Savings goal budget amount does not show up in report

MikeInIdaho

My problem is similar to the old post listed at the bottom from May 7, 2022. I did all of the suggestions and I was unable to get my savings goals to show up in the budget report. I made a backup, I validated the file, tried to build a savings goal report showing budget amount and it didn't work. I did the Super Validate and tried to build the report and again it did not work.

I'm on Windows 10 Enterprise with Quicken version R54.16, build 27.1.54.16.

This is what I get when I build a brand new report. What I changed from defaults for a "Reports→Spending→Current Budget" report:

1. Date range: Monthly
2. Display→Organization: Category Group
3. Categories→Include only transactions with selected categories
   1. Chose all of my "svg-<type>" categories only
4. Advanced→Transfers: Include all
5. Advanced→Categories: Include all

Old post with similar problem. I tried all of the suggestions, nothing worked.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7913135/savings-goals-do-not-show-up-in-budget-report

Quicken Kristina

Hello @MikeInIdaho,

To troubleshoot this issue, first, could you please confirm that you have the savings goal(s) reflecting in your budget? To do that, click the Manage Budget Categories button on your budget screen.

Then, in the window that comes up, go to the Savings Goals section and make sure the savings goals you want reflecting in your budget are selected.

I look forward to your reply!

MikeInIdaho

Hello Kristina,

Yes, my savings goals are selected in my budget. Here's the screenshot. Thanks for helping me out. What else can I try?

MikeInIdaho

Also, I do have values in each savings goal. So they should show up in the report.

mshiggins

I think you need to look more closely at Quicken Kristina's screenshot of "Select Categories to Budget".

Instead of selecting your savings goals from the "Savings Goals" group, you have selected them from the "Transfers Out" group.

If you deselect the savings goals from "Transfers Out" and select them from "Savings Goals", your problem should disappear.

[I'm not sure exactly what you mean in your comment, "Also, I do have values in each savings goal ....", but just to clarify, the balances in your savings goals don't have any bearing on what you see in your budget/budget report; all that matters is whether there were any transactions for the period in question.]

-JP

MikeInIdaho

JP, thanks for trying to help out. In my image you can see that I have the "Savings Goals" selected, not the "Transfers Out" selected. There's a dividing line between Transfers Out and Savings Goals, maybe that's what you're referring to. Kristina's screenshot shows the same dividing line, she just has 2 extra items called "Paychecks" and "Detailed Loan Payments". I don't have those sections so the dividing line is right next to my "Savings Goals".

MikeInIdaho

@Quicken Kristina any more info you need or any ideas you have on how I can fix my issue?

Thanks,

Mike

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Do you also have the appropriate Transfers Out selected (since that should show the transfers from the account to the savings goal)?

Thank you!

mshiggins

"In my image you can see that I have the 'Savings Goals' selected, not the 'Transfers Out'."

Yes, I did see that.

But I also looked at your original post in this discussion; the post that shows your savings goals as "transfers". As in, "TO svg-Charity" and "TO svg-Clothing", for examples.

That format ("TO account-name") is the format of a "transfer category". Not only that, but those transfer categories in your initial post are grouped under "Personal Expenses" (which is where "transfers out" are grouped).

When the categories in your Budget report are selected by "Savings Goals" in the budget, they will appear with only their savings goal name (not preceded by "TO"), and they will appear under the heading "Savings Goals" - both in the budget and the budget report.

After more extensive testing, here's what I can tell you.

Basically, your Budget Report Customization category selections are overriding your budget category selections (see below). Your budget amount is for (the account) "savings goal" while the report believes it should be using (the transfer-category) "TO savings goal". The budget report finds no budget for the (transfer) category "TO savings goal", so it shows your budgeted amount as zero.


When your report Customize > Advanced > Categories choice is "Include all", Quicken apparently uses the Category List as the guide to choose report categories. That essentially puts the Category List categories in the driver's seat. 

Using one of your Savings Goals as an example: you have created a budget for "svg-Charity" (the Savings Goal account name), but in your Budget report, you have "told" Quicken to use your Category List (transfer) categories for report rows. There is no category, "svg-Charity" in the Category List (because "{svg-Charity is an Account name); but there is a (transfer) category, "TO svg-Charity".  

So Quicken displays the category "TO svg-Charity" with whatever the net amount of that category is; but Quicken finds NO budget for "TO svg-Charity (because the budget is for "svg-Charity") ... so the budget amount in the report is $0.00.

[In the "Personal Income" section of the Budget report from which you posted the screenshot in your initial post in this discussion, you should also see a row for "FROM svg-Charity"; presumably with a $0.00 budget amount and an amount equal to the net amount of withdrawals from the savings goal during the budget period.]

In my tests, when I have reproduced the situation in your Budget report (where my Category row reads the equivalent of "TO svg-Charity"); if I change Customize > Advanced > Categories to "Budgeted only" (or "Non-zero Actual/budgeted), the savings goal category changes from the equivalent of "TO svg-Charity" to "svg-Charity" (and both the actual and budget amounts appear). Because, I believe, the "budget" categories then control what appears in the report ... for categories that have budgets.

I suppose that Quicken could "fix" the problem, though I have no idea how difficult that would be ... and the difficulty matters.

But it seems to me that for most situations, the Budget report Customize > Advanced > Categories option can be set to "Budgeted only" or "Non-zero Actual/budgeted" with no loss meaningful loss of info.

-JP