What category do you use for the credit card payment coming out of the checking account ?
If I have categorized the credit card transactions, i.e. gas, food, materials, etc. in the credit card account, what category do I use in the checking account for the payment of that credit card ?
When I contact Quicken phone support I am told to categorize the payment to the same categories that the charges were from, but I know that is not correct, because then I would have double the expenses in those accounts " categories ".
Would I create a new category, and name it " Credit Card xx2054 ", but what category, if any, should this new one be put under ?
When I do my taxes, I want to be able to correctly show the CPA the actual expenses for each category for tax purposes.
Best Answer
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Oops! I just noticed that your pictures are showing use of transfer categories but with a significant issue: You are transferring the debit in the checking account to the checking account instead of to the credit card account. And you are transferring the credit in the credit card account back into the credit card account. I suggest you make the following changes (I am editing my earlier post to include this as well).:
- In the checking account: Instead of [Arizona Custom CHK XX6846] for the category, use [CREDIT CARD XX2054].
- Then in the credit card account you will see both the entry you had before but another entry showing a credit coming from [Arizona Custom CHK XX6846]. You obviously do not want 2 credits showing for the same transaction because that will mess up the account balance. In this case, I suggest you delete the transaction you originally had so that only the transfer coming in from [Arizona Custom CHK XX6846] remains.
After you make these changes, there are a couple of things you can do to make it easier to manage these credit card payments in the future:
- In your checking account right click on credit card payment transaction and then click on the Add Reminder. This will open a popup Transfer Reminder which will show an identical transfer transaction for the next month. Here is an example of what it will look like:
- You can change the Pay to to something else you would like to show (such as the name of the credit card) or you can keep it showing what was previously downloaded.
- If the Due next on date for the next payment and/or the payment interval is incorrect, correct it by clicking on change.
- Amount due: This will be the amount of the transaction you had right clicked on. You can change this to something else if you wish (more on this below).
- If you wish to enter a tag or memo you can click on that to do so but it is not necessary to do that.
- Under Optional Settings: You can turn on Estimate amount for me (this might not work until you have a few months of Transfer Reminder payements completed). This is perhaps best suited for accounts where the payment amounts will vary from month-to-month, like if you pay off the full credit card balance each month.
- Under Optional Settings, you should see Remind me 3 days in advance. You can change the number of days advance notice if you wish. You can also set it up to automatically enter the Reminder into the accounts registers but since it is a credit card with a varying amount due each month I suggest not doing this and instead let Quicken simply remind you.
- Below the checking and credit card account registers there will be a tab for Bills & Income Reminders. This is where your Reminders will show up based upon the number of days you set to be reminded of them. (You can also see all Reminders for all accounts on the Bills & Income tab toward the top of the Quicken screen.) In this view you can edit the Reminders that are shown to change the date, edit the amount, skip that instance or delete the entire recurring Reminder as needed. When you are ready, you can then manually enter the Reminder so it will show up in the registers of both accounts.
Another option you might want to consider doing in each of your checking and credit card account registers:
- Click on the little clock face icon above the registers on the right. The popup will allow you to select the number of days in advance that Reminders (not just Transfer Reminders, but also any Bill and Income Reminders you might also set up) will show up in the register specific to each account.
- Then click on the Gear icon above and to the right of the registers and click on Register columns and select Status and click on Done. This will add a column on the left with a blue dot in the header.
- If you opt to do this your account registers will look similar to this (assuming you have Reminders set up for the account). Reminders be shaded and will have a status (blue dot column) of Upcoming (not yet entered into the register), Uncleared (entered but the matching transaction has not yet been downloaded) and Overdue (not yet entered and considered past due). Reminders will also show the impact to the future account balance which can be very helpful in planning how much cash needs to be in the account or in changing the payment amounts so something doesn't bounce.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Quicken Classic Premier (US) Subscription: R59.10 on Windows 11
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Answers
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(4/10/2023, 1:17 pm: Edited to make some corrections. Edits are in bold italics.)
There are two ways to do this and it is a personal preference as to which is to be used:
- The best practice method is to do it pretty much the way you have it shown above using a transfer category (the name of the other account enclosed in [brackets]) which transfers the cash payment from your checking account to your credit card account. But change the category in the checking account register transaction from [Arizona Custom CHK XX6846] to [CREDIT CARD XX2054] and then delete the credit card register transaction which shows the category as [CREDIT CARD XX2054]. As long as you are tracking all the actual purchase transactions in your credit card account the expenses are already incurred there. What I find especially helpful with this method is that there is a clear transfer link between the debit and credit transactions in the two accounts that can be used to directly toggle back and forth between them.
