I can no longer trust QWin reports

Rocket J Squirrel

I wanted to take a look at my charitable and political contributions for the last year, so I ran an income/expense report with only my Contributions category hierarchy selected.

The numbers looked completely wrong, and QCDs appeared as negative income instead of positive expenses. I expanded the time frame to get more transactions reported, and this was the result. I have no transactions using the top level "Contributions" category. All my contributions use subcategories. Political contributions did not appear at all, and I made plenty. I am using the "old" report options, not the Early Access ones.

I'm not bothering to conceal the numbers reported because they're totally, utterly wrong. Supervalidation found no errors and did not fix this problem. This is R56.9. This is bad.

NotACPA

Curious. I don't have any QCDs … but I just ran that report and mine looks fine.

What does it look like if you omit the QCD?

Also running R56.9

And, am I reading your report correctly that most of your Contribs are posted into the Contributions parent category?

Rocket J Squirrel

And, am I reading your report correctly that most of your Contribs are posted into the Contributions parent category?

That's what the report shows. But it's wrong. Here is the excerpt, including usage numbers, from my Categories list.

What does it look like if you omit the QCD?

Expenses are exactly the same, and the entire Income section is gone. The only thing different about the QCD subcategory is that it's newly created. I only started making QCDs in January 2024.

Rocket J Squirrel

I wrote

The only thing different about the QCD subcategory is that it's newly created.

But I was mistaken. I forgot that I had assigned the Tax Line Item "1099-R:Total IRA gross distrib" to the QCD subcat. Note not taxable distrib. I hypothesized the gross distrib would make it show up in tax reports. It does not. But removing that TLI moved the QCD subcat back under Expenses in the report.

The numbers are still wildly wrong and my Contributions:Political subcat still does not show in the report at all.

The Itemized Categories report gets it right. Somehow my Income/Expense report has been poisoned.

Quicken Kristina

Hello @Rocket J Squirrel,

I'm not having any luck replicating the issue you described. What account type(s) are these contributions coming from? Do they have Tax Line Items assigned? If so, which ones? Is this happening in saved Income/Expense by Category reports, in newly created Income/Expense by Category reports, or both? Also, just to confirm, did you go to the Customize gear, Categories tab and verify that the Political subcategory was selected (in the report where it's not showing up)?

I'm not sure if it's significant or not, but I notice the timeframe in the Itemized Categories report is different from the custom timeframe you were using in the Income/Expense by Category reports. Do you see the same misbehavior if you choose the same timeframe? Does the Income/Expense by Category report show correct information if limited just to this year?

I look forward to your response!

Rocket J Squirrel

Hi, @Quicken Kristina

What account type(s) are these contributions coming from?

All types. Banking, investment, and retirement.

Do they have Tax Line Items assigned? If so, which ones?

My initial problem was that I had assigned (and forgotten that I had) "1099-R:Total IRA gross distrib" to my Contributions:QCD subcategory. Now a QCD is unquestionably a "distribution" but QWin doesn't know about QCDs, and the report is treating them as income when they are not.

My regular tax-deductible contributions have the correct TLI "Schedule A:Cash charity contributions". But thanks to the Trump tax increase which capped my SALT deduction, I can no longer itemize. Switching all my contributions to QCDs is the only way I can get any tax benefit from charitable donations now that I am 70½ years old.

Is this happening in saved Income/Expense by Category reports, in newly created Income/Expense by Category reports, or both?

Newly created.

Also, just to confirm, did you go to the Customize gear, Categories tab and verify that the Political subcategory was selected (in the report where it's not showing up)?

Yes.

I'm not sure if it's significant or not, but I notice the timeframe in the Itemized Categories report is different from the custom timeframe
you were using in the Income/Expense by Category reports. Do you see the same misbehavior if you choose the same timeframe?

Not significant. Timeframe doesn't change the result except, of course, for timeframe.

mshiggins

Just a thought, but perhaps digging into the details might shed some light.

Are the same accounts selected for the Income/Expense and Itemized Categories reports?

Have you tried intervals other than None in the Income/Expense report to see whether the discrepancies can be narrowed down?

Have you tried drilling down on the individual amounts in the Income/Expense report to see what transactions make up the report line amounts?

-JP

mshiggins

Are you using the new report setting which, based on reading posts here, seems to cause many issues? What happens if you drop out accounts one by one? Do you get to a set of accounts where the report behaves correctly?

Rocket J Squirrel

I went to try to troubleshoot this, and today I can't reproduce it. Same data file, same report, same dates. Today the report looks fine. Nothing is attributed to top-level Contributions, and subcategory Political appears correctly. Phase of the moon?

Quicken Kristina

Thanks for the follow up,

I'm glad to hear it's behaving correctly now. I'm not sure what would have caused it to be giving incorrect numbers and missing the political subcategory earlier. Is it possible restarting the program or the computer corrected the issue?

Thank you!

Rocket J Squirrel

I did restart the PC, so perhaps some bad data looked good once re-examined in today's session. Or maybe it was a phase-of-the-moon bug.

NotACPA

I'd attribute it to "The innate perversity of inanimate objects"!