Why is a money transfer from an old checking account to a new shown as an expense?

John Adams4
John Adams4 Member ✭✭✭
edited August 16 in Registers & Transactions (Windows)

Quicken is showing a money transfer from an old checking account into a new checking account (same bank) as an expense. I'm not an accountant so I'm not sure why. Cn I get clarification?

Answers

  • Tom Young
    Tom Young Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 13

    Where are you seeing this in Quicken? In the Register? In a Report? One of Quicken's very numerous "Views/Cards/Dashboars" on the Home tab?

    It's not an expense - as accountants use that term - it's (in Quicken-speak) a "Transfer" between Accounts.

    If that's how it gets accounted for in your Old and New Registers, then everything's fine, and many of those Home tab reports are just a little funky when it comes to telling you what's really happening in your accounting records.

  • UKR
    UKR Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    How, exactly, did you categorize the transaction transferring the money between accounts?

    • Category = [name of new account] enclosed in square brackets
    • Category = some other category name or blank (uncategorized)?
  • Jim_Harman
    Jim_Harman Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    If you are looking at the old account's register, a transfer out of the account will show as an expense, i.e. it will be in the Payment column and will show as a negative number in the Amount column.

    If you are looking at the new account, the transfer into the account will show in the Deposit column, with a positive number in the Amount column.

    Elsewhere in Quicken, the Income vs Expense treatment may depend on how the transaction was entered - out of one account or into the other.

    QWin Premier subscription
  • Tom Young
    Tom Young Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    Just to clarify, a transaction where the dollars are shown in the "Payment" column doesn't automatically equate to an "expense" as accountants use that term. Any dollar amount in the "Payment" column might be an expense, or it might be a Transfer of cash from the checking Account to some other Account in the in the Quicken file.

    As @UKR pointed out, if what's in the "Category" box of the "from" Account is the name of of the Account receiving the cash, surrounded by square brackets. e.g. "[New Bank Account]". that's a Transfer. If the the "Category" box has the name of an actual Category , e.g., Rent, then that's an expense.

  • UKR
    UKR Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    Would be much appreciated if @John Adams4 answered my question.
    Showing us the transaction(s) in both accounts and/or the report or other views showing the expense would help us determine what's going on.

    TIA

This discussion has been closed.

Categories