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Categorzing inter-account transactions

Kaaasox

When I make a payment to a credit card, which account gets the "Credit Card Payment" Category and which one gets the [Bank Account] notation.

Ex: If I make a payment to a credit card do I categorize the transaction on the credit card ledger as "Credit Card Payment" and categorize the transaction on the bank ledger as [Credit Card], or should I note the transaction on the credit card side as [Bank Account] and categorize the transaction in the bank ledger as "Credit Card Payment"?

Related: I do regular transfers to a savings account, does the savings account get the [Bank Account] notation and the checking entry gets categorized as 'Deposit To Savings' or does the savings account get the 'Deposit To Savings' and the bank get the [Savings Account] notation?

It seems to me that the one receiving the money would get the account notation and the bank account transaction would be categorized as "Credit Card Payment/Deposit To Savings", but it's unclear.

Also, as I am new to double entry bookkeeping, is there a guide to double entry bookkeeping and/or Quicken?

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Comments

UKR

Transfers between accounts should always be marked as such and not categorized to Credit Card Payment or other categories.

For best results, always begin the recording process in your checking account. Give the transaction a unique Payee Name, e.g., "Citi Card VISA" and categorize with the name of the Transfer-to account in [square brackets], e.g., [Citi Card VISA]

For ease of use, set up and use Scheduled Reminders to make these recurring payments. That saves a lot of typing and you will be reminded every month before payment is due.

The result of using a transfer transaction is that there will be a "linked transfer transaction" appearing in both accounts.
If you record these transfers on or before due date and BEFORE you download transactions from the various bank and credit card accounts, the register will already contains the necessary transactions and Quicken will be able to match the downloaded transactions to what's already in the register. No duplicate transactions, no incorrect categories.

Chris_QPW

You definitely want to use the [Other Account] syntax in the category field for your transfers. That is how Quicken links the two transactions together as a transfer.

If you pre-enter your transfers before the downloading of that transfer to either account, then it doesn't matter which account it is entered into. Quicken will just match this entry in both accounts as the transfer transaction is downloaded into that account.

My personal preference is to record the transfer in the account that will get the download first, provided that the transfer is in fact going to hit the two different accounts at a different time. For instance, a payment for my credit card hits the credit card account about a day or two before the checking account, but this is just personal preference.

If you don't pre-enter (either manually or with a reminder) then you are leaving it up to Quicken to make a guess (check out the Automatic Transfer Detection setting in the Edit → Preferences) and it is just a guess based on seeing a deposit and a withdraw for the same amount in two different account's downloaded transactions that are for the same amount. The more transfers do that are for the same amount the more likely Quicken will guess wrong of which match up.