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Subject Author Date
Car/Insurnace or Insurance/Car? How categorize? me 05-09-2006
Posted by Andrew on May 9, 2006, 8:19 pm
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 me@privacy.net wrote:
> Curious how you guys are handling certain things that
> can be categorized multiple ways?
>
> Example.... your car insurance?
>
> Do you categorize it under the "car" category as sub
> cat of "Insurance"
>
> Or do you have a separate "Insurance" category and sub
> cat of "Car"?
>
> I know it can be done either way .... but what have YOU
> found works best for you and why?

In my view (YMMV), it depends on how you 'value' insurance. In other words,
if it is necessary because of something else, I use a subcategory under
'something else'. Like CAR:INSURANCE or HOUSEHOLD:INSURANCE. In my way of
thinking, those types of insurances are part of 'doing business' of the
bigger category (eg: CAR and HOUSEHOLD - take either of them away, the need
for the insurance subcategory goes away). Other items (like LIFE INSURANCE)
I have under INSURANCE:LIFE. In that case, I don't think of anything that
it is really a part of, so it stands alone under the insurance category. .

But, as you surmise, it really depends on how you do things. This is
similar to an index. Say you're writing a book about baseball and baseball
players. An entry could either be in the index BARRYBONDS:HOMERUNS or
HOMERUNS:BARRYBONDS. So it really depends on how you wish to slice and
dice!

Regards -

- Andrew








Posted by MikeB on May 10, 2006, 1:19 pm
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Andrew wrote:
> But, as you surmise, it really depends on how you do things. This is
> similar to an index. Say you're writing a book about baseball and baseball
> players. An entry could either be in the index BARRYBONDS:HOMERUNS or
> HOMERUNS:BARRYBONDS. So it really depends on how you wish to slice and
> dice!
>

The analogy to a book index breaks down. In the book, you can have both
entries or have one entry refer to the other:

Barry Bonds:
Home Runs
Senate Testimony

and

Home Runs:
Barry Bonds
Mark McGwire

or

Home Runs:
See (Barry Bonds; MarkMcGwire)

The point being that in Quicken, how you organize it does have more
effect on your ability to retrieve the data in a comprehensive form.
The same is not true of the book.

In Quicken, if you categorize your insurance as subclasses of
Insurance, you are not able to pull a single report to provide auto and
housing expenses, and if you categorize the expenses under Autos and
Housing, you cannot get a comprehensive report on Insurance costs, so
you can't browbeat your insurance broker with how much business you do
with him.

It is a trade-off. One may from time to time wish to use Find/Replace
and alter these types of categories simply to get the right report.
Fortunately that is easy to do.


Posted by me on May 10, 2006, 1:31 pm
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>In Quicken, if you categorize your insurance as subclasses of
>Insurance, you are not able to pull a single report to provide auto and
>housing expenses, and if you categorize the expenses under Autos and
>Housing, you cannot get a comprehensive report on Insurance costs, so
>you can't browbeat your insurance broker with how much business you do
>with him.

Bingo!

Exactly my problem above!

Just curious what others are doing and what makes most
sense overall

Posted by danbrown on May 10, 2006, 5:06 pm
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Well, you can use a different CLASS for each insurance carrier/broker
... and pull a transaction report that only includes the particular
class ... no matter what the category.

db


Posted by Frederick on May 10, 2006, 6:21 pm
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Sorry, I may be missing something here, but under reports>Spending>Itemised
Cat's you may create any report, select what you want (all relating to
Insurance for example) and name the saved report as Insurance? (Aus Version)
Regards Frederick

>
>>In Quicken, if you categorize your insurance as subclasses of
>>Insurance, you are not able to pull a single report to provide auto and
>>housing expenses, and if you categorize the expenses under Autos and
>>Housing, you cannot get a comprehensive report on Insurance costs, so
>>you can't browbeat your insurance broker with how much business you do
>>with him.
>
> Bingo!
>
> Exactly my problem above!
>
> Just curious what others are doing and what makes most
> sense overall



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