How do I move all transactions/split items from one category to another?

Question

I am a long time Quicken Windows user and I'm trying to help a new Quicken Mac user and I just don't understand Mac or the Quicken for Mac variant. I want to move all transactions/split items assigned to a category to another category. I know how to do this on the Windows version but I can't figure it out on the Mac version. There doesn't seem to be a way to select all transactions in a report to move them. Appreciate the help.

Scott Lindner · Answer

Thank you for the detailed response! My situation is a variant of the third scenario you described. The difference is that these categories are in splits and are not whole transactions. I want to move Category A to Category B. There is manual cleanup that I have to do because I don't really need all of them, I need a lot of them. It's just the easiest way for me to deal with what amounts to a big category cleanup to match various accounts statements for multiple LLCs to make tax reporting easier.

Jon · Answer

How easy it is to do this depends on the circumstances.

If you want to move all the transactions from one category to another, and the new category does not yet exist, then you can rename the existing category in the Categories window (available from the Window menu). Right-click on the category, select "Edit Category…", and type the new category name in the Name field. The new category name will be applied across the board to all transactions using the old name.

If you want to move all the transactions from one category to another category that already exists, and you also want to get rid of the old category entirely, then you can merge the two categories in the Categories window. Select both categories and click on the "Merge Categories" button in the lower left corner of the window. Select the category you want to keep in the drop down and click the Merge button, and all the transactions in both categories will be merged into that one. For example, here I have two categories for gasoline that I'm going to combine into one:

When I click on Merge, all the transactions categorized as "Boat gas" will be re-categorized as "Gasoline", and the "Boat gas" category will be deleted.

Finally, if you want to move a set of transactions from one category to another without deleting the old category (maybe you don't want to recategorize all the transactions using a category but only some of them) then you can select those transactions in the register, select "Edit Transaction" from the Transactions menu, and change the category in the edit window. If the transactions are in multiple accounts you can use the "All Transactions" register; typing the category name in the Search window can help isolate those transactions. Note that this does not work for split transactions - those will have to be done one at a time by hand.

I would encourage you to make a backup of your Quicken file before trying any of this, just in case something goes wrong.