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Getting Started Guide for Quicken Essentials for Mac

Updated: 7/30/2012 | Article ID: GEN82835

Introduction to Quicken Essentials

Basics

Banking

Investing

Budgeting

Taxes

Reporting

Introduction to Quicken Essentials

Quicken Essentials is an updated version of Quicken for Mac that has been completely redesigned from the ground up.

What's new in Quicken Essentials

If you're new to Quicken Essentials...

Like previous versions of Quicken for Mac, Quicken Essentials lets you view all your accounts in one place and helps you see where your money is going. Many of the basics are the same as in previous versions: You create separate accounts for things like your checking accounts, credit cards, brokerage accounts, and loans. You'll enter transactions and run reports. But in many ways, Quicken Essentials is an improvement.

New Look

You'll immediately notice that Quicken Essentials has a completely new look, modeled on many of the Mac-based software programs you already enjoy and use. We think that all users will have an easy time learning how to use the new Quicken, but if you already use programs like iTunes or iPhoto, it’ll be a snap.

New, improved registers

You'll discover that the new registers are much more flexible and easy to use.

Unlike previous versions of Quicken, each transaction appears on a single line—rather than on two lines—making it easier to skim through your registers and find what you need.
As with other applications for the Mac, like iTunes, you can drag columns left and right and position them where they work best for you. You can also add and remove columns so you see only the information you want.
Instead of having to change transactions one-by-one, you can now apply changes—like marking a transaction as reviewed or assigning a category—to several transactions at once.
Matching transactions you entered manually with ones you downloaded from your bank or credit card is easy: Just drag and drop one over the other. Quicken Essentials bundles them together.
Quicken Essentials now has extensive undo capabilities so you can easily correct mistakes.

Global registers

Three new global registers let you review and work with transactions across all your accounts at once. The Transactions register lists transactions from all your accounts. Scheduled Transactions lists all scheduled transactions. And Last Download shows you all the data that was downloaded into Quicken Essentials the last time you did an update.

Downloading transactions

If you've used previous versions of Quicken, you are used to using a two-step process for downloading your transactions into Quicken: first you download them, then you “accept” them into the register. This new version of Quicken streamlines that process and skips the second step altogether. Instead, all downloaded transactions go straight into the appropriate register.

More financial institutions

Using new technology, Quicken Essentials lets you download transactions from over 13,000 different financial institutions, up from about 4,000 in previous versions of Quicken.

What's new in version 1.7

Quicken Essentials 1.7 added Mac App Store compatibility and the ability to export to Quicken for Mac 2007 version 16.1 and newer.

What's new in version 1.6

Quicken Essentials 1.6 added Lion (Mac OS X v10.7) compatibility and several bug fixes.

What's new in version 1.5

Quicken Essentials 1.5 added many new features, enhancements, and bug fixes. Here are some of the most requested new features were added:

Writing and printing checks

You can now write and print checks.

Adding attachments to transactions

Have a receipt for a purchase? You can now add attachments to transactions.

Entering holdings and balances for investment accounts

You can now manually enter brokerage and retirement account holdings and balances. If you provide ticker symbols, Quicken helps you keep share prices up to date.

Tracking budgets over multiple months

You can review how well you've done with your budget in previous months, as well as this month.

Creating new reports

We've added two new reports: Spending Over Time, and Tax Schedule.

The Spending Over Time report lets you see how your spending is changing over time.

The Tax Schedule report displays any tax schedule line items that you assign to your categories by Form or by Category.

Exporting tax information

You can now export basic tax information to TurboTax, and other applications that can read a TXF file.

What's different from other versions

As much as we improved the experience of using Quicken when we rebuilt it from the ground up, there are some features you may have been used to using in Quicken for Mac (or Quicken for Windows) that we didn't include in this version of Quicken Essentials.

Investments

Quicken Essentials allows you to track the overall value of your investment accounts and the value of specific holdings, but the software does not track individual buys and sells, nor will it provide some advanced investment performance reports.

Direct bill pay

You can track your bills in Quicken Essentials, but the program doesn’t have the direct bill pay capabilities that allow you to pay your bills directly from the program.

Other advanced features

Quicken Essentials does not include many of the advanced features in other versions of Quicken, including Business features, Rental Property, lifetime planner, cash flow forecast, spending plan, debt reduction plan, emergency tax records, tax planner, and home inventory manager.

Installation

System requirements

Mac computer with an Intel processor
Mac OS X v10.6.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X v10.7 Lion, or later
512MB of physical RAM
Intuit checks and a laser or inkjet printer, if you want to print checks
Internet connection

Upgrading Mac OS X

Before you install Quicken Essentials, it's a good idea to update your system software to make sure that you have the latest release of the version of Mac OS X you are using installed.

To make sure you have all available updates for your version of Mac OS X:

Choose Apple menu > Software Update.
A dialog appears showing new or updated software available for your computer.
Follow the onscreen instructions to update Mac OS X.

Installing Quicken Essentials from a disk

Drag the Quicken icon from your installation disk into your Applications folder.
If you're prompted, enter the administrator’s account name and password. (If you don’t have an administrator account (if you're the only one using your computer, you probably do), ask someone who does to install the software for you.)
Double-click the Quicken Essentials icon in your Applications folder to launch the program.

Installing Quicken Essentials from the web

After you download Quicken Essentials from the web, the disk image will usually open automatically. If it doesn't, simply double-click the Quicken Essentials disk image.
Drag the Quicken Essentials icon from the disk image into your Applications folder.
Enter the administrator's account name and password (if necessary). If you are the only person using the computer, this is the name used to log in to the computer. If multiple people use the computer, you must have an administrator account to install software. If you don't have an administrator account, ask someone who does to install the software for you.
Double-click the Quicken Essentials icon in your Applications folder to launch the program.

Installing Quicken Essentials from the web

Close any applications that are running and launch the Mac App Store from your Dock.
If you have removed the Mac App Store from your dock, you can find it in your Applications folder.
In the App Store toolbar, search for Quicken Essentials.
Click to purchase Quicken Essentials.
Sign in with your Apple ID and password.
If you don't have one, click the Create Apple ID button. Enter your ID and password then click the Sign In button.
Quicken Essentials will begin to download.
To view an estimate of the time remaining to download, click the Purchases tab at the top of the Mac App Store window.
After the download completes, installation will begin and complete automatically.
Click the Quicken Essentials icon in your Applications folder to launch the program.

Updating Quicken Essentials

If you purchased Quicken Essentials from the Mac App Store, a badge will appear on the App Store icon in the Dock informing you that an update is available. To download and install the update, click the App Store icon, and then click Updates in the toolbar. If a Quicken Essentials update is available it will be listed.

If you purchased Quicken Essentials from any source other than the Mac App Store, choose Quicken > Check for Updates. If an update is available, you can download and install it immediately.

Getting started

If this is the first time you've used Quicken, Quicken creates a new data file for you and then guides you through setting up your first bank account and downloading your transactions. The whole process should take about 15–20 minutes.

Note: The Get Started buttons on the Overview only appear when you're using a completely new data file. Once you've started entering data—by creating an account or entering bills, for example—the buttons disappear. The Overview becomes a dashboard for tracking your finances. But you can always add new accounts, bills, income, and budgets later; you'll find more instructions in this guide.

If you're starting fresh

Double-click the Quicken Essentials icon in your Applications folder to launch the program.
Click Create a New Document to create a Quicken Essentials data file.
You may name the data file whatever you'd like. The default location for the file is the Documents folder.
The Overview displays, providing guidance on how to get set up.
- See Where Your Money Goes helps you create your accounts and set them up to download transactions directly from your financial institutions.
- Stay on Top of Monthly Bills helps you enter all your regular bills (like electricity, phone, and cable) and your regular income (like your paycheck).
- If you want to use Quicken Essentials to help you keep your spending under control, the Set Goals to Save Money section helps you set up a budget.
To begin, click Get Started.

If you're importing your data from another financial software program

(Quicken for Mac, Quicken for Windows, and Microsoft Money)

There are a few key steps you need to follow to both convert your data and make sure everything is set up correctly in Quicken Essentials. Please refer to the Converting Your Data guide for those instructions. It's available on your installation disk, inside Quicken Essentials (choose Help > Converting Your Data), or online at quicken.com/go/movetomac. Once you've imported and reviewed your data, you're pretty much ready to use Quicken Essentials to start managing your finances.

Getting help

Quicken Live Community

The Quicken Live Community website is a forum that allows you to ask questions and get answers from other Quicken Essentials users and experts.

To access the Live Community: Choose Help > Live Community.

You can also click the Live Community button on the lower-right of the Quicken window.

Quicken Support

Having problems? Go to the Quicken support page, found at http://quicken.intuit.com/support/mac.jsp for answers to your questions, and learn about more support options.

If it turns out that it is necessary to contact us, it helps if you have the following information ready:

What are you trying to do?
What happened?
Did you get an error message? What did it say?

Basics

If you have a question, here's where to start.

Learning about the Quicken window

QEM_window

Sidebar

As you create accounts, custom reports, and budgets, they appear in the sidebar, in alphabetical order within their groups.

Click the disclosure triangles to show or hide groups of items, like Tools or Reports.

Click an item in the sidebar to show it in the workspace. Double-click an item to open it in a new window.

Registers

You can sort a register by clicking a column header. To reverse the sort order, click the column header again.

To add or remove other columns in a register, hold down the Control key and click in any column header: choose the columns you want displayed from the list that appears.

You can rearrange the order of the displayed columns by dragging the column headers to the left or right.

To adjust the width of a column, drag the separator line between column headers.

To search for a specific payee, tag, or category in a register, type the payee, tag, or category name in the Search field. To show all transactions again, click the Clear button () in the Search field.

Toolbar

The toolbar appears when you're inside a register.

