How to categorize (or tag) transfers so they appear in a (Transactions By Category) Report? (Q Mac)

One2go
One2go Member ✭✭
edited April 2022 in Reports (Mac)
Transfers into another account that are categorized do not appear in the Transactions By Category Report. Are "transfers" not considered to be a Transaction? If not, what is the recommended way to mark different transfers so they are grouped together in a report? Are "tags" the solution to mark transfers, instead of categories?

In the Transactions By Category Report, I can select: Edit> Advanced> Include All Transfers, which *will* show the desired transfer, but that transfer is not marked with the category, and the transfer is included with *many* other transfers from the originating account, plus transfers from *many* other accounts.

Is there a way to mark transfers so they are grouped together and totaled in a report?
* Bonus: If the transfer is a part of a Split transaction, does the same answer apply?

* Quicken Premier for Mac (current subscription)
* Version 6.6.2 (Build 606.43218.100); macOS 12.3

Regards.

Answers

  • Quicken Jasmine
    Quicken Jasmine Moderator mod
    Hello @One2go

    Thank you for contacting the Community with this question. 

    You should be able to enable the Transfer category when editing and creating a report. I have included a couple links to discussion threads where some other users were discussing adding transfers to reports. 

    https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7900044/some-transaction-are-not-showing-up-in-my-categories-report

    https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7891719/when-including-transfers-reports-include-transfers-even-though-they-dont-match-the-category

    I hope this helps.

    -Quicken Jasmine

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  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    First, let's clarify that from an accounting standpoint, transfer transactions in Quicken are NOT either income or expense; they are funds transferred between asset and liability accounts.

    For example: when you pay a credit card bill, you enter a transfer in Quicken from your checking account (an asset) to your credit card account (a liability) — but that is not an expense. The expenses on the credit card bill are the individual charges, which you've entered in your credit card account. If the payment transfer were counted as an expense, that would double-count your expenses. It would be the same if you were making a loan payment. 

    Now, from a cash flow standpoint, paying the credit card bill or loan feels like an expense, so Quicken does allow you to include transfers to or from selected accounts in reports and budgets.

    Quicken should not allow a transfer to have a category, but if you enter the fields in the correct order, you can do it. This is a vestige of years ago, when it wasn't possible to include transfers in reports or budgets. But the Quicken Mac product manager has stated that they will close this loophole at some point. You can choose to take advantage of the loophole which it exists, or to ignore the loophole and enter your transactions differently to avoid a future problem.

    Turning back to tags, you said you're using a report subtotaled by Category. I'm not sure what transactions you are tagging, but a Transactions by Tag report will total the transactions by tag. There is not a way that I'm aware of to subtotal by category, and subtotal by tag within category. For such a two-level sort, you'd need to export the transactions to a spreadsheet. And per the paragraphs above, you may want to look at whether you should be tagging the transfers or the underlying income/expenses. 
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • One2go
    One2go Member ✭✭
    Thanks for both responses. It seems clear that Quicken now discourages applying Categories to Transfers, and the documented behavior referenced below no longer works (or will be deprecated in the near future).

    Do you think that Tags would be the best way to track the following Use Case? I have an HSA account that I use like a credit card account to pay and track medical expenses. Those reports all work fine to track spending from the HSA.

    * But when I transfer money into the HSA, I need to mark and track the transfer as either "Current Tax Year" or "Previous Tax Year", so I can track the total in each group. In particular, a deposit in Jan - April might be applied to either group, so I need to specify explicitly the group for those transfers.

    * I had been applying Categories to these Transfers, but now realize they do not show up in the Category Reports as I had expected. Tags seem to the best alternative.

    # Reference

    https://help.quicken.com/display/MAC/Transferring+money+between+accounts#Transferringmoneybetweenaccounts-It'sreallytwotransactions.

    "This can be changed if needed (for unique cases when you might do want to consider the transaction as income or expense). If you do change the category, then that transaction will be included in category-based reporting as appropriate." -- [This is no longer accurate]

    Regards.
  • Jon
    Jon SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    I think that would work, yes. You can do a Transactions By Tag report that will organize transactions by tag. You'll need to edit the report & change the transfer option on the Advanced tab - by default most reports exclude transfers. But by including transfers & selecting only an HSA account I can get a report like this:

    Quicken Mac subscription. Quicken user since 1990.

This discussion has been closed.