- The alternative method is to use an actual category, such as "Credit Card Payment", in both the checking and credit card accounts. They will cancel each other out in spending reports and in Budgets. I, personally, find this method to be best suited for credit cards that are not tracked in Quicken.
I and I believe every other SuperUser would recommend the same thing: If you are tracking and categorizing your purchase transactions in your credit card account, then use option 1 and continue doing what you are current are doing.
Quicken Classic Premier (US) Subscription: R59.10 on Windows 11
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Thank you Boatnmaniac …. I am used to Quickbooks ( 15+ years experience ) and trying to downgrade to Quicken with less structure as I am used to, but I still need to make sure I appropriatly record transactions for my year end.
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Oops! I just noticed that your pictures are showing use of transfer categories but with a significant issue: You are transferring the debit in the checking account to the checking account instead of to the credit card account. And you are transferring the credit in the credit card account back into the credit card account. I suggest you make the following changes (I am editing my earlier post to include this as well).:
- In the checking account: Instead of [Arizona Custom CHK XX6846] for the category, use [CREDIT CARD XX2054].
- Then in the credit card account you will see both the entry you had before but another entry showing a credit coming from [Arizona Custom CHK XX6846]. You obviously do not want 2 credits showing for the same transaction because that will mess up the account balance. In this case, I suggest you delete the transaction you originally had so that only the transfer coming in from [Arizona Custom CHK XX6846] remains.
After you make these changes, there are a couple of things you can do to make it easier to manage these credit card payments in the future:
- In your checking account right click on credit card payment transaction and then click on the Add Reminder. This will open a popup Transfer Reminder which will show an identical transfer transaction for the next month. Here is an example of what it will look like:
- You can change the Pay to to something else you would like to show (such as the name of the credit card) or you can keep it showing what was previously downloaded.
- If the Due next on date for the next payment and/or the payment interval is incorrect, correct it by clicking on change.
- Amount due: This will be the amount of the transaction you had right clicked on. You can change this to something else if you wish (more on this below).
- If you wish to enter a tag or memo you can click on that to do so but it is not necessary to do that.
- Under Optional Settings: You can turn on Estimate amount for me (this might not work until you have a few months of Transfer Reminder payements completed). This is perhaps best suited for accounts where the payment amounts will vary from month-to-month, like if you pay off the full credit card balance each month.
- Under Optional Settings, you should see Remind me 3 days in advance. You can change the number of days advance notice if you wish. You can also set it up to automatically enter the Reminder into the accounts registers but since it is a credit card with a varying amount due each month I suggest not doing this and instead let Quicken simply remind you.
- Below the checking and credit card account registers there will be a tab for Bills & Income Reminders. This is where your Reminders will show up based upon the number of days you set to be reminded of them. (You can also see all Reminders for all accounts on the Bills & Income tab toward the top of the Quicken screen.) In this view you can edit the Reminders that are shown to change the date, edit the amount, skip that instance or delete the entire recurring Reminder as needed. When you are ready, you can then manually enter the Reminder so it will show up in the registers of both accounts.
Another option you might want to consider doing in each of your checking and credit card account registers:
- Click on the little clock face icon above the registers on the right. The popup will allow you to select the number of days in advance that Reminders (not just Transfer Reminders, but also any Bill and Income Reminders you might also set up) will show up in the register specific to each account.
- Then click on the Gear icon above and to the right of the registers and click on Register columns and select Status and click on Done. This will add a column on the left with a blue dot in the header.
- If you opt to do this your account registers will look similar to this (assuming you have Reminders set up for the account). Reminders be shaded and will have a status (blue dot column) of Upcoming (not yet entered into the register), Uncleared (entered but the matching transaction has not yet been downloaded) and Overdue (not yet entered and considered past due). Reminders will also show the impact to the future account balance which can be very helpful in planning how much cash needs to be in the account or in changing the payment amounts so something doesn't bounce.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Quicken Classic Premier (US) Subscription: R59.10 on Windows 11
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I was already changing the account "names" as I did feel as though they should not be under the category column with the same account as I am working in.
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