Click New to create a new transaction.
Click Edit to open a transaction for editing.
Click Split to split a transaction. You can also simply create a new transaction and click Add Split (in the transaction editor).
Click Schedule to create a new scheduled transaction based on an existing transaction. Scheduled transactions are explained below, in the Transactions section.
Click Paid to mark a scheduled transaction as paid. (“Paid” becomes “Deposited” when the scheduled transaction is a deposit instead of a payment.)
Click Delete to delete a transaction.
Click Status to check the online status of an account you’ve set up to receive downloads.
Click Settings to modify the account’s settings.
Click Update to download the latest transactions for the account you have open. Quicken also downloads data for any other accounts you have at the same financial institution with the same user name.

Bottom Bar

Click the Add (+) button to create a new account or a budget.
Click the back arrow to hide the sidebar.
- When the sidebar is hidden, the back arrow turns into a forward arrow. Click the forward arrow to show the sidebar again.
- You can also drag the divider between the sidebar and the workspace to adjust the width of the sidebar.
Click the Update All button to download the latest data for all your accounts.
Click the Live Community button to launch the Live Community.
- The Live Community is an online support forum where you can get help from other Quicken Essentials users and experts.

Tools

The tools appear in the Tools section of the sidebar.

Overview

The Overview is a dashboard you can use to track your finances and stay on top of your bills. It has three sections:

See Where Your Money Goes shows you a breakdown of how much you're spending in each category.

Stay on Top of Monthly Bills show you how much money you have coming in and going out in the near future, helping you pay your bills on time and avoid late payments and overdraft fees.Set Goals to Save Money tracks how well you're sticking to the budgets you've set up.

Transactions

Transactions lets you review all your transactions from all your accounts in a single place. You can filter them by date, specific account(s), type, and status to display the subset of transactions you want to see.

You can also use this tool to create a minireport. For example, let’s say you want to see all transactions in all your accounts that are categorized as “Housing Expenses.” Go to Transactions, and type “Housing Expenses” in the Search field. The register filters your transactions by that category, so that only those transactions with the category “Housing Expenses” appear.

You can use the Search field to filter your transactions by payee, category, tag, amount, or by specific words that appear in the Notes field. Click Reset Filters when you want to return to the master Transactions list.

Scheduled Transactions

Scheduled Transactions lets you see all your scheduled transactions from all your accounts in a single place. You can filter them by specific accounts, type, and timeframe to display the specific sets of scheduled transactions you want to see.

As with Transactions, you can use the Search field to filter your transactions by payee, category, tag, amount or specific words that appear in the Notes field. Click Reset Filters when you want to return to the master Scheduled Transactions list.

Last Download

Last Download lets you see all transactions in all accounts that were downloaded into Quicken Essentials the last time you did an update.

Accounts Summary

The Accounts Summary shows you a complete picture of your net worth, including a breakdown of your total assets and total liabilities. It also provides a high-level summary of each of your individual accounts.

Category Explorer

The Category Explorer lets you see a breakdown of where your money is going by category. You can drill down into a particular category to see all the transactions assigned just to that category, which will help you understand why a particular category is as large or small as it is.

The Category Explorer also lets you quickly find those transactions that don’t have a category at all, so you can easily categorize them, if you need to.

Learning about accounts

Each Quicken account represents either something you own (an asset) or something you owe (a liability), and lets you track the money—or value—that is added to or subtracted from that account. Quicken is flexible enough to let you track as many accounts as you’d normally need in one file. Some people track only their primary checking account; others want to know where every penny goes. Some people use just one checking account for a while and then add other accounts as they go along; others set up all their accounts before they begin entering any data.

Accounts that track what you own

Bank accounts (checking, savings, and money market). Use these to track your checking accounts, savings accounts, and money market accounts. You can print checks from these types of accounts.

Cash accounts. Use this to track your cash.

Asset accounts. Use these to track the value of an asset such as a home or car. For a business, use asset accounts to track your capital equipment or accounts receivable.

Investment accounts (529, brokerage, trust, UGMA). Use these to track multiple investments in a single account.

Retirement accounts (401(k), 403(b), IRA, KEOGH, SEP, or SIMPLE). Use these to track your retirement accounts.

Accounts that track what you owe

Credit card and line of credit accounts. Use these to track your credit cards, lines of credit, and equity lines.

Liability accounts. Use these to track something you owe, such as a mortgage or car loan. For a business, use liability accounts to track accrued liabilities or accounts payable.

Setting up accounts

Accounts in Quicken represent the assets and liabilities you have in the real world. You should create a separate account for each of the accounts you have real life (like your checking account, your savings account, your credit card, your 401(k), any brokerage accounts you have, and so forth). If you want to track the value of real-world assets, like a home or vehicle, you can create accounts for those too. Similarly, you will probably want to create accounts for any real-world liabilities, like a loan. Creating accounts for all your real-world assets and liabilities lets Quicken track their value and show you your total net worth.

If you’re just starting out and you already used the Overview to set up your accounts, or if you moved your data to Quicken from another version of Quicken or Microsoft Money, you probably have all the accounts you need for now. Use these instructions when you need to set up a new account, for example, for a new credit card or a new mutual fund.

To set up an account

The steps for setting up an account are basically the same for all Quicken accounts. You can edit most account information later if you decide to change it.

Choose Accounts > New, and then select the type of account you want to create.
You can also click the Add (+) button in the bottom of the Quicken window and choose an account type.
Enter the name of your financial institution in the Search field, select it from the list, and click Continue.
Some financial institutions offer multiple options to choose from. For example, Bank of America offers several options, including Bank of America – California, Bank of America – WA and ID, Bank of America – All Other States, Bank of America Military Bank, and so forth. Choose the one that best fits your institution.
Follow the on-screen instructions to set up your account, including connecting to your bank so you can download your transactions directly into Quicken.
Quicken supports downloads with over 13,000 financial institutions. If you can’t find your bank in the list, try these two steps:

Click "My bank is not in the list" on the Add Account window, and then click the refresh button on the My Bank is Not in the List message. Quicken updates your list of supported financial institutions. Next, click Check list again, and try once more to find your bank in the list of supported institutions.

If your bank still does not appear in the list, you can still create an account in Quicken, but you won't be able to download transactions into it. Instead, you will need to enter your transactions by hand. To set up a manual account, click "My bank is not in the list" in the Add Account window, and then click Add Manual Account.

Editing accounts

You can rename an account, change the account description, change an account’s online access, and read or edit any notes you added. You can edit the credit limit for a credit card account or change an investment account’s tax status. You can also change the account type in most cases.

To rename an account

Control-click the account you want to rename from the Accounts section in the sidebar and choose Rename Account.
Type a new name for the account.
Press Enter.

To change account information

Select the account you want to edit from the Accounts section in the sidebar.
Choose Accounts > Settings.
Make any changes you want to the displayed information.
Click Save to apply and save your changes.

Reconciling accounts

If you've used other versions of Quicken, you might be used to reconciling your account. Quicken Essentials no longer requires you to do this. When you manually enter your transactions and balances directly into your Quicken data file, reconciling is a useful way of double-checking the accuracy of your transactions. But if you download transactions from your financial institutions this step is often unnecessary.

If the balance shown on your most recent bank statement is different from the balance in your Quicken register, don’t assume that something's wrong. You've probably entered transactions in Quicken after the bank prepared your statement, or transactions that have not yet been cleared and downloaded, so the bank balance is not as up-to-date as your register. You may also have checks or other transactions from earlier months that have not yet cleared the bank.

To reconcile an account

Select the account you want to reconcile from the Accounts section in the sidebar.
Choose Accounts > Reconcile Account.
Enter the date and balance for the first day of the period you are reconciling.
Enter the date and balance for the last day of the period you are reconciling.
Click Start Reconciling.

If you need help

For more information about reconciling your accounts, click the Gear menu at the top of the Reconcile window and then choose Reconcile Help.

Hiding or deleting accounts

If you don't use an account anymore, you can hide it so that it doesn’t show up in lists or reports.

Deleting an account permanently removes that account and all of its transactions from your file. Once you delete an account, there is no way to recover it (except from a backup copy you made of your file). So make sure you really want to delete an account before you do.

To hide an account

Choose Accounts > Hide Account.
For the account you’d like to hide, select if you would like to hide the account in lists such as the sidebar, in reports, or both.
Click OK.
Quicken hides the account in the selected areas. To show a previously hidden account, deselect either of the checkboxes.

To delete an account

Select the account you want to delete from the Accounts section in the sidebar.
Choose Accounts > Delete Account.
Click Delete to confirm the deletion.
Didn't mean it? You can choose Edit > Undo Delete Account. This is the only time you can recover this account. Once you move on to another task, you will no longer be able to recover this account.

Learning about registers

Every Quicken account has a register where you can enter transactions for that account. A transaction is any item that affects the balance in your account. Common transactions in a bank account include:

Checks (written by hand or printed with Quicken)
ATM (automated teller machine) transactions
Deposits
EFT (electronic funds transfer) deposits or withdrawals
Bank service charges and interest

When you set up a new account, Quicken opens the register window for that account.

All Quicken accounts have registers. Although the types of transactions vary from register to register, the basic entry techniques are the same whether you are using the register for a bank, cash, credit card, asset, or liability account.

Correcting mistakes

To make a change to a transaction, select it and edit any field by selecting the incorrect information and typing over it. To undo a single mistake while entering or editing information in a field, choose Edit > Undo (or use the keyboard shortcut Command+Z). To restore a transaction to the way it was before you made any changes to it, click the Cancel button. The only item in the transaction you cannot edit is the balance in the Balance column.

Downloading transactions

Downloading your data is the most convenient way to get your transactions and other account information from your bank, credit card company, and other financial institutions into Quicken. Instead of having to enter each transaction manually, you can just connect Quicken directly to your bank and import the data.

