Average Monthly Spend per Category

Question

Is there a built-in report or a way to customize a report to have it provide my average monthly spend per category with a specific date range (e.g. last year)?  I certainly know how to report on the total spend for last year and I can easily calculate it in Excel by dividing each category by 12, but I'm interested to know if Quicken can do all of this for me.

Thank you!

q_lurker · Answer

If you set the Date range to Custom Dates, you get all the options for the compare.  Yes, only three of those are per-month.  My limited testing suggests ‘Last 12 months’ is always going to mean the last 12 completed months; currently Jan - Dec, in Feb to be Feb - Jan.

I would expect Last year to be for 2024 throughout 2025, but that is not the monthly value you are after.

Revising your statement as follows, I agree:

There doesn't seem to be a reliable way to get the average monthly spend per category for the prior year throughout the current year.

easy_goer · Answer

Close.  It's strange.  If I select a Date Range of Current Month, then Compare to the last 12 months, it provide me with the monthly average over the last 12 months.  But if I select a Date Range of Current Year and select Compare to Last Year, the Avg. Spending Last Year column just shows me the total spend for each category in the prior year.  I would be fine with the first option I ran through, but it will be useless as the year progresses.  It will just provide me an average of the past 12 months.  There doesn't seem to be a reliable way to get the average spend per category for the prior year.

Thank you!

q_lurker · Answer

Reports / Spending / Current Spending vs Average Spending by Category

The average spending can be set for a variety of time frames consistent with the current period.  That is, if the Date range is current month, you can compare to last 3, 6, or 12 months.  If the Date range is current year, the comparison periods are last 1, 3, or 5 years.