Proper categorization

Drfox59

Using Quicken for Windows, I have gotten myself confused as to how to properly categorize a transaction. Let's say I pay a credit card from my bank account. In the bank account register, what should the Category say? Should it be an artificial category like "Credit Card Payment" or show up as the paid credit card account "[Credit Card Account Name]"?

Tom Young

The proper entry is to show the credit card Account.

This - in Quicken-speak - is a "Transfer" between two balance sheet Accounts; it reduces your cash and reduces the amount owed on the credit card. A Transfer does not change your net worth. So in your example an asset - cash - is reduced, offset by a reduction in your liabilities in the same amount.

Drfox59

Tom, thank you for your reply. It makes sense. For some reason, some of the transactions would show up as "uncategorized" making me question the right way. I need to go back and make some changes.

Tom Young

If you've used "Credit Credit Payment" in the past and that name is actually a Category in Quicken, then those entries WOULD decrease your net worth because Quicken sees that as a form of "expense" (in the true accounting sense of that word) and expenses DO decrease your net worth.

UKR

If you have issues with transfer transactions not being generated correctly:
For best results manually enter transfer transactions into your register BEFORE you download transactions from the bank which contain the transfer confirmations. For recurring transfers use scheduled reminders and enter them a few days before the due date.
Be sure to use distinct Payee Names for each transfer / credit card payment to avoid confusing Quicken - memorized payee entries.
That takes the guesswork out of the downloading process. Because a correctly entered transfer transaction already exists in your account registers, the download process should just match the downloaded transfer transaction to the existing one in both accounts and not create incorrectly categorized transactions.

Jim_Harman

Confusingly, "Credit Card Payment" is one of Quicken's default Categories. Here is an excerpt from the Category List for a new data file.

This would be appropriate to use only if you do not have an Account in Quicken for the credit card.