To download transactions for all accounts at once

Choose Accounts > Update All Online Accounts.
You can also click the Update All icon in the bottom of the Quicken window.

To download transactions for a single account

If you have accounts at a financial institution that charges for downloading transactions, you might want to download transactions less frequently from that institution than other institutions where you bank.

Select the account you want to update from the Accounts section in the sidebar.
Click Update in the toolbar at the bottom-right of the register.

In addition to updating the selected account, Quicken updates any other accounts you have at the same institution under the same user name. For example, let's say you have both a checking account and a savings account at Acme Bank, and you access both accounts with the same user name and password. If you open your checking account in Quicken and click Update, Quicken downloads your transactions for both the checking and the savings account.

This only happens for accounts under the same user name. For example, let's say both you and your spouse have checking accounts at Acme Bank, and you are tracking both of those accounts in Quicken, but you use different user names and passwords to access your accounts. In that case, when you open your checking account in Quicken and click Update, Quicken only downloads data for your checking account and not your spouse's.

Entering transactions

If you've set up Quicken to download transactions from your bank or other financial institution, you might never or only rarely need to enter transactions.

Even if you download transactions, you might still want to enter transactions by hand as well. Entering transactions keeps your account up to date. The transactions from your bank, together with manually– entered transactions, allows you to track the "real balance" for your account.

But if you want Quicken to help you stay on top of upcoming bills, you’ll want to schedule transactions.

Quicken can help you stay on top of the bills you have coming due, so you can make sure you’ll have enough to money to pay them and don't forget to pay them on time. One of the primary tools to help you do this are scheduled transactions. Scheduled transactions are transactions you create for regularly occurring bills, like your electricity bill or your rent, and for regularly occurring income, like your paycheck. You create a scheduled transaction for each of these, and specify when and how often it occurs. Then Quicken automatically creates new instances of the transaction each time you pay or deposit the previous once. The Stay on Top of Monthly Bills section of the Overview also displays all upcoming scheduled transactions you have due, so you don’t forget to pay them and can make sure you have enough money on hand to cover them.

To enter a transaction

Select an account from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Choose Transactions > New Transaction. (You can also click New in the toolbar, or use the keyboard shortcut Command+N.)
Enter information in as many fields in the transaction as you want to track.
For example, many people find it helpful to assign categories or tags to their transactions.

Use the Action column to track the method by which the transaction took place. For example, for ATM transactions, enter "ATM." For checks, enter the check number.

Don't see the column you need? Click the Action menu () at the top-right corner of the register and choose the column from the pop-up menu.
(Optional) Add attachments such as receipts to the transaction.
(Optional) Click Save to enter the transaction.

To schedule one or more transactions

Scheduling your bill payments can save you time and help you remember to pay your bills when they’re due. Many bills, such as rent and insurance payments, occur at regular intervals and are always for the same amount. Other bills occur less regularly, or the amount varies from month to month. Even regular bills don’t come all at once—they trickle in. You can schedule all your bills, even if the amount varies. You can also schedule income and transfer transactions, such as paycheck deposits or monthly transfers from checking to savings.

After you schedule a transaction, Quicken enters it automatically in the register. Then you can print a check with Quicken, write a check by hand, or make a payment using your financial institution’s website. If the scheduled transaction is a series, Quicken displays only the next occurrence of the transaction in the register.

Select an account from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Choose Transactions > New Transaction.
If necessary, tab to the Date field.
Select the checkbox labeled "Scheduled."
Enter how frequently the transaction occurs, the dates on which it occurs, when it starts, and when it ends.
Click the Add (+) button to add any additional conditions. For example, if the transaction occurs the first and third Friday of every month, enter: Every 1 month(s) on the 1st Friday. Then click the Add (+) button, and on the next row, enter: Every 1 month(s) on the 3rd Friday.
Enter the rest of the information about the transaction, including the payee, any categories or tags, and the amount.
(Optional) Click Save to enter the transaction.
While you can, you don’t need to click Save to save the transaction—Quicken records the transaction automatically when you press Enter, move on to another task, or close the register.

To add a scheduled transaction based on an existing transaction

If you already have an instance of a transaction that you want to schedule going forward—for example, a cable bill you paid in the past—you can streamline the process of creating a scheduled transaction.

Select the existing transaction you want to schedule.
Click Schedule in the toolbar.
Quicken creates a new transaction and populates it with the same Payee, Payment amount, Category, and Tag(s) as the existing transaction.
Change any values in the transaction as necessary.
The register displays the next instance of a scheduled transaction. You might set up your water bill to be paid every month for the indefinite future, but the register only displays the next instance of that bill. This prevents the register from getting cluttered.
Click Save to save the transaction, or simply move on to your next task.
While you can, you don't need to click Save to save the transaction—Quicken records the transaction automatically when you press Enter, move on to another task, or close the register.

Make a mistake? Choose Edit > Undo.

Some scheduled transactions are special

Scheduled transactions are marked as paid automatically when you download a transaction from your bank that matches a scheduled transaction in your register.

For example, let’s say you have a scheduled transaction for your electricity bill. You scheduled it to be paid on the first Friday of every month. And let’s say this is a bill that you pay via your bank’s website. When Quicken downloads a transaction from your bank account that consists of a payment to your electricity company that took place around the beginning of the month, it automatically marks the scheduled transaction for your electricity bill for that month as paid.

If Quicken fails to recognize that a downloaded transaction matches a scheduled transaction, you can match them manually by dragging and dropping one onto the other.

To manually mark scheduled transactions as paid or deposited

Select a scheduled transaction.
Control-click the transaction and choose Mark as Paid or Mark as Deposited. (You can also click Paid or Deposited in the toolbar.)
Quicken enters the transaction as paid or deposited. The Scheduled icon disappears, and Quicken creates a new transaction for the next occurrence, if necessary.

Adding attachments to transactions

You can attach documents, such as email messages, receipts, and spreadsheets, to transactions.

To add an attachment to a transaction

Just drag and drop a document to an existing transaction.

When you attach a document to a transaction, a copy of the original document is copied into your Quicken data file. Any changes you make to the original document after it is attached are not applied to the copy of the document stored with the transaction.

To open an attachment

If necessary, show the Attachments column.
To show or hide the Attachments column, or any other column, choose View > Columns and the column you’d like to show or hide, in this case, Attachments.
Select the transaction containing the attachment you want to open.
Click the attachment icon () and select the attachment you’d like to open.
You can also view thumbnails of your attachments: click the Attachments column and choose Show Attachments from the shortcut menu. This displays the Attachments window. Here you can add, open, or delete transaction attachments.

If you are using Mac OS v10.6 or later, you can also preview the files using Quick Look. Select one or more attachments to preview and press the Space bar.

To delete an attachment

If necessary, show the Attachments column.
To show or hide the Attachments column, or any other column, choose View > Columns and the column you’d like to show or hide.
Select the transaction with the attachment you want to delete.
Click the attachment icon () and choose Show Attachments.
Select the attachment you’d like to delete and click Delete.

Editing transactions

The only items in the transaction you cannot edit are the balance and some items downloaded from a financial institution.

That said, note that changing the amount of an reconciled transaction can cause problems if you reconcile your Quicken records with your bank statement.

To edit a transaction

Double-click the transaction you want to edit. (You can also click Edit in the toolbar, or choose Transactions > Edit Transaction.)
Make any changes by selecting the incorrect information and typing over it.
You can also use the floating assistance windows to select different payee names, tags, and categories.

When you are finished, you can press Enter or simply move on to your next task.

Make a mistake? Choose Edit > Undo.

Transferring money between accounts

Transfers can record these and other common transactions:

Movement of funds from a checking account to a savings account
Cash advances from a credit card account to a checking account
Loan payments from a checking account to a liability account that tracks the balance of the loan

When you record a transfer transaction in a source account, Quicken automatically creates a parallel transaction in the destination account. If the source transaction is a payment or decrease, the destination transaction is a deposit or increase.

In some cases, you may want to transfer part of the total amount of a transaction. For example, you may want to transfer some of your paycheck into a retirement account. Or you might want to transfer the portion of your mortgage payment that goes toward the loan principal into a liability account that tracks the loan balance and assign an expense category to the interest portion of the payment.

To transfer money between accounts

Select the source account from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Choose Transactions > New Transaction.
Enter information about the transaction.
Enter the name of the destination account in the Transfer field.
Don't see the Transfer column? Click the Action menu () at the top-right corner of the register and choose Transfer from the menu.
(Optional) Click Save to enter the transaction.
Quicken records the transaction in this register and creates a parallel transaction in the destination account register for the same amount.

While you can, you don’t need to click Save to save the transaction—Quicken records the transaction automatically when you press Enter, move on to another task, or close the register.

Deleting transactions

To delete a transaction

Select one or more transactions.
To delete several transactions at once, select all the transactions you want to delete.
Choose Transactions > Delete Transaction.
If the transaction was downloaded from a financial institution Quicken asks you to confirm the deletion.

You can also press the Delete key.

Made a mistake? Choose Edit > Undo.

Finding transactions

To search within a single account

Select an account from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Enter the term you are searching for in the Search field, at the top-right corner of the register.
As you type Quicken shows only the matching transactions.

If you want to limit the search to a single column, choose from the Search pop-up menu.

To search in all accounts

Select Transactions from the Tools section of the sidebar.
Enter the term you are searching for in the Search field, at the top-right corner of the register.
As you type Quicken shows only the matching transactions.

If you want to limit the search to a single column, choose from the Search pop-up menu.

Using registers

To show or hide columns

Choose View > Columns.
Select or clear the columns you’d like to see in the register.
Changes you make only affect the named register. You can show different columns for each account.

To sort registers

Click a register column heading to sort by that column; click again to sort by the same column, but in descending order.

To see balances

You can change which balance is shown at the top of a register window.

Click the label next to the account balance at the top of the register window and select the type of balance you’d like to see.

