Recording Transfers that are not Quicken Accounts

Question

I have an investment account that is not included in my Quicken.  I would like to show transfers to that account without them showing as an expense.  If I make it a separate account it would increase my net worth.  Is there a way to name or catagorize this transfer so it doesn't show up as spending?

Jim_Harman · Answer

Note that marking an investing account as Separate will not increase your net worth. Separate accounts are excluded by default from reports, including Net Worth, unless you explicitly include them.

Also I would not recommend using self-transfers routinely. They make money appear and disappear from your accounts. If for some reason you wanted to include these transactions in a report, it would be difficult to do unless you wanted to include all transfers.

UKR · Answer

You can use a trick which Quicken uses when creating an account's Opening Balance transaction for categorizing these transfers:

In the category field use the same account name, surrounded by [square brackets], as the account it's in (e.g., the transfer transaction in your MyChecking account has Category = [MyChecking])

That's called a "transfer back into the same account" and is OK. You will get a verification prompt …

Quicken uses this method to establish the Opening Balance without making it appear as an Income or Expense in any views or reports. You can do that for your transfers.

Jim_Harman · Answer

If the account is not in Quicken you could enter the payment as a Withdrawal and give it a Category you do not use for other purposes. You could then exclude that Category from your spending reports.