Average Monthly Spend per Category

easy_goer
easy_goer Quicken Windows Subscription Member
edited February 18 in Reports (Windows)

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!

Answers

  • Tom Young
    Tom Young Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 18

    Deleted

  • q_lurker
    q_lurker Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    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.

  • easy_goer
    easy_goer Quicken Windows Subscription Member

    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
    q_lurker Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    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.

This discussion has been closed.