Today's Balance tells you how much you have in your account today, according to the transactions in your register. (This is the balance that appears on the Overview and the Accounts Summary.)

The Projected Balance tells you how much money you have left for the near term (as defined by your preferences settings), given all the money you've stated you have coming in and going out. The Projected Balance includes today’s balance minus future bills and plus future income.

The Online Balance is the amount of money left in your account at the time of your last download. In other words, it’s the amount of money your financial institution thinks you have left.

You can also click the account balance Info icon to see a pop-up summary.

Learning about categories and tags

Categories vs. Tags

Categories are used for similar types of expenses. And because only a single category can be assigned to each transaction, category tracking can help you create reports that show you exactly what proportion of your money is going to which kind of expense. Quicken automatically categorizes many of the transactions you download, based on your past categorizations and based on its knowledge of which payees belong in which categories. For transactions that Quicken Essentials doesn’t recognize, like your rent check, for example, you'll need to categorize those manually until Quicken learns that a payment to "Mr. Roper" belongs in the category "Rent."

Tags, on the other hand, let you see how much you’re spending for a specific purpose, like a hobby or a vacation. While categories are assigned to similar types of expenses, tags usually get assigned to expenses from different categories. And while you can only assign one category to each transaction, you can assign as many tags to each transaction as you like.

For example, let’s say you want to know how much you’re spending on a vacation to Florida. You would create a tag called “Florida vacation” and then apply that tag to any expense that’s going toward that vacation, like your flight, your rental car, your hotel room, meals, maybe even a new bathing suit and a boat rental. Then, to see how much that vacation cost you, you can go to the Spending Cloud (under the Reports section of the Source list) and click the “Florida vacation” tag. Quicken displays the total for that tag, as well as a list of all expenses that have that tag.

And since you’re allowed to use multiple tags for each transaction, you can also assign other tags to some of those Florida vacation expenses, for other tracking purposes. For example, if you’re also tracking how much you’re spending on your boating hobby, you could not only assign a “Florida vacation” tag to the boat rental, you can also tag it with “Boating hobby,” and similarly use the Spending Cloud to see how much you’re spending overall on that activity.

Remember:

Each transaction can have only one category.
Each transaction can have as many tags as you want. (e.g.: Florida vacation, Boating hobby, Jane trips, Andy trips, Vacations, etc…)
Use categories to track different types of expenses.
Use tags to track different purposes for which the expenses were used.

Adding categories or tags

To add a category or subcategory

Choose Window > Categories.
Click Edit.
Choose New Category, or select a category and choose New Subcategory from the Add (+) button at the bottom-left of the Category window.
Enter information for the category or subcategory.
If you choose, you can also enter a description.

If this is a category you think you’ll use often, mark it as a Favorite. Favorite categories appear in the top of the Category chooser, so they're easily accessible.

Select Tax-related, if appropriate.
Click Save.
Click OK.

To add a tag

Choose Window > Tags.
Click Edit.
Choose New Tag from the Add (+) button at the bottom-left of the Tag window.
Enter information for the tag.
If you choose, you can also enter a description.

If this is a tag you think you’ll use often, mark it as a Favorite. Favorite tags appear in the top of the tag chooser, so they’re easily accessible.

Select Tax-related, if appropriate.
Click Save.
Click OK.

Editing categories or tags

To edit a category or subcategory

Choose Window > Categories.
Select the category you want to edit.
Click the Edit button at the bottom of the dialog.
Make any changes you want to the displayed information.
Click Save.
Click OK.

To edit a tag

Choose Window > Tags.
Select the tag you want to edit.
Click the Edit button at the bottom of the dialog.
Make any changes you want to the displayed information.
Click Save.
Click OK.

Assigning categories or tags

When you enter transactions by hand, you can assign categories or tags as you enter the other details about the transaction.

When you download transactions, Quicken assigns categories to the transactions whose payees it recognizes. Still, there might be a few transactions, like your rent check, whose payee Quicken won't recognize. You can use the Category Explorer to quickly identify those transactions and assign categories or tags to them.

To assign categories or tags

Select the Category Explorer from the Tools section of the Source list.
If you have any uncategorized transactions, an alert appears at the bottom of the summary on the left. Click the alert.
Quicken displays a list of all uncategorized transactions.
Assign categories or tags to the transactions.
An easy way to do this is to choose Window > Categories, select one or more transactions, and click the appropriate categories in the Categories window.

As you assign categories, Quicken removes the categorized transactions from the list.

Deleting categories or tags

To delete a category or subcategory

Choose Window > Categories.
Select the category you want to delete.
Click the Delete (–) button at the bottom of the dialog.
Click Save.
Click OK.

To delete a tag

Choose Window > Tags.
Select the tag you want to delete.
Click the Delete (–) button at the bottom of the dialog.
Click Save.
Click OK.

Learning about data files

Setting up a new data

If you're starting fresh, just launch Quicken: the application automatically guides you through creating a new document.

You may name the data file whatever you'd like. The default location for the file is the Documents folder.

You can also set up additional data files, but you can only use one data file at a time.

A bit more about data files

Your Quicken data file contains all your financial data. Your personal Quicken data file might contain several accounts, such as a checking account, a savings account, credit card accounts, and an investment account. If you use your Quicken data file for business, it might contain a business checking account, an A/R account, an A/P account, and a capital equipment account.

A Quicken data file is like a drawer in a filing cabinet, and the accounts in it are like the folders in that file drawer. You might, for example, have folders in your financial file drawer labeled Checking, Savings, Car loan, Mortgage, and so on.

All the accounts in one Quicken data file share the same lists of categories, tags, and other information—and you can transfer funds from one account to another within the same file. Plus, when you run a report, you can choose to see data from any or all of the accounts in your file. For example, if you want a status report on the accounts you use every day, you can create a net worth report that includes the balances from your checking, credit card, and savings accounts. If you want your net worth report to show your overall financial picture, you can include information from all of the accounts in your file, including investment accounts, retirement accounts, and the asset and liability accounts you use to track the value of your home and the remaining balance on its mortgage.

If you use Quicken for personal finances only, you probably need just one data file. Quicken reports, graphs, and budgets only include information from accounts that are in the same data file. However, you may decide you need more than one data file if, for example, you want to keep your personal and business finances completely separate. See "Using more than one Quicken data file."

Backing up data files

You can back up your data file to a local disk and/or online to your MobileMe iDisk. You can also restore a data file backed up using Time Machine.

To back up to an iDisk, you must have a MobileMe account (fees apply).

To back up a data file manually to a disk

Insert your backup disk or other storage medium.
Choose File > Back Up > To Disk.
Select the location for the backup copy of your data file, and then click Back Up.
Quicken copies the file to the backup location. Leave the file extension as .quickendata.
Eject the backup disk and store it in a safe place.

To restore a data file from a disk

If necessary, Insert your backup disk.
Choose File > Restore > From Disk.
Select the data file you wish to restore, and then click Choose.
Select the location to restore the data file to, and then click Save.

To back up a data file to your iDisk

Choose File > Back Up > To MobileMe.
Enter a password, and then verify it by entering it again.
If you don't want to manually enter a password when restoring the backup file, select the "Remember this password in my keychain checkbox."
Click Back Up.
Quicken copies the file to your iDisk/ Documents/Quicken Essentials/Backup Files folder. The backup file is compressed and encrypted.

To restore a data file from your iDisk

Choose File > Restore > From MobileMe.
Select a backup file from the list, and then click Restore.
Enter the backup file password, and then click Restore.
Select the location to restore the data file to, and then click Restore.

To restore a data file from your Time Machine backup

Quit Quicken if the application is currently running.
Open the window that contains your Quicken data file.
Click the Time Machine icon in the Dock, or open the Time Machine menu in the menu bar and choose Enter Time Machine.
Use the arrows or the timeline along the right side of your screen to browse through all the backups Time Machine has created.
When you find the version of your data file that you want to restore, select it and then click Restore.
If there is an old data file with the same name, you're asked if you want to keep the current item, the restored item, or both.
After the file is restored, drag the data file to the Quicken Essentials application.

Opening data files

When launched, Quicken opens the last file you used in your previous session. Quicken limits you to using one data file at a time.

To open a data file

Choose File > Open File.
Select the file you want to open and click Open.
If the file is protected by a password, enter the password, and then click OK.

Quicken opens data files with the extension .quickendata.

Renaming data files

When you open the application the first time, Quicken guides you through creating a new document.

You may name the data file whatever you'd like. The default location for the file in the Documents folder.

To rename a data file

If Quicken is running, quit the application.
Locate the data file you want to rename in a Finder window.
Your data file is normally stored in your Documents folder.
Click the data file to select it, then click the name. The name is highlighted and you will be able to edit it.
Type the new name and press Enter.
Quicken data files have the file extension .quickendata. If you change the name of a file and delete the extension, Quicken may no longer recognize the file. To ensure the file can be recognized by Quicken, change only the part of the name that comes before the extension.

Deleting data files

You can delete Quicken data files just as you would any other files.

To delete a data file

If Quicken is running, quit the application.
Drag the file to the Trash (at the end of the Dock).
Any files or folders you drag to the Trash remain there until you empty the Trash. If you change your mind about something, you can still retrieve it from the Trash if you haven't emptied it yet. Click the Trash icon to open the Trash window, then drag items back to your home folder. Choose Finder > Empty Trash.

Adding data file passwords

To add a data file password

Choose File > Password.
Click Set Password.
Enter a password.
Enter the password again in the Verify field.
Enter a hint to help you remember the password.
Click Set Password.

Changing or removing data file passwords

To change the password for a data file

Choose File > Password.
Click Change Password.
Enter the existing password.
Enter a new password.
Enter the new password again in the Verify field.
Enter a hint to help you remember the new password.
Click Change Password.

