Restore the old "t" to add sales tax to an item (Q Mac)
When a transaction is split into multiple categories, it would be nice if the AMOUNT of each split could easily be increased by the state sales tax amount. Quicken used to do this years ago: when the cursor is in an amount field, you could press the "t" key and it would add your preset sales tax to that field.
Tools $10.00
—press the "t" key and it automatically changes the amount to $10.50, if in a setting you set your sales tax to 5%.
This is useful when you buy things in different categories on one receipt, and want to know your actual net cost.
I'm NOT proposing that this keeps a record of sales tax, and NOT proposing more than one percentage of tax (e.g., city, liquor, etc.)—you just enter your percentage into a setting like it's a QuickFill.
When Quicken used to do this I found it handier than the present method of having to use the calculator in the amount field and multiplying every entry by "1.05", for example.
Comments
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It was called QuickMath in Quicken for Mac 2007. Here's the Idea post on it:
As of last August, it is marked as planned by the development team.
Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s1 -
Looking forward to it!
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Yes, many of us longtime Quicken Mac users have been waiting for this for a long time! The previous Mac product manager said he had it scheduled to be implemented several years ago, and something derailed the person who was going to code it. Unfortunately, it's been on the back burner for years now. I feel confident it will come eventually, but with all the significant features the developers marked as "Planned" last year, I'm not holding my breath that the next-generation QuickMath is coming soon. But I eagerly open each new release hoping… 🤣
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19930 -
I will add that I use a tool called Keyboard Maestro to implement my version of QuickMath. KM is a general purpose macro tool for macOS. It costs $35 (one time). It's extremely powerful and useful for all kinds of automation, but pretty easy to set up to replicate QuickMath. If anyone wants details on how to set it up for QuickMath, I can post those details. (Disclaimer: I have no financial relationship with KM.)
Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s0 -
@Ricko
I am one of the folks anxiously awaiting return of QuickMath from the QMac2007 days.
I would very much appreciate it if you would post how you employ KM to accomplish applying the tax multipliers to get the total cost of each item in a split list.
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@wiedemag
Very simple macros can be used to implement QuickMath using KM. Here's an example:
In this example, I have four alternative hotkeys that can be used to trigger the macro. Most users would probably only need one. The macro itself is only two actions. The first action types the characters "*1.07" exactly as if you had typed these characters in the amount field yourself. The effect is to add 7 percent to whatever value is in the field. The 2nd action records the new amount and tabs to the next field.
The only minor annoyance is that KM has no way of knowing when you are in the amount field as opposed to some other field. If you trigger the macro when in another field, you are going to get "*1.07" typed into that field. If you set up hot key triggers that are unique enough, you will not be likely to ever trigger them in a non-amount field and this won't be an issue.
Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s1 -
I’ve waited this long, I’m going to hold out and hope the developers come through at some point (2025?) with something like the old QuickMath. I considered Rick’s suggestion for Keyboard Maestro, but I concluded I just don’t have enough needs in my computer use these days for a robust utility like that.
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19931 -
@jacobs You might be surprised how much use you get out of KM. I use it for so many things, both in Quicken and elsewhere. I have something around 500 macros (40 or so for Quicken) at this point. I'm not trying to sell it and I derive no benefit either financially or otherwise when somebody buys it. But for a $36 one time outlay, I think it's one of the best deals out there in the Mac software universe.
Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s1 -
@RickO I've defintiely thought about it before based on your recommendations. I used to use some similar utility which would record macros base don screen position or a variety of other factors way back in the early (pre-OS X) days of the Classic Mac OS; I can't even remember the name. I would probably find some uses for it, but since I'm now retired and use fewer programs, it's just something I don't think I need. I've tried to be aware if there was some keyboard shortcut I've wished for in other programs, but the macOS assignment of menu commands to keyboard shortcuts has handled anything I've wanted — except for Quicken, where I want to apply sales taxes with a keystone and select an account with a keystroke. I'll just keep whining at the developers for those features! 🤣
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19931 -
I also use KM to select accounts in Quicken (although that one is a tad bit harder to implement). I wish Quicken would put an accounst accordion menu in the Accounts menu and then we could use macOS keyboard assignment to do that one. It should be so easy for them to code I would think.
You may be referring to QuicKeys, the old Mac macro program. KM is so much better implemented and more capable.
Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s1 -
@RickO Ah, yes, QuicKeys it was! And yes, some of the tricks it tried to do were clunky, but it was pretty cool little tool back in those earlier days of Mac OS.
The Idea post for this seems to be in "Under Consideration" limbo. I'm still not sure the developers either understand the desire for selecting accounts from the keyboard, or understand they only have to build part of it if they just created an accounts list in a menu and left it to users to create their own keyboard shortcuts in macOS keyboard Settings.
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19931 -
@Ricko
Bless You!
Your KM solution now works perfectly for me. I must confess that I had previously tried to use KM (without any prior experience with the app) but was unsuccessful. For my two most commonly used counties with different tax rates, I have configured the triggers to be the simultaneous selection of 3 keys which are all immediately adjacent to each other and are easily pressed with one hand (option-command-x and option-command-y). In fact, the KM method is as easy to use as was the QMac2007 QuickMath method.
Thanks again for sharing!!
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Glad that helped!
I posted all my Quicken macros over on the KM forum some time ago. They are pretty out of date now, but would give you some ideas of other ways to use KM with Quicken.
This is getting kind of out of scope for the Quicken forum, so I'm not going to re-post them here. But here's a link:
Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s0
