Budget Category: Everything Else showing up in Budget, unselected

JNewman

I hate to start this as a new discussion, but previous discussions on this problem topic appear to have been closed. I am now experiencing the same reported problem with the "Ghost" subcategory "Everything Thing Else" intermittently appearing in my 2025 Budget on-screen and in my generated reports. In fact, it's inconsistent - sometimes showing up on the report but not on the Planning Budget screen, and vice versa. See screenshot below. The "Everything Else" subcategory is from the 2025 Budget report, and I have no idea where the $706.12 budgeted amount is coming from. The second screenshot below is from the Planning screen for the 2025 Budget, with the "Recreation" category budgeted at $0. BTW - there are no other sub-categories established under "Recreation" so the roll up and unclicked top categories are a "N/A".

(User Information: since 1995, currently using Quicken Classic for Business & Personal Version R64.35 - on a PC running Windows 11 )

I have been running, copying, and pasting this Budget Report into an Excel template monthly for the last 7 years. Today, these odd subcategories and totals are now appearing - and I can not fix them with any of the "solutions" previously posted. As you can imagine, this is causing havoc, as it involves lining up and pasting data into the preset templates!

Here is what ChatGPT summarized for me after I wasted a couple of hours trying to track down the problem in my own data and the forum:

In the current version of Quicken, in the Planning function, I now have a category popping up called “everything else.” This seems intermittent. Are others experiencing this problem/reporting?

Yep, you’re not imagining it. Other people are seeing that “Everything Else” ghost line show up in Planning/Budget views and in Budget-to-Actual reports, and it started after a Quicken update earlier this year. Quicken’s own community has a bunch of threads on it and a mod said it was escalated. No published fix timeline, though. Quicken+2Quicken+2

What seems to be happening:

• It often appears when you’ve budgeted some, but not all, subcategories under a parent category. Quicken then invents an “Everything Else” bucket as if to say “these other subs aren’t budgeted, so I’ll park them here.” Sometimes it even shows $0 actuals but a budgeted amount, which is what makes it look buggy. Quicken+1
• Users on both Windows budget reports and the Planning tab reported it after specific 2025 releases. So you’re in the same boat as them. Quicken+1

Workarounds people said helped (not perfect, but workable):

1. Planning tab → Select Categories to Budget → check all subcategories under the parent that’s showing “Everything Else” — especially any “Other” subcategories. When everything is included, the mystery line often disappears. Quicken+1
2. Rebuild the budget/report — some folks said recreating the budget report with current settings made it behave, at least for that view. Quicken veterans basically said saved reports sometimes don’t age well. Quicken

Bottom line: yes, it’s a known/active annoyance on their forums and not just your file. If you want to be thorough, open your budget and look for any parent category where you only partially selected subs — that’s the usual trigger.

Dear Quicken, could you please provide an update on the fix of this annoying and time-consuming problem for us?

Also, would the team consider putting into the plan a significant rework of the Planning & Budget Features? As loyal customers absorbing annual price increases, it would be nice to increase the capabilities and performance of this very important function (budgeting) in managing our finances using Quicken. Thank you - Jon (again a loyal "power user" since 1995)

Quicken Alyssa

Hello @JNewman,

Thank you for sharing a detailed account of your experience, though I do apologize that you are having this issue with the budget.

This is a known issue and has been reported. Currently, it is still being worked on, and we do not have an ETA for resolution.

As for your suggestion to rework the Planning & Budget features, you can create an idea post. This way, other users who have the same or a similar request can vote on your idea.

Our Development and Product teams frequently use our idea posts in order to improve Quicken and implement new features requested by customers. 

I hope this helps!

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