To remove the password from a data file

Choose File > Password.
Click Remove Password.
Enter the existing password.
Click Remove Password.

Using more than one data file

If you use Quicken for personal finances only, you probably need just one Quicken data file. When you have all your accounts in one data file, Quicken can:

Keep one list of income and expense categories for all your accounts.
Include data from all accounts in a single report to track income and expenses, net worth, and other important information.
Transfer money from one account to another within the file.

With separate files, there is no connection between the accounts in one file and the accounts in another. There are some reasons, however, why you might want to have more than one file:

To keep information separate for business purposes if your personal and business finances are entirely separate and have different checking accounts.
To keep a separate file for each year’s accounts.

Setting up data files

When launched, Quicken opens the last file you used in your previous session. Quicken limits you to using one data file at a time.

To set up a data file

Choose File > New.
Enter a name for the data file and click Save.
Quicken creates the new data file with the extension .quickendata and opens it, ready for use.

Converting data files

Thanks for using Quicken Essentials. We want you to be up and running as quickly as possible. So if you've used other versions of Quicken, or Microsoft Money, we can help you convert your data file.

Before you get started, please review these notes:

There are two versions of Quicken Essentials: a retail version, available from Intuit and off-the-shelf in retail stores; and a Mac App Store version, available by clicking the App Store icon on your computer or by visiting the Mac App Store website. To adhere to technical guidelines established by Apple, the Mac App Store version of Quicken Essentials does not support the conversion of Quicken for Mac data files. If necessary, please contact Quicken Support at http://quicken.intuit.com/support/mac.jsp. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.
If you are converting data from Quicken for Mac, please note that Quicken Essentials converts data from Quicken for Mac 2007, 2006, and 2005 only. It does not convert data from Quicken for Mac 2004 and earlier. To learn about other ways to convert your data, contact Quicken Support at http://quicken.intuit.com/support/mac.jsp.
Each Quicken Essentials data file can import data only from a single other file.
For example, if you have two data files in Quicken or Money, you can't import data from both of those files into the same Quicken Essentials file. The Quicken Essentials file will take data from only one of them.
You can import data into a Quicken Essentials data file that already has data in it.
For example, if you start using Quicken Essentials and create a data file that you want to keep, you can import your old data (from Quicken or Money) into that file.
Don't delete your old data file until you've reviewed your new data file.
After you finish converting your data to Quicken Essentials, you'll want to review the new file to make sure that everything got carried over correctly. You'll need to be able to view the old data file so you can compare balances and transactions.
It's a good idea in any case to hold on to a backup of your old data file for a while, just in case you need to refer back to it.
If you are converting data from Quicken for Mac, please note that Quicken Essentials converts data from Quicken for Mac 2007, 2006, and 2005 only. It does not convert data from Quicken for Mac 2004 or earlier. To learn about other ways to convert your data, contact Quicken Support at http://quicken.intuit.com/support/mac.jsp.

Next steps

You'll want to read about what data gets carried over, how to convert from the application you're currently using, and what to do to finish up.

What data gets carried over

Data that is converted from your old file to Quicken Essentials

Most, but not all of your data, can be converted to Quicken Essentials.

Accounts
All transactions except transactions in investment accounts
Scheduled transactions
Categories
Classes and tags (these are both called “tags” in Quicken Essentials)
Online banking download setups (Quicken for Mac and Windows)
- If you've set up accounts to download data from your financial institutions into your Quicken for Mac or Quicken for Windows data file, the information about your financial institutions and your user id’s will be carried over to Quicken Essentials. Exception: Your passwords will not be carried over. You will have to re-enter your passwords the first time you do a download in Quicken Essentials.

Data that is not converted from your old file to Quicken Essentials

Investment account transactions
- Quicken Essentials gives you the ability to track the total value of the holdings in your investment accounts, but it does not track individual transactions. When you convert your data, Quicken Essentials will create an account for each of the investment accounts you have in your old data file. But it will not carry over the transactions. Instead, the balance for the new account will be 0.00 until you do an online update, at which point Quicken Essentials will update the balance to the current balance for that account.
Custom reports
- Quicken Essentials will not import any custom reports you created in your old data file.
Online banking passwords (Quicken for Mac and Windows)
- You will have to re-enter your passwords the first time you update your accounts in Quicken Essentials.
Online banking information (Microsoft Money)
- If you have Microsoft Money, you will have to set up your accounts for statement download in Quicken Essentials.
Data from the more advanced features in Quicken for Mac and Windows
- For example, the following data is not imported: business data, rental property data, lifetime planner data, cash flow forecast data, budget data, spending plan data, debt reduction data, emergency tax records data, tax planner data, and home inventory manager data.

A few other notes about what’s different from other versions of Quicken

Investments
- Quicken Essentials lets you to track the overall value of your investment accounts and the value of specific holdings, but the software does not track individual buys and sells, nor will it provide some advanced investment performance reports.
Direct bill pay
- You can track your bills in Quicken Essentials, but the program doesn’t have the direct bill pay capabilities that allow you to pay your bills directly from the program.
Other advanced features
- Quicken Essentials does not include many of the advanced features in other versions of Quicken, including Business features, Rental Property, lifetime planner, cash flow forecast, spending plan, debt reduction plan, emergency tax records, tax planner, and home inventory manager.

To convert data from Quicken for Mac

Before you get started, please review these notes:

There are two versions of Quicken Essentials: a retails version, available from Intuit and off-the-shelf in retail stores; and a Mac App Store version, available by clicking the App Store icon on your computer or by visiting the Mac App Store website. To adhere to technical guidelines established by Apple, the Mac App Store version of Quicken Essentials does not support the conversion of Quicken for Mac data files. If necessary, please contact Quicken Support at http://quicken.intuit.com/support/mac.jsp.

If you are converting data from Quicken for Mac, please note that Quicken Essentials converts data from Quicken for Mac 2007, 2006, and 2005 only. It does not convert data from Quicken for Mac 2004 and earlier. To learn about other ways to convert your data, contact Quicken Support at http://quicken.intuit.com/support/mac.jsp. If you do not need to convert data from Quicken for mac 2004 or earlier, continue with the steps below.

Create a copy of your current Quicken for Mac data file.
Important: You'll want to use the copy for the conversion. Do not use your original data file.
Launch the Quicken File Exchange Utility (it’s located on your Quicken Essentials disk).
Follow the on-screen instructions to locate the copy of your old data file and then convert your data from Quicken for Mac to Quicken Essentials.
Open Quicken Essentials.
If you want to import your old data into a new Quicken Essentials data file that you’ve already started using (optional), make sure that the new data file is now open in Quicken Essentials.
Choose File > Import, and then select the file that you just created during the conversion process.
The conversion file has the ".QDFX." You’ll find it in the same folder as the copy of your old Quicken for Mac file.

To convert your data from Quicken for Windows 2010 or later

Using your Windows PC, insert the Quicken Essentials disc and install the converter utility.
The converter utility should be installed automatically when you insert the disc, but if not, for example, if you are using Microsoft Windows 7, open the application Quicken_Converter_Setup.exe.
After it is installed, open the converter utility and follow the on-screen instructions to convert your data and save the conversion file on your PC.
The conversion file has a .QXF extension.
Move the .QXF file to your Mac.
For example, you can put the .QXF file on a USB drive, and then copy the file from the USB drive to your Mac.
Open Quicken Essentials.
If you want to import your old data into a new Quicken Essentials data file that you’ve already started using (optional), make sure that the new data file is now open in Quicken Essentials.
Choose File > Import, and then select the .QXF file.

To convert your data from Quicken for Windows (other versions)

Launch the conversion utility.
The conversion utility is on your Quicken Essentials disk. You can access it when you insert the disk into your PC.
Follow the on-screen instructions to convert your data and save the conversion file on your PC.
The conversion file has a .QXF extension.
Move the .QXF file to your Mac.
For example, you can put the .QXF file on a USB drive, and then copy the file from the USB drive to your Mac.
Open Quicken Essentials.
If you want to import your old data into a new Quicken Essentials data file that you’ve already started using (optional), make sure that the new data file is now open in Quicken Essentials.
Choose File > Import, and then select the .QXF file.

To convert data from Microsoft Money

Quicken Essentials can help you convert your data from Microsoft Money 2007 or 2008. Before you start, note that:

You will need a copy of Microsoft Money 2007 or 2008 installed on your machine. If you no longer have Money installed, you can download a free trial version of MS Money Plus Deluxe or a free trial version of MS Money Plus Home & Business to use for the process converting your data to Quicken Essentials.
The version of the Money software you use must match the version of the data file whose data you plan to convert. For example, to convert a Money 2007 file, you must have Money 2007 installed. To convert a Money 2008 file, you must have Money 2008 installed.
If you are in the process of reconciling your accounts in Microsoft Money, we recommend that you finish reconciling before converting your data.
Quicken Essentials won’t know where you are in the process of reconciling if you convert your data mid-stream.
While Money does need to be on your computer during the conversion process, it should not be running while you are performing the conversion. Quit the program before starting the conversion.

Launch the conversion utility.
The conversion utility is on your Quicken Essentials disk. You can access it when you insert the disk into your PC.
Follow the on-screen instructions to convert your data and save the conversion file on your PC.
The conversion file has a .QXF extension.
Move the .QXF file to your Mac.
For example, you can put the .QXF file on a USB drive, and then copy the file from the USB drive to your Mac.
Open Quicken Essentials.
If you want to import your old data into a new Quicken Essentials data file that you’ve already started using (optional), make sure that the new data file is now open in Quicken Essentials.
Choose File > Import, and then select the .QXF file.

After you have converted your data

Remember to re-connect your accounts to your financial institutions.

If you moved your data from Quicken for Mac or Quicken for Windows, all the information about the connections between your accounts in Quicken and your financial institutions should have been carried over, except your passwords. You will need to re-enter those the first time you update your accounts.

