Saved Report doesn't save the Categories used to make it

steveogetsatis

When I build a Saved Report, as I'm doing now for 2024 taxes, I select Categories of income and expenses to include. However, when I reopen the report the selected Categories don't appear. Instead, for this and every Saved Report the selected Categories are replaced by the same list of unrelated Categories. (As info, the "Show (hidden categories)" box is checked.

This forces me to have to totally reconstruct the report in order to perform the modification, knowing that the Saved Report really won't be "saved" on exit

Another commenter reported a similar problem in which an unselected category showed up in every report. The Q helper suggested going to the “Early Access” feature in preferences and toggling it off and that worked, in that case for an unexplained reason. I've tried that but no luck.

Any solutions? Thanks.

Using Q Deluxe Build 27.1.61.21 Version R61.21 on Windows 10 Home.

steveogetsatis

I finally figured it out. My Saved Report was, in fact, including the categories I had selected but was also including a bunch of unwanted others. It finally dawned on me that each of those others was in parentheses which I figured out to mean it was a hidden category. (Beats me how it got there in the first or came to be hidden.) Then I realized the "Show (hidden categories)" box was checked and when I unchecked it all the unwanted categories disappeared leaving me with only my selected categories and victory.

Thank you for your attention to my problem and for the Validate & Repair suggestion. I ran that and would bet it did some good.

Boatnmaniac

This forces me to have to totally reconstruct the report in order to perform the modification, knowing that the Saved Report really won't be "saved" on exit

Have you tried pulling a new default report, customizing it and then saving that report?

I've found that sometimes a saved report gets corrupted or simply stops working correctly, especially when that report was saved to a custom folder in My Saved Reports. I have stopped using custom folders in My Saved Reports and have observed that issues with saved reports, including saving changes to saved reports, have been greatly reduced.

steveogetsatis

It didn't work, if I did what I think you suggested correctly. I went to Quicken Standard Reports | Spending | Itemized Categories and created a fresh report for one of my tax return's Schedule A requirements. I believe I had used the same 2023 report as the template for the 2024 version that didn't work originally, and the new version does have considerably more detail, which is promising. I saved it to the "My Saved Reports" folder and not to a custom folder.
However, when I closed the report and reopened it the pertinent categories have disappeared and the same old unrelated categories that have plagued me have popped up. Back where I started.

Boatnmaniac

Have you tried to do Validate & Repair to see if that resolves this customized report saving issue? (File > Validate and Repair File)

Also, you should be able to pull a Tax Schedule report which will include your Schedule A deductions for all transactions with categories that have the correct tax line item associations. Then you don't need to manually create a custom report using the Itemized Categories report.

I also like to use the Tax Summary report because it summarizes all the transactions by Category which for me is very helpful (more helpful than the Tax Schedule and Sch A Tax reports) when it comes to completing my tax returns.

Both Tax Schedule and Tax Summary reports are available in Quicken Classic Starter. There are other Tax Reports available for higher lever Quicken Classic subscriptions. You can see which Tax Reports are available for each subscription level in this Quicken blog article: https://www.quicken.com/blog/get-the-most-out-of-tax-reporting/ .

steveogetsatis

I finally figured it out. My Saved Report was, in fact, including the categories I had selected but was also including a bunch of unwanted others. It finally dawned on me that each of those others was in parentheses which I figured out to mean it was a hidden category. (Beats me how it got there in the first or came to be hidden.) Then I realized the "Show (hidden categories)" box was checked and when I unchecked it all the unwanted categories disappeared leaving me with only my selected categories and victory.

Thank you for your attention to my problem and for the Validate & Repair suggestion. I ran that and would bet it did some good.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20480149#Comment_20480149

Good to hear you figured it out.

Regarding hidden categories: At some time you must have hidden some categories that you do not use. The box for hidden categories is, in many reports, checked by default so if you do not want them you will need to deselect them in the report customization popup.

You can view all hidden categories you might have by going to Tools > Category List > check the box for Show hidden categories. There is a Hide column on the right side of the screen and the categories that are hidden will have that box checked.

Category List will also include a column for Usage. If you do not see that column, click on the Gear icon at the top right of the list and check the box for it so it gets added to Category List. Then you can see the number of transactions in your data file that have used for each category. When you had hidden categories included in your report and if there were transactions shown for them in the report you need to ask yourself if you really want them to be hidden or if they should be unhidden. Unhiding a category will remove the parenthesis from that category in reports.

I have sometimes hidden categories that I no longer use but do not wish to lose the historical data. For instance, I've been retired for nearly 10 yrs so I no longer need to see nor use all of my paycheck categories but I definitely want to keep all that historical data, in large part because deleting those categories can adversely impact some of my other accounts (checking, savings, retirement, etc.) and prior years tax reports. By hiding those categories instead of deleting them, my historical data remains intact but I can then easily deselect them in more recent reports and it will reduce the number of categories included in the category fields for new transactions that I enter.

When you find the time you might want to review the transactions with hidden categories to make sure you really want them to be hidden or if they should be unhidden. If hidden categories are showing up in reports with values it means that you are still using those categories so you might want to consider unhiding them. You can start the review by opening the Category List and then click on the blue font number in the Usage column. That will open a popup showing all the the payees that the category has been used with.

If you then click on the Full Report button in that popup it will open a report showing the transaction details for each of the transactions for that category. Double clicking on a transaction will take you to that transaction in the account register where you can edit it, if you wish.

steveogetsatis

That's very useful and detailed information and I really appreciate your taking the time to pass it along. I'll save your instructions and make the inventory you suggest. Very best wishes.