Spending by Category

chrisandmark330
chrisandmark330 Member ✭✭
in Reports (Windows)
I'm running the Spending by Category report and like to view the graph and then click into various categories for more detail and when I do, it takes me to detailed line items for the transactions in that category. However, Quicken is also lumping a bunch of categories into an "Other" category and when I click on that category to try to get more detail it brings up a small, fixed window and the individual categories within are truncated so you have to hover over each to see the full category name; there is no option to maximize this tiny window and you cannot click on the individual categories to get more detailed info for each. This seems like a defect to me unless I'm missing something.

Comments

  • NotACPA
    NotACPA SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Your "Other" sub-category represents transactions that you assigned to the Parent category rather than one of the Parent's sub-categories.  It's basically a "catch-all" for amounts not assigned to a sub-cat when other sub-cats are present.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • Jim_Harman
    Jim_Harman SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Actually the graph assigns slices to the 10 largest categories and lumps everything else into Other.

    Annoying!
    QWin Premier subscription
  • NotACPA
    NotACPA SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    @Jim_Harman  GOOD CALL.  Somehow I missed that the OP was talking about the graph ... and not the reports.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • mshiggins
    mshiggins SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    From C. D. Bales:
    "This seems like a defect to me unless I'm missing something."

    I don't believe it is a defect.

    When you click on a specific category name, Quicken just has to select one known category name in the Customize > Categories tab for the underlying detail report then display the report for that one category. [Click the Customize dialog and look at the Categories tab.]

    When you click on "Other", Quicken does not know beforehand which categories "Other" represents, so there is no reasonable way for Quicken to select just those categories that are part of "Other" using the Categories tab of a report. 

    Instead Quicken just uses all the transactions with categories not identified in the pie-chart, sorts and summarizes those transactions by category, and displays the mini-report. That report contains what would appear if the "Other" category were replaced in the pie-chart and legend with all the categories it represents.

    " ... you cannot click on the individual categories to get more detailed info for each."

    Yes, you can.

    You can see all the transactions that comprise one of those "Other" categories in the mini-report by double-clicking on any of the individual categories displayed (if double-clicking on the Category name does not bring up the detail report, try clicking on one of the other fields).

    Sent: 06-24-19 @ 20:19 CDT

    Quicken user since Q1999. Currently using QW2017.
    Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list

  • chrisandmark330
    chrisandmark330 Member ✭✭
    edited June 2019
    The behavior with the "Other" category details is just not user friendly and the behavior is not consistent. A tiny, fixed window does not make sense given the fact that most info is truncated and cannot be expanded manually. Additionally, when interacting with the details for all other categories it's a single click so I'm not sure why this would be a double click, and even double clicking does not always drill into the detail successfully. I still think the behavior is buggy and hope that Quicken will take a look.
  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    A pie chart can only be subdivided so many times before the individual slices become too small to be graphed and remain click-selectable. 10 - 12 pie slices are the usual limit.
    There may be room for improvement regarding this "tiny, fixed window", however. It should be possible to resize it to show more or all of the Category name.
    As a workaround, why not view the Report instead of the Graph. It lets you see all your categories and you can also drill down to see transaction detail.
  • chrisandmark330
    chrisandmark330 Member ✭✭
    Hi - I completely agree and have no problem with the "Other" category itself; it's just navigating into the details that is difficult and it is not currently possible to resize the small window, nor the elements within it, which is why it's not easy to use in its current format. I know that I can view the report instead of the graph but I always prefer viewing and navigating in graph view. Thanks...
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