categories

pamela77 · January 2023

Over the years I have created my own categories because it was more helpful for me to have them in certain groups and a certain order. For example, I created F: interest income. Now I realize that quicken uses its interest category for tax purposes. Can I merge the 2 categories so that quicken will treat my homemade category correctly in terms of taxes and other financial data? For example I also have one labeled G: mortgage interest.
Thank you, Pamela

RickO · January 2023

No, Quicken will not let you merge categories within/with the top level Investments required category. But there is a (possibly partial) solution:

Select All Transactions in the sidebar
Click the magnifying glass and set the search field to Category
Enter F:Interest Income in the search box
Select All the found transactions
Click menu File > Get Info
Enter Investments:Interest Income in the Category box and click OK

The catch is that any uses of the category in Split lines will not be changed. This is the reason I said "possibly partial". Those instances (hopefully none) have to be changed manually, one by one. Once you are done, you can then delete your now-unused category F:Interest Income.

But wait.... none of the above may be necessary. You can designate your custom category as being tax related to be included in the Tax Schedule report. In the Categories window, double click your category F:Interest Income and check the box "Tax-related". This will reveal options to select the tax schedule and line. In this case, probably Schedule B and Interest Income. Save those selections and the category will be included in the Tax Schedule Report.

jacobs · January 2023

You can merge most categories, but you cannot merge the ones in the category of Investments; Quicken protects those because they are hard-coded into calculations for reports and display of data in investment portfolios. So you cannot merge your F:interest income" with the default "Investments:Interest Income". But you can merge it with another default Quicken category called "Personal Income:Interest earned". (If you open each of the categories for editing, you will see they are both assigned to the same tax line, Schedule B > Interest Income.)

If you want to merge your account "G:mortgage interest" into Quicken's account for "Home:Mortgage Interest", you can definitely do that. (Note that to merge two subcategories of different categories, you first have to move one of the subcategories so it's under the same main category as the subcategory you wish to merge with.)

Alternatively, you can configure your homemade category with the proper tax assignment so it will work correctly in reports. For instance, for your "G:mortgage interest", you could edit that sub-category to check the Tax-related box, and then assign it to the proper tax line, which is Schedule A > Home mortgage interest.

RickO · January 2023

No, Quicken will not let you merge categories within/with the top level Investments required category. But there is a (possibly partial) solution:

Select All Transactions in the sidebar
Click the magnifying glass and set the search field to Category
Enter F:Interest Income in the search box
Select All the found transactions
Click menu File > Get Info
Enter Investments:Interest Income in the Category box and click OK

The catch is that any uses of the category in Split lines will not be changed. This is the reason I said "possibly partial". Those instances (hopefully none) have to be changed manually, one by one. Once you are done, you can then delete your now-unused category F:Interest Income.

But wait.... none of the above may be necessary. You can designate your custom category as being tax related to be included in the Tax Schedule report. In the Categories window, double click your category F:Interest Income and check the box "Tax-related". This will reveal options to select the tax schedule and line. In this case, probably Schedule B and Interest Income. Save those selections and the category will be included in the Tax Schedule Report.

jacobs · January 2023

You can merge most categories, but you cannot merge the ones in the category of Investments; Quicken protects those because they are hard-coded into calculations for reports and display of data in investment portfolios. So you cannot merge your F:interest income" with the default "Investments:Interest Income". But you can merge it with another default Quicken category called "Personal Income:Interest earned". (If you open each of the categories for editing, you will see they are both assigned to the same tax line, Schedule B > Interest Income.)

If you want to merge your account "G:mortgage interest" into Quicken's account for "Home:Mortgage Interest", you can definitely do that. (Note that to merge two subcategories of different categories, you first have to move one of the subcategories so it's under the same main category as the subcategory you wish to merge with.)

Alternatively, you can configure your homemade category with the proper tax assignment so it will work correctly in reports. For instance, for your "G:mortgage interest", you could edit that sub-category to check the Tax-related box, and then assign it to the proper tax line, which is Schedule A > Home mortgage interest.

pamela77 · January 2023

Thank you Rick O and Jacobs. Those answers really help. Rick 0 - I'd like to keep my own category, so I really like your second idea of making my categories work with the proper tax category. But I also love the method you give for editing multiple transactions at once - I will use that elsewhere. Jacobs, I appreciate your answer as well. Both of you have given me good ideas.
Thank you,

jacobs · January 2023

RickO said:

But there is a (possibly partial) solution:
Select All Transactions in the sidebar
Click the magnifying glass and set the search field to Category
Enter F:Interest Income in the search box
Select All the found transactions
Click menu File > Get Info
Enter Investments:Interest Income in the Category box and click OK

@RickO Unless I'm missing something, your approach to Find and then re-categorize things to "Investments:Interest Income" won't work because Quicken doesn't allow those protected Investments categories to be used manually in transactions. That is, in your Step 6, the category dropdown list does not show Investments:Interest Income, and even if you type it, Quicken won't accept it.

RickO · January 2023

Good point. I didn't actually test it. Should have.

categories

Best Answers

Answers

Categories