Looking for list of default categories

msoultan

Hi,

I'm working with someone that has a ridiculous amount of custom categories (over 700) so we're going to spend some time cleaning them up. Is there a list somewhere that shows all the default categories? My goal is to re-assign any of the custom categories to the default ones, and then where there isn't an appropriate default one, keep the custom one. Have a list of the default ones would be very helpful for us to look at.

Thanks!

Mike

Jim_Harman

The easiest way I know of to get a list of the default Categories is to create a new test file with the types of accounts that are in the problem file then go to Tools > Category List and check the Show hidden categories box. To see all the Business Categories, you will need a business account and to see the Investing categories you will need an investing account in the file.

Click on the printer icon at the bottom left to print the categories.

I do not particularly like the organization of the default Categories, for example having a top-level "Shopping" Category and another for "Bills and Utilities", but to each their own.

In general it is best to rename default Categories rather than deleting them, and to hide those that you don't use. If you use Quicken's automatic categorization option, renamed Categories will be assigned to the same Payees as the originals but the auto categorization will not assign anything to Categories that you have created.

If you friend has a huge number of Categories, they might want to look into using more generic Categories along with Tags to identify more specific cross-Category activities. For example, I have one Category for Travel and Tags for Denver, San Diego, Florida, etc.

msoultan

Hey Jim,

I totally didn't notice the print icon at the bottom! Thanks for pointing that out. While it would be nice to have an export button (i.e. to CSV), I was able to use the tool in Excel to get data from a PDF and it was able to pull the data into a spreadsheet where I was able to format it how I like.

I also like the idea of using tags - my friend was creating categories for everything and then inadvertently (and not surprisingly) creating categories that duplicated each other (i.e. pool cleaning and pool cleaner).

Thanks!

Mike

mshiggins

@msoultan you can “print” to a tab delimited or CSV format file from any of the print functions in Quicken.

UKR

At the bottom of the Category List view there also is an Options button which has two functions:

• Assign category groups
• Manage categories

Explore both functions and how they might be able to help in your situation.

Jim_Harman

Some further notes on Categories:

It is worth spending some time deciding what set of Categories best fits your friend's situation. When analyzing the category usage it is helpful to click on the gear at the top right of the category list and make sure the Usage box is checked. This will show how many times each Category has been used. You can click on the number to see all the transactions.

If you set up too many Categories, or they are not grouped in a way that is useful for you, it can be difficult to sort things out later. On the other hand, if your Categories are too broad, you will find unrelated items lumped together.

The general criteria I use for expense categories is to select ones that will have significant usage in dollars and/or ones that I want to track separately for tax purposes. Over about 25 years of using Quicken, I have ended up with 28 top level spending Categories and a total of 80 subcategories. I have a catch-all Category called Household with 6 subcategories that I use for small expenses that do not fall into any of the other categories. It is a good idea to review these from time to time to see if any of them deserve a category or subcategory of their own.

msoultan

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20485714#Comment_20485714

OMG… I totally missed that! Thanks for pointing that out!!