If you moved your data from Microsoft Money, you will probably need to set up your accounts again to enable them to download transactions from your financial institutions. Choose your account from the sidebar (on the left). Click Settings in the toolbar, and update the account's information. (See the Getting Started Guide for more information. In Quicken Essentials, choose Help > Getting Started Guide.)

The balances for your investment accounts will be 0.00 until you do an online update.

In Quicken Essentials, investment accounts don’t track your individual transactions, only your total balance. When you convert your data, Quicken Essentials creates accounts in your new data file for each of your investment accounts in your old file. But it won’t import the accounts’ individual transactions. As a result, the balance in each of your investment accounts will be 0.00 until you do an online update. At that time, Quicken Essentials will download the account’s current balance.

Review your account balances.

In most cases, they should be identical to the balances in your old data file. If they look off, refer to the troubleshooting section.

If your overall balance (the total value of all your accounts) looks wrong:

Remember that the overall balance might not include the balances for your investment accounts.

The balances for those accounts will remain 0.00 until you do an online update to download data from your financial institutions.

Check to see if the balance for an individual account looks wrong. If it does, refer to the next section for the possible problem.

If the balance for an individual account looks wrong:

Review the import log
- When you import your data, Quicken Essentials creates a log of all the tasks it performs during the import process. Most of the log entries consist of perfunctory information that you can ignore. But the log also lists any problems the program ran into while during the import. Check the log for any potential errors, especially ones that say Quicken Essentials couldn’t import certain data.
Check for “orphaned” transfers
- When you transfer funds from one account to another in either Quicken or Money, your software program creates two transactions:
  One in the account the money came from and one in the account the money went to. When Quicken Essentials imports your data, it tries to identify both sides of the transfer. If it can’t identify the match, it logs each side of the transfer individually and then creates new matching transactions to complete the transfer. This can result in duplicate records.
  
  For example, let’s say you made a $1,000 transfer from Account A to Account B. If Quicken Essentials can’t identify that the transaction for the withdrawal from Account A is the match for the transaction for the deposit in Account B, then it creates one transaction for the withdrawal it found in Account A, and it creates a new match for the deposit in Account B. At the same time, it creates a transaction for the deposit that it found in Account B and a new match for the withdrawal from Account A. As a result, the withdrawal gets logged twice in Account A, causing the account’s balance to be $1,000 less than it should be. And the deposit similarly gets logged twice in Account B, causing that account’s balance to be $1,000 more than it should be.
  
  To fix this, simply identify the orphaned transfers and delete the duplicates.

Banking

Setting up accounts

If you're just starting out and you already used the Overview to set up your accounts, or if you moved your data to Quicken from another version of Quicken or Microsoft Money, you probably have all the accounts you need for now. Use these instructions when you need to set up a new account, for example, for a new credit card or a new mutual fund.

To set up an account

The steps for setting up an account are basically the same for all Quicken accounts. You can edit most account information later if you decide to change it.

Choose Accounts > New, and then select the type of account you want to create.
You can also click the Add (+) button in the bottom of the Quicken window and choose an account type.
Enter the name of your financial institution in the Search field, select it from the list, and click Continue.
Some financial institutions offer multiple options to choose from. For example, Bank of America offers several options, including Bank of America – California, Bank of America – WA and ID, Bank of America – All Other States, Bank of America Military Bank, and so forth. Choose the one that best fits your institution.

Follow the on-screen instructions to set up your account, including connecting to your bank so you can download your transactions directly into Quicken.

Quicken supports downloads with over 13,000 financial institutions. If you can’t find your bank in the list, try these two steps:

Downloading transactions

To download transactions for all accounts at once

Choose Accounts > Update All Online Accounts.
You can also click the Update All icon in the bottom of the Quicken window.

To download transactions for a single account

Select the account you want to update from the Accounts section in the sidebar.
Click Update in the toolbar at the bottom right of the register.
In addition to updating the selected account, Quicken updates any other accounts you have at the same institution under the same user name. For example, let’s say you have both a checking account and a savings account at Acme Bank, and you access both accounts with the same user name and password. If you open your checking account in Quicken and click Update, Quicken downloads your transactions for both the checking and the savings account.

This only happens for accounts under the same user name. If the accounts For example, let’s say both you and your spouse have checking accounts at Acme Bank, and you are tracking both of those accounts in Quicken, but you use different user names and passwords to access your accounts. In that case, when you open your checking account in Quicken and click Update, Quicken downloads data for only your checking account.

Notes:

New transactions in your register are marked with a blue circle in the Status column.

If you display the “Entered” column in the register, you can sort transactions by that column to identify the most recently entered transactions.

You can also open the Last Download window (in the Tools section of the sidebar) to see all transactions that were downloaded into Quicken the last time you did an update.

Once you review a transaction—and mark it as reviewed—the circle in the Status column changes to a blue ring.

Reviewing a transaction is entirely optional. New transactions eventually “age out” of their new status, and the blue circle disappears on its own.

If you have used Quicken before, you might be used to the concept of scheduled updates that automatically update your account information at preset times. Quicken Essentials does not include this feature. You will have to follow one of the procedures in this topic to download data for your accounts.

Learning about checks

By using Quicken to write and print checks, you save time and minimize errors because you avoid the duplicate work of hand-writing checks and then recording them in Quicken.

Intuit checks

Intuit checks are printed to the exacting standards of the American Banking Association and are pre-approved by all banks, savings and loan institutions, credit unions, and brokers in the United States and Canada. When you order personalized checks, Intuit prints your name, address, account number, bank name, check numbers, and all the information required by financial institutions on your checks.

All Intuit checks are triple guaranteed. We guarantee that:

Your checks will be accepted by your bank.
Your checks will work with your inkjet or laser Mac-compatible printer.
Your check order will be printed exactly as you submitted it.

If we fail to meet these three conditions, please call right away. We will quickly replace your order or refund your money, whichever you prefer.

How do I write checks away from home?

For checks you write away from home, use the paper checks you already have or fill in an Intuit check by hand. The next time you use Quicken, enter the transactions in your check register.

When you order your Intuit checks, indicate a starting number considerably higher than your existing paper check numbers. For example, if your personal check numbers are in the 1000 range, begin your Intuit checks at 3001. That way, you avoid confusion or possible duplication of numbers.

Quicken can easily manage two sets of check numbers in one account. The bank has no concerns about which numbers you use on your checks. Check numbers are for your own records.

Writing checks

By using Quicken to write and print checks, you save time and minimize errors because you avoid the duplicate work of hand-writing checks and then recording them in Quicken.

To write a check

Select an account from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Choose Transactions > Write Check (You can also use the keyboard shortcut Command+J).
Enter the payee.
Enter the amount of the check.
If you are using window envelopes, you’ll want to enter an address for the payee.
If you have used more than one address for this payee, you can click Other Addresses to select an alternative address.
Select the To be printed checkbox.
When you are finished, you can simply press Enter and move on to your next task.
If you are printing this check from Quicken, you do not need to enter a check number. Quicken enters the check number after the check is printed. If you are recording a check you wrote manually, you can enter the check number.

Printing checks

To print a check

Choose File > Print Checks.
Select the account containing the checks to be printed.
Select which checks you’d like to print.
You can choose Select All or Clear All to select or deselect all the checks in the list.
Click Print.
Verify that the check printing settings are correct:
Click Print.

If there was a problem

If the checks did not print correctly:

You can reprint one or more checks, if necessary.
You can fine-tune the check alignment for your printer.
Make sure you are using the correct checks: Quicken is designed to print checks that comply with the United States federal Check 21 Act.

To reprint a check

The steps for reprinting a check are the same as printing a check, but you’ll want to follow these additional steps:

Make sure you destroy or otherwise void the previously printed check.
In the register, select the transaction for the check you want to reprint.
Click Edit Check.
Select the To be printed checkbox.
Save the transaction.
Print the check as usual, paying special attention to entering the correct number in the Starting Check Number field.

To adjust check printing alignment

In most cases, you won’t need to do anything special to print checks with the text aligned correctly. If you do have problems, however, you may need to use these steps to adjust the alignment of text on your checks—but only if you have followed the instructions for printing checks and the text is still not aligned correctly on the printed checks.

Once you get your checks to print correctly, Quicken saves your alignment settings, so you won’t have to change them again to print checks with the same alignment in the future.

Choose File > Print Checks.
Select the checkbox labeled Adjust Alignment.
Insert a sheet of US Letter paper (not checks) into your printer.
Click the Print button to print an alignment guide.
Hold the alignment guide on top of a page of your checks and verify that the text appears in the right place.,/li>
If you need to adjust the alignment, drag the text as necessary in the preview section of the printer dialog.
Click the Print button to print an adjusted alignment guide. Repeat until the text is properly aligned.
Clear the Adjust Alignment checkbox and continue printing your checks.

Learning about credit cards

When to use credit card accounts

You can use Quicken to track credit cards, charge cards, lines of credit, or equity lines. Use the following table to determine the best way to use Quicken.

Record-keeping preferences	Account to use	Actions to take
You want to keep records of only a few individual transactions and you always pay your bill in full.	Checking	Record the check that pays the bill in your Quicken checking account. Split the transaction to categorize specific charges. (This method doesn’t let you track an outstanding balance, however.)
You sometimes carry a balance rather than paying your bill in full every month and you want to know your outstanding balance at all times.Credit card	Credit card	Enter and categorize each transaction from your receipts as you make purchases.The credit card register shows your balance.
You want to keep records of some or all of your transactions	Credit card	Enter and categorize the transactions you want to track (either from receipts or from your monthly statement), and then create one transaction to cover all the charges you don’t want to take the time to enter.
You want to keep track of your transactions, but you don’t have time to enter them manually.	Credit card with transaction download	Connect to your financial institution to update your credit card or charge card account automatically every month.

