THIS IS LONG, BUT I HOPE, WORTH READING. IT DESCRIBES A BASIC PROBLEM IF
YOU USE THE ACCOUNT DISPLY OPTION OF "KEEP THIS ACCOUNT SEPARATE", WHICH
DOES NOT SEEM TO BE CLEARLY DOCUMENTED ANYWHERE!
BOTTOM LINE: IF YOU SELECT TO DISPLAY AN ACCOUNT AS "SEPARATE", ITS
TRANSACTIONS WILL NOT APPEAR IN ITEMIZED CATEGORY REPORTS UNLESS YOU ARE
SURE TO CHECK "INCLUDE HIDDENT ACCOUNTS" AND THENi CLICK ON "ALL
ACCOUNTS" OR SELECT THE PREVIOUSLY "HIDDEN" ACCOUNT IN THE CUSTOMIZE
SCREEN FOR SELECTING WHICH ACCOUNTS TO INCLUDE IN YOUR REPORT.
Last week, I tried to run an Itemized Categories Report for 2104, I
selected "All Accounts" and selected the categories I wanted included.
When the report ran,, with "Last Year" Selected, I was stunned to find
some categories missing entirely, and others with too few transaction.
e.g., only one transaction under AUTO, and that for a car wash.
I get good mileage out of my old Honda, but not THAT good.
I ran and reran the report, to no avail. Then I went into one of my
registers...once the checking account, once a credit card account, and
used the little report icon in the category field. I chose the AUTO
:Service Category , and by going to the full report after it showed the
last six months AUTO: Service for I went to "Show Full Report", and set
it for "last Year" and selected Auto and all its subcategories. Result:
All the missing transactions for that category were included.
But, this would mean I'd have to go through the routine for each category
one at a time. Not quite what I wanted. I validated the data file,
fearing it might be corrupted. Everything was OK, and the problem
persisted.
I searched Quicken's Support pages and Live Community and the Help Files
and Google for every wording of the problem I could think of, and found
nothing to explain its cause.
My last thought was to uninstall and reinstall Quicken, but I found the
same problem existed on my husband's computer, so that didn't seem too
likely a fix. Finally I sent a message to Jeff Parker, our Quicken
contact and program designer.
He took the problem around the office and sent back word that no one
could figure it out. HOWEVER, he then asked me a few questions to check
for him:
Was I sure I had Release 8 on Quicken 2014 (which I am using)?
YES
Was there any chance I was using a Beta Testing copy of the
program from that year? NO
Had I changed any of my account Display settings, like HIDE or
SEPARATE?
OH?! Well yes...I have all my Credit Card
accounts marked "Separate" for display...we don't want their balances
included in our Net Worth total on the Account Bar. (Don't ask...it's a
choice of our own peculiar way of looking at finances).
Before Quicken 2013, you could simply check a box to omit an account from
the New Worth total shown on the Account Bar. You could also Hide
accounts that were closed or no longer in use for some reason. In 2013,
someone decided it would be an "improvement" to do away with the "Don't
Include in Net Worth Total" and create a new Display option called
"Separate"
Marking an account "Separate" keeps it out of the Net Worth total on the
Bar, AND relocates it on the bar to an area below other accounts not ID'd
as "Separate". Your three Display options are:
Keep This Account Separate - account will be excluded from
Quicken Reports and featur (sic!).
Hide in Transaction Entry Lists
Hide Account in Account Bar and Account List
The only thing in the Help Files about these options is a small graph, as
follow:
After finishing our Taxes on TurboTax, I turned to year end reports in
Quicken.
The only thing in the Help Files about these options is a small graph, as
follows:
=========================================================================
===========
Hide in Account Bar & Account ListHide in Transaction Entry ListsKeep
this Account SeparateClose Account
The account is not displayed in the Account Bar and Account ListX
The account is not included in net worth calculationsX
The account is not included in features using historical dataX
The account is not included by default in reports and graphsX
The account is not available as a selection in transaction entry lists
(transfers, Reminders setup, etc.)XX
The account is not enabled for transaction downloadX
The account balance is set to zeroX
Notes
Hiding an account in the Account Bar has no effect on reporting or other
features.
A closed account cannot be reopened.
=========================================================================
=======
After the light bulb glowed when I remembered that I had identified
accounts as "Separate", I customized the report again. I checked the box
to include "hidden" accounts, selected the "all accounts" option,
indicated I wanted "Last Year" and ran the Itemized Category account
again. Voila!! All transactions in all selected categories were
displayed.
Maybe I'm getting dim after too many years with Quicken, but that
description of the three display options does not tell me that the
accounts will be omitted from reports unless you "unhide" them, nor that
they are, essentially hidden! In fact, the annotation says that "Hiding
an account in the Account Bar and Account List has no effect on reporting
or other features!
