in the Trust Category, but none of the new test transactions that were applied to the Trust Account. If I then edit the report and uncheck the Trust Account from the list of the accounts that are participating in the report, I get a "Transfers" section at the bottom of the report that shows the new test transactions. I still only get an "ending" balance, but it shows up on the Category report. If I really want to see the running total for the Trust, I can now just look at the Trust Account register.