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.