If you'd like, you can set up a credit card account. Otherwise, read the next section to learn how to track your credit card expenditures in a checking account.

Entering credit card transactions in a checking account

If you always pay your bill in full and you have only a few credit or charge card expenses you want to track, it’s easy to just record these expenses in the Quicken checking account from which you pay the bill. You can track some or all of your credit or charge card purchases by entering multiple categories in a split transaction when you write a check to pay your bill.

What about debit cards?

Although debit cards often carry the name of a major credit card company, they are not credit cards. When you make a purchase with a debit card, the money is withdrawn from your account as if you had written a check. Use a checking account for debit card transactions, not a credit card account.

Entering credit card transactions

If you’ve used a Quicken bank account, you already know how to use a credit card account.

To enter transactions in a credit card register, you can:

Download transactions directly from the financial institution that issued the credit card. This is the easiest way to make sure you have all your transactions entered correctly.
Save your receipts when you charge items and enter the transactions as they occur throughout the month. This method provides you with your current credit or charge card balance at all times. It also lets you double-check your charges against those listed on your statement.
Wait until you receive your monthly statement, and enter the transactions from the statement. This method is easy if you don't need to keep track of your balance throughout the month.

To enter a credit card transaction

Select a credit card account from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Choose Transactions > New Transaction. (You can also click New in the toolbar, or use the keyboard shortcut Command+N.
Enter information in as many fields in the transaction as you want to track.
For example, many people find it helpful to assign categories or tags to their transactions.
(Optional) Click Save to enter the transaction.
While you can, you don’t need to click Save to save the transaction—Quicken records the transaction automatically when you press Enter, move on to another task, or close the register.

Learning about asset or liability accounts

When to use Quicken asset and liability accounts

Assets are what you own, liabilities are what you owe, and the difference between them is your net worth.

With Quicken asset and liability accounts, you can track such things as loan balances, the value of your car or other personal possessions, and the cost basis of your home. For a small business, asset and liability accounts can track capital equipment, accounts receivable, and accounts payable. If you set up accounts for all your assets and liabilities, Quicken can include them in net worth reports and graphs to give you an accurate view of your total financial picture.

When to use Quicken asset accounts

The balances in your bank and cash accounts represent only part of your total assets. Quicken has additional account types you can use to track your other assets: asset accounts and investment accounts. Use investment accounts to track assets such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other investments that fluctuate in value. Use asset accounts to track the following:

Type of asset	Sample uses for asset accounts
Loan notes you hold	You can track money you’ve lent in an asset account. Then, when you receive a payment, deposit it in your bank account as you normally would, but create a transfer to the loan asset account for the amount of the principal payment so the asset account tracks the amount that is owed to you.
Home cost basis	Set up an asset account to track your home improvements over the years. Use the purchase price of the home as the opening balance for the account, and then record each improvement in the register as you make it (generally as a transfer from the account where the money was actually spent). Many types of improvements add to the cost basis of your home.
Contents of your home	Create an asset account for your home inventory and use it to track furnishings, major appliances, electronics, jewelry, and other property you keep in your home. Enter each item with its purchase date and price as a transaction in the asset account. If your property is damaged or stolen, your records can help to settle your claim with the insurer.
Prepaid medical or dependent care expenses	If you set aside pre-tax dollars for medical or dependent care expenses, you can use an asset account as a holding account for tracking the amounts withheld from your paycheck. Use a split transaction to transfer part of your paycheck to another account.
Capital equipment	Track the value of capital equipment as it is acquired and track depreciation as it occurs.

When to use Quicken liability accounts

The balances due on your credit cards represent part of your liabilities. Use Quicken’s liability accounts to track these other liabilities:

Type of liability	Sample uses for liability accounts
Loan balances	You can use liability accounts to keep track of money you’ve borrowed, such as car loans, home equity loans, and mortgages. Then, when you write a check to make a loan payment, create a transfer to the loan liability account for the amount of the principal payment, so the liability account’s balance always shows the amount you owe on the loan.
Accrued liabilities	Track accrued liabilities, such as payroll taxes and income taxes payable. When you do the payroll for your small business, transfer the payroll taxes portion of each check to a payroll liability account as part of the split transaction. This technique makes it easy for you to keep track of the amount that's due for payroll taxes.

Setting up asset or liability accounts

Assets are things you own that have monetary value, like your home or your car. Tracking their value in Quicken Essentials lets the program give you a full picture of your total net worth.

Liability accounts let you track the value of liabilities like car or home loans. When you track these in Quicken Essentials, their value gets rolled up into your net worth calculation, giving you a complete picture of your total net worth.

To set up an asset account

Following the steps in the help topic Setting up account, create an asset account.
Add a transaction to enter the initial value of the asset, and enter the amount it’s worth in the Increase column.
The outstanding value of the asset appears in the Balance field.

To set up an liability account

Following the steps in the help topic Setting up account, create a liability account.
Create a transaction to enter the initial value of the liability, and enter the amount of the liability in the Decrease column.
The outstanding value of the liability appears in the Balance field.

Entering asset or liability transactions

If you've used a Quicken bank account, you already know how to use an asset or liability account.

You can make an adjustment to the balance in an asset or liability account to update the current value of the account. For example, if you have an asset account for some real estate you own, you can enter a transaction to update the value of the account to reflect the current value of the property.

To enter an asset transaction

Select an asset account from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Choose Transactions > New Transaction.
Enter information in as many fields in the transaction as you want to track.
When the value of your asset increases, for example, if you add a remodel to your home, enter the amount of the increase in value in the Increase column.

When the value of your asset decreases, for example, due to depreciation, enter the amount of the decrease in the Decrease column.

To enter an liability transaction

Select a liability account from the sidebar.
Choose Transactions > New Transaction.
Enter information in as many fields in the transaction as you want to track.
You'll notice that, in your liability account, the amounts in the Increase column are negative numbers that appear in red. This is because the Increase column increases the value of the liability, and thus decreases your overall net worth.

When the value of your liability decreases, for example, when you make a payment on your loan, enter the amount in the Decrease column. Again, note that, the amount in the Decrease column appears as a positive number in black, because, as you decrease the value of the liability, you increase your overall net worth.

When the value of your liability increases, enter the amount in the Increase column. Again, note that, the amount in the Increase column appears as a negative number in red, because you are having a negative impact on your net worth by increasing the value of the liability.

Learning about cash accounts

When to use Quicken cash accounts

You can record cash transactions in two ways: either in your Quicken checking account register, or in a separate Quicken cash account. Both methods let you categorize your cash expenses so they are included in reports, and neither method requires that you account for every penny.

If you’d like, you can set up a Quicken cash account. Otherwise, read the next section to learn how to track your cash expenditures in a Quicken bank account.

Use this type of account	To do this
Checking	Categorize the income or expenses for only a few cash transactions
Cash	• Keep detailed records of most or all cash transactions • Use cash instead of checks or credit cards • Track petty cash for your small business

Entering cash transactions in a Quicken bank account

To track only a few important cash transactions and treat the rest as miscellaneous expenses or income, you don’t need to set up a separate cash account. Instead, enter cash deposits and withdrawals in your Quicken bank account (checking, savings, or money market) as usual.

When you enter a cash withdrawal for miscellaneous expenses in a Quicken bank account, assign a catch-all category such as Cash Expense to the transaction.

When you enter an important cash transaction that you’d like to track more specifically, split the transaction and assign a category more specific than Cash Expense to that transaction. “Important” cash transactions might include tax-related transactions, transactions that involve receiving or spending large amounts, or any other cash transactions you want to track using your Quicken categories.

Setting up cash accounts

To set up a cash account

Choose Accounts > New > Cash.
Click Finish to add the account.
Choose Transactions > New Transaction.
Enter an opening balance transaction with the total the amount of cash you have on hand today.
(Optional) Click Save to enter the transaction.

Entering cash transactions

If you’ve used a Quicken bank account, you already know how to use a cash account.

Save your receipts and other records of your cash transactions and enter each one as a separate transaction. If one cash receipt covers several items that you want to categorize individually, split the transaction when you enter it in the cash account register.

To enter a cash transaction

Select a cash account from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Choose Transactions > New Transaction. (You can also click New in the toolbar, or use the keyboard shortcut Command+N.)
Enter information in as many fields in the transaction as you want to track.
In the the Payee field, enter where you made the cash purchase.

The more transactions you enter and categorize, the more accurate your income and expense reports will be. If there are cash transactions you don’t want to track, you don’t need to enter them. Just enter an adjustment transaction to cover the total amount of your miscellaneous cash expenses when you update your cash balance.
(Optional) Click Save to enter the transaction.
While you can, you don’t need to click Save to save the transaction—Quicken records the transaction automatically when you press Enter, move on to another task, or close the register.

Reconciling cash accounts

You don’t need to balance a cash account the way you reconcile a Quicken bank account with your bank statement. The main purpose of updating the balance in a cash account is to keep the account balance accurate without having to enter every cash transaction. You need to enter only those cash transactions you specifically want to track. Then, when you update your cash balance, enter an adjustment transaction to cover the total amount of your miscellaneous cash expenses.

To reconcile a cash account

Select the cash account you want to reconcile from the Accounts section in the sidebar.
Total the amount of cash you have on hand today.
If the cash you have on hand matches the balance in your cash account, you’re done. Otherwise, continue to enter an adjustment transaction.
Choose Transactions > New Transaction.
Enter the difference between the account balance and the amount of cash you have on hand in the Spend field.
(Optional) Enter a category or tag such as Miscellaneous for the adjustment transaction.
Optional) Click Save to enter the transaction.

Investing

Track what you own in stocks, mutual funds, and other types of investments that fluctuate in price.

