Budget values and categories do not copy to next year

ae6dx

I just created a 2025 budget and selected the option to copy categories and values from previous year. It does not copy anything over. Just a new blank budget. How do I fix this? Quicken 27.160.20 Windows

Quicken Kristina

Hello @ae6dx,

Thank you for letting us know you're encountering this issue. To help troubleshoot, please provide more information. Did this happen when creating a brand new budget, or when carrying forward an existing budget to the current year? Have you double checked the categories? If you don't have categories that were used last year selected, that could be one reason for a blank budget.

I look forward to your reply!

ae6dx

it is carried forward from last year. By selecting the first option isn't it supposed to copy over the categories? Shouldn't they automatically be selected since they copied from last year?

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Based on your original post, it sounds like you selected to copy the categories and values, which, according to the help article linked below, should retain the same categories and amounts.

https://info.quicken.com/win/how-do-i-create-a-budget#HowdoIcreateabudget?-Extendingyourbudget:

Is the budget completely blank (no categories and no values)? If not, what information is showing in your budget for this year?

Thank you!

Chris_QPW

This is the same old problem that happens every year. If you extend a budget while in the previous year to then next year it will give you several options to copy data from the previous year, both the budget categories and the "actuals" can be used to set the budget amounts. On the other hand, if you wait to the next year (and don't set your date back to the previous year) you won't get those choices, and you will end up with a very empty budget. And if you open a budget that hasn't been extended in the previous year it will force the "empty" choice on you.

The also goes for a brand-new budget it will not give you the option to use the previous year to setup the budget, it is a "start from scratch".

As you can see from the above dialog, for a new budget. Your choices are, you tell it all of the categories you want manually, or a "do you feel lucky" choice, but in both cases these are just the selection of categories, there isn't going to be anything that recommends what the budget amounts should be. You will have to fill them in yourself.

ae6dx

some of the categories are there but no values

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your replies,

As @Chris_QPW said, when opening the budget after the new year (if it hasn't already been extended), it automatically extends the budget, without letting you choose which option you want:

Since you mentioned seeing the 3 options, I assumed that you extended your budget before the new year. Is that correct?

If that is correct, was the correct information originally there, or has it been missing since you extended the budget?

Thank you!

ae6dx

its been missing since I extended it

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

If you'd like, you can try restoring a backup from before you extended your budget. Since we're already in 2025, Quicken would automatically extend the budget, without giving you any options, as soon as you open that budget in the newly restored file.

If the automatic extension doesn't pull the information you want into your 2025 budget, then you may be better off returning to your main file and manually filling in the missing information.

If it does successfully pull in the information you need in your 2025 budget, then you may want to bring the newly restored file current and use it as your main file going forward.

I hope this helps!

ae6dx

Why is it not pulling the info?

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Are you talking about in your main file, or did you restore a backup and it's not pulling in there?

Thank you!

Chris_QPW

I made a mistake. I just tried it, and I created a new budget and asked Quicken to pick the categories, and it did pick both the categories, and the budget amounts based on the transaction activity in the last 12 months.

So, I don't know why you didn't get them if you did in fact create a new budget and weren't extending an existing budget.

ae6dx

main file backup was the same

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

If it's not pulling the data in, the most likely causes are either a file-specific problem or Quicken defaulting to the categories only option. Since it's already into the new year, it doesn't offer the options and would just automatically extend your budget.

Have you tried creating a new budget and checking to see if Quicken is able to fill in budget values based on the previous year, as @Chris_QPW mentioned above?

Thank you!