What do the value colors mean?

My Quicken account registers and reports display financial values in either the color black or the color red. While the column titles suggest which is which, I can’t seem to locate a community page that, with certainty, confirms which color represents “income” and which represents “expense” (and, of course, their cousins “credit” and debit” and “asset and liability” etc.) Can these colors be changed in settings? Is that a bad or good idea to alter the colors? Is the black and red color the “default” color?

Best Answers

  • GeoffG
    GeoffG SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    The font colors cannot be changed. Black is the default color for all but liability accounts. You can change the color of the register backgrounds under preferences.
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    Black -> positive number
    Red -> negative number

    But it isn't 100% that a positive number in Quicken represents income.
    If you look at a credit card account you will see that both the Charge and the Payment columns are entered as positive/black numbers.  That is because the column it is in gives it the "sign".  On the other hand if you look at the Amount column it will show positive and negative numbers which in general are income and expense.  But even there, there is an exception, transfers.  A transfer is neither an income or an expense.  The sign/color only represents the direction of the transfer (in or out).
    Signature:
    This is my website: http://www.quicknperlwiz.com/

Answers

  • GeoffG
    GeoffG SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    The font colors cannot be changed. Black is the default color for all but liability accounts. You can change the color of the register backgrounds under preferences.
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    Black -> positive number
    Red -> negative number

    But it isn't 100% that a positive number in Quicken represents income.
    If you look at a credit card account you will see that both the Charge and the Payment columns are entered as positive/black numbers.  That is because the column it is in gives it the "sign".  On the other hand if you look at the Amount column it will show positive and negative numbers which in general are income and expense.  But even there, there is an exception, transfers.  A transfer is neither an income or an expense.  The sign/color only represents the direction of the transfer (in or out).
    Signature:
    This is my website: http://www.quicknperlwiz.com/
This discussion has been closed.