Setting up investment accounts

To set up an investment account online

Choose Accounts > New > Investments, and then select the type of investment account you want to create.
Enter the name of your brokerage in the Search field, select it from the list, and click Continue.
Some financial institutions offer multiple options to choose from. For example, Bank of America offers several options, including Bank of America – California, Bank of America – WA and ID, Bank of America – All Other States, Bank of America Military Bank, and so forth. Choose the one that best fits your institution.
Follow the on-screen instructions to set up your account, including connecting to your bank so you can download your holdings and balances directly into Quicken.
Quicken supports downloads with over 13,000 financial institutions. If you can’t find your bank in the list, try these two steps:

To set up an investment account and manually enter holdings

Hold down the Option key, choose Accounts > New > Investing, and then select the type of account you want to create.
Click Skip.
Click the Add Holding button at the bottom of the workspace and select the type of asset that you’d like to add.

Enter information about the security you're adding and click Save.
If you provide a ticker symbol from a participating exchange, Quicken can update your share or unit prices.
After you have added any securities tracked in this account, click the Add Holding button again and select Balance > Cash to add a cash balance to the account, if necessary.

Next steps

To keep your account balances up to date, see Updating share prices.

Updating share prices

When you update share prices, Quicken updates the prices of all securities with valid ticker symbols, in all accounts.

To update share prices

Select an investment account from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Click the Update Prices button at the bottom of the workspace.

Adding securities

If you have set up an investment account where you enter your holdings manually in Quicken you can add securities.

Note that you cannot add securities to an online-enabled investment account (an account where you download holdings from your brokerage).

To add a security

Select the investment account to which you'd like to add a security from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Click the Add Holding button at the bottom of the workspace and select the type of security that you’d like to add.
Enter information about the security you're adding.
(Optional) Click the Enter cost per share button and enter the amount you paid for each share, plus pay commission you paid to purchase the security or holding
Click Save when you are done.

If you provide a ticker symbol from a participating exchange, Quicken can update your share or unit prices.

Editing securities

You can edit securities and other holdings.

For securities or other holdings that have been downloaded from a financial institution, you can only change the description, cost basis, and symbol.

To edit a security

Select the investment account containing the security or other holding you want to edit from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Click Edit Holdings.
Select the type of holding you’d like to edit from the tabs at the top of the window.
Select the holding you’d like to edit.
Click the Edit button at the bottom of the dialog.
Make any changes you want to the displayed information.
(Optional) Click the Enter cost per share button and enter the amount you paid for each share, plus any commission you paid to purchase the security or holding.
Click Save to apply and save your changes to the security or holding.
Click Save again to save all changes you have made to your holdings.

Deleting securities

You can delete securities and other holdings you have added manually. You cannot delete securities that have been downloaded from a financial institution.

To delete a security

Select the investment account containing the security or other holding you want to delete from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Click Edit Holdings.
Select the type of holding you’d like to delete from the tabs at the top of the dialog.
Select the holding you’d like to delete.
Click the Delete (–) button at the bottom of the dialog.
Note that while the holding is removed from the Edit Holdings dialog, it is not actually removed from your data file until the next step.
Click Save to confirm the deletion.
Note that you cannot undo deleting a holding. If you accidentally delete a holding you can add the holding back manually.

Budgets

Budgets let you plan ahead. Budget reports show how well you are keeping to your plan.

Learning about budgets

Budgets let you set goals for how much you want to spend in certain areas and then track your actual spending against that goal.

You can create as many budgets as you like. For example, if you go out a lot, you might want to create a budget just to track your various entertainment expenses. Or, you might want to create separate budgets for different members of your family.

You can monitor your budget status “as you go,” so you can always see exactly how you’re doing. You can track your budget on the Overview. If you have more than one budget, choose the one you want to see from the pull-down list in the Set Goals to Save Money section.

Setting up budgets

To set up a budget

Choose Budgets > New Budget. (You can also click the Add (+) button in the bottom of the Quicken window and choose Budget.)
Click the Add (+) button.
Select the categories and/or tags you want to track, and click Add. You can also track expected income by adding a Salary category, for example, and then assigning it a Budget Type of "Income."
Enter a monthly spending goal for each category or tag you want to track.
To help you pick a monthly spending goal, Quicken shows you how much you spent on each category or tag in the previous month, and what your monthly average was for the previous three months.
Click OK.

If you need help

For more information about setting up a budget, see the Help topic Setting up budgets.

Editing budgets

To edit a budget

Select the budget you want to edit from the Budgets section in the sidebar.
Choose Budgets > Edit Budget.
Make any changes you want to the displayed information.
Click OK.

Printing budgets

To print a budget

Select the budget you want to print from the Budgets section in the sidebar.
Choose File > Print.
Choose the printer you want to use from the Printer pop-up menu. If you don’t see the printer you want to use, choose Add Printer.
To change any of the printing options, use the print options pop-up menu.

To see what the budget will look like before you print it, click Preview or choose “Open PDF in Preview” from the PDF popup menu.
Click Print.

Renaming budgets

To rename a budget

Control-click the budget you want to rename from the Budgets section in the sidebar and choose Rename Budget.
Type a new name for the budget.
Press Enter.

Deleting budgets

To delete a budget

Control-click the budget you want to delete and choose Delete Budget from the shortcut menu. The selected budget will be removed.

Taxes

Quicken can help you prepare for tax day.

Learning about taxes

Quicken can simplify the preparation of your federal income tax return. If you assign tax information to your Quicken categories and categorize your transactions throughout the year, Quicken can quickly create the tax reports you need.

Assigning tax line items to categories

To assign tax line items to categories

Choose Window > Categories.
Click Edit.
Select the category to which you want to assign a tax line item.
Click the Edit button at the bottom left of the window.
Select the Tax-related checkbox.
Select the form and tax line you want to assign to the category.
Click Save.
Quicken uses this information to create a tax schedule report and for export to TurboTax or other tax software.

Exporting data to tax software

You can save your Quicken information into a TXF file, and then import that information into TurboTax.

To export data to tax software

Choose File > Export Tax Report.
Choose the tax year for which you’d like to export data.
If necessary, enter a new name for the exported data file.
You can rename the report, but be sure to keep the ".TXF" file extension so TurboTax can recognize it.

Unless you choose a different folder, Quicken saves the file in the Quicken folder, inside your Documents folder.
Click Save. You can now import the report into tax software such as TurboTax.

To import a tax file into TurboTax

Open the TurboTax application.,/li>
Choose File > Import > Accounting Software.
Select Other Financial Software (TXF file), and then click Continue.
Select the file you want to import.

Filing taxes online

Filing online is a faster and easier way to file your tax return.

TurboTax Online brings you all the benefits, functionality and content of our #1-selling software, including support for all states that impose an income tax. You can work on your taxes safely and securely anytime and from any place where you have an internet connection. State-of-the-art encryption technology and security procedures protect your personal information at all times.

For more information, visit the TurboTax website.

Reporting

Quicken reports help you learn more about your finances.

Learning about reports

Quicken includes a number of reports to help you understand your spending and savings. You can also create custom reports that help you focus on specific areas. Reports appear in the Reports section of the sidebar.

Quicken always keeps your reports up to date. Whether you download or manually enter transactions, all affected reports are updated automatically.

Here's a list of the standard Quicken reports:

Spending Cloud
- The Spending Cloud is a visual representation of how much you’re spending in different categories and for different tags.
- Each category or tag is shown in word form.
- Bigger categories or tags mean you’ve spent more money in that area, relative to the whole. Smaller ones mean you’ve spent less.
- You can mouse over a category or tag to see a total, or click a category or tag to see all the transactions that are assigned to that category or tag.
Category Summary
- The Category Summary provides a breakdown of all your spending by category.
- The report is divided into two sections, making it easier to track money in and money out. You’ll find totals for each section, and a net total to help show how you’re doing.
- Use the Show me filter to specify the level of detail you want to see.
This Month, Last Month
- This Month shows all your transactions for the current month, for each account, in a single place. For each account, the report lists any income, any scheduled expenses, and any other expenses. The Other Expenses section of each account helps you understand where your discretionary dollars are going.
- Last Month works just like This Month, but for transactions from the previous month.
Spending Over Time
- The Spending Over Time report lets you see how your spending is changing over time.
Tax Schedule
- The Tax Schedule report shows your US Federal Schedule A tax report.

Printing reports

To print a report

Select the report you want to print from the Reports section in the sidebar.
Choose File > Print.
Choose the printer you want to use from the Printer pop-up menu. If you don’t see the printer you want to use, choose Add Printer.
To change any of the printing options, use the print options pop-up menu.

To see what the report will look like before you print it, click Preview or choose “Open PDF in Preview” from the PDF pop-up menu.
Click Print.

Customizing reports

You can customize reports by date, account, category, and tag.

To customize a report

Select the report you want to customize from the Reports section in the sidebar.
Click Settings at the top-right of the report window.
Specify how you would like to filter the report.
Click Save Custom Report to save your customized version.
If you save the report, Quicken keeps the report up to date with any changes to transactions that match the report filters.

To rename the customized report, click the report name in the sidebar and enter a new name.

Saving reports

To save a customized report

Select the report you want to customize from the Reports section in the sidebar.
Click Settings at the top-right of the report window.
Specify how you would like to filter the report.
Click Save Custom Report to save your customized version.
Quicken keeps the report up to date with any changes to transactions that match the report filters.

To rename the customized report, click the report name in the sidebar and enter a new name.

Deleting reports

You can delete any custom reports you’ve created, however, you cannot delete the standard reports.

To delete a custom report

Control-click the custom report you want to delete and choose Delete Report from the shortcut menu. Quicken deletes the selected report.

Getting more detail

Use QuickZoom to examine report numbers in more detail.

To get more detail behind report numbers

Select a report from the Reports section of the sidebar.
Select an amount in the report and double-click it.
A detail report shows the transactions that make up the selected amount.

To examine a transaction in the register or make any changes to it, double-click the transaction in the detail report.

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