What do I do when Budgeting so that the subtotals for categories are correct & sthen accumulate

saylesworth · January 18

I'm writing from Alberta, Canada, and have Quicken Classic, Business and Personl, Version R65.29; build 24.1.65.29

I have entered all of my desired budget-figures into Quicken, to create a new budget for 2026. Each number I entered is displayed correctly. However major errors have occured as follows: I have 16 'major' budget Categories, with subcategories within each of the major Categories, but let me assume there are only 4 major categories A, B, C and D.

Here is the error is see: First regarding Major Category A: the total provide for A is correct and is the total of all one-off entries PLUS the totals for subcategories within A (and some of the subcategories have further sub-subcategories — which do not appear to cause Quicken a problem.

However, when I turn to Major Category B something goes wrong: the totals for each subcategory in B are correct. HOWEVER, the grand total for Category B is incorrect because it totals all entries in B PLUS the grand total for Category C. Similarly the grand total for Category C is incorrect because it includes all entries in C plus the total for Category D.

Of course when Quicken then provides a total for all of A,B,C and D I get a greatly enlarged incorrect Grand Total for ALL Expense Categories. I have checked my listing of Major Categories and Subcategories that I intend to include in the budget, and this is correct I believe.

When all of this first appeared I tried to correct the budget and suddenly the entire budget disappeared. I have now re-entered all figures into the budget and the same problems have arisen again. To protect myself against loosing this version, I saved a Backup/Duplicate of the budget … but I do not understand why the errors are occurring and how I fix the budget template or whatever, to eliminate the presence of errors.

I will welcome any help you can offer. [email removed for your protection]

UKR · January 19

Is Category D a subcategory of C and is C a subcategory of B?

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words …
Can you please capture one or more images of the parts of your Quicken window showing the issue, sensitive information blacked out as necessary to protect your privacy and attach the image(s) here?
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How do I post a screenshot in the community from windows

Please save images to files of file type PNG or JPG only. They're easier to work with than PDF files.

saylesworth · January 19

Here are three screenshots of only a few lines from my budget: The first screenshot shows the major category "Food and Household" and the Major Category "Clothing - Sam." The amounts listed for each line in Food and Household are correct, and the total of $920 is correct. Under Clothing - Sam, there is a 'rogue entry' entitled "Everything Else" and I don't know where this figures comes from. The entries for the other three categories are correct (50; 12.33; 10). However, note that the total for Clothing is NOT the correct total: it shows 17,554.18 which is far in excess of the correct total of 73.33 The second screenshot shows the Clothing Category again and below it is a partial showing of the costs at Currie Green. The entries for each category within Currie Green is correct and in this instance the grand total for the parent category Currie is also correct. The third screenshot shows the next major category "Transportation." Here the entries for each category are correct (again, some are not visible in the screenshot), but the total for the parent category is much too high and is incorrect. Do these three screenshots clarify what errors I am seeing? If you require additional info please let me know. Thanks for reflecting on this.

Budget Screenshot 2026-01-19 SamA.png

Screenshot 2026-01-19 2 SamA.png

Screenshot 2026-01-19 3.png

saylesworth · January 19

PS: prior to sending the second comment a minute ago, I had tried to resolve the problem in various ways. An AI response from within this Quicken Community Site advised me to run a Validation test on my Quicken file. The test found NO ERRORS. An AI response from ChatGPT suggested I try each of the following but none of them changed the figures presented in the budget by Quicken: 1. Verify selected categories for the budget and check every subcategory box even if its budget value is zero; 2. Ensure that I did not enter figures in to the cells for the Parent Category, as these figures are to be calculated by Quicken; 3. Force a recalculation by changing any one of the budget figures I added and see if Quicken's automatic recalculation eliminates the errors; 4. Try renaming a Category as this might cause Quicken to refresh 5. Try saving the budget with ALL categories are selected to prevent Quicken from creating 'other' elements that pollute totals. One thing I note is that one cell tends to be locked by Quicken: I try to enter $400 but Quicken changes this to $399.99 and no matter how often I try to enter the correct number Quicken will not accept it

saylesworth · January 19

PSS: Attached here is a Technical Bug Report created by ChatGPT. Is this helpful?

saylesworth · January 19

An error message was given to me by this website, indicating that I can not upload a Word Document here.

saylesworth · 3:19AM

Technical Bug Report: Budget Category Totals Miscalculated in 2026 Budget

Summary

Parent category totals are miscalculated in the budgeting tool, with inflated values not matching subcategory sums.

Reproducible Behavior

Example 1: Clothing - Sam

• Subcategories: - Clothing, Sam: $50.00 - Drycleaning & Tailoring REPAIRS: $12.33 - Shoes - Sam: $10.00• Unexpected entry: “Everything Else” appears with $45.73, source unknown• Expected total: $73.33• Actual total shown: $17,554.18• Issue: The parent category “Clothing - Sam” includes an inflated total that cannot be explained by visible subcategories.

Example 2: Transportation

• Subcategories (partial list): - Auto - Diane: $360.50 - Auto - Sam: $559.54• Expected total: Sum of visible subcategories (approx. $920)• Actual total shown: $7,296.55• Issue: Parent category “Transportation” shows a total far exceeding the sum of its subcategories.

Example 3: Currie Green Housing & Services

• Subcategories: - CURRIE GREEN monthly fee: $9,685.00 - Furniture - Larger Purchases: $50.00 - KOODO Cell Phones: $133.95• Expected total: $10,139.57• Actual total shown: $10,139.57• Issue: This category behaves correctly, suggesting the bug is not universal but conditional.

Troubleshooting Steps Taken

• Renamed categories and subcategories• Deleted and re-added affected categories• Rebuilt the budget from scratch• Validated and repaired the Quicken file• Forced recalculation by toggling values• Restarted Quicken and Windows

Hypothesis

The budgeting engine may be misattributing subcategory values across unrelated parent categories, retaining orphaned or legacy entries from prior budgets, or failing to isolate category scopes during total calculations.

Request

Please escalate this to engineering for review. I can provide:- Screenshots (sent separately)- A sanitized copy of the Quicken file- A screen recording if neededLet me know if you need logs, version details, or a test case.

saylesworth · 3:38AM

D6es anyone know if Quicken is working on this bug and the status of their efforts to eliminate the bug? Obviously this is an urgent and critical matter as users prepare new budgets for 2026.