Cleaning Up Categories in Q2006

Posted by kaplan3jiim on September 22, 2008, 11:14 pm

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I am trying to clean up unused income and expense categories and merge
duplicates. The problem is that the drop down box for merge into goes
no further than "Deluxe Check", an expense category. This is not
changed by the fact that I have deleted many categories.

In the complete category list, following "Deluxe Checks" and
seemingly out of place is "Transfer and Payments", with "Deposit
Account" underneath. And after that the list of expenses resumes
alphabetically with "Dining". However, the "tree" at the far left
shows all those expenses beginning with "Dining" as being a part of
"Transfers and Payments" which is apparently why they do not show in
the drop down list.

We have a deposit account into which all deposits are entered and
then transferred (in Quicken) to the checking account, out of which
all checks are written.

This file was recently imported from Q99.

Is there anyway I can rectify the above situation so that all expense
categories will appear in the drop down list?

TIA
Jim Kaplan

Posted by John Pollard on September 23, 2008, 8:37 am

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kaplan3jiim@example.com wrote:

> I am trying to clean up unused income and expense categories

> and merge

> duplicates. The problem is that the drop down box for merge

> into goes

> no further than "Deluxe Check", an expense category. This is

> not

> changed by the fact that I have deleted many categories.

> In the complete category list, following "Deluxe Checks" and

> seemingly out of place is "Transfer and Payments", with

> "Deposit

> Account" underneath. And after that the list of expenses

> resumes

> alphabetically with "Dining". However,

> the "tree" at the far left

> shows all those expenses beginning with "Dining" as being a

> part of

> "Transfers and Payments"

Is "Transfers and Payments" the name, or is it just "Transfers"?

> which is apparently why they do not show in

> the drop down list.

> We have a deposit account into which all deposits are entered

> and

> then transferred (in Quicken) to the checking account, out of

> which

> all checks are written.

> This file was recently imported from Q99.

> Is there anyway I can rectify the above situation so that all

> expense

> categories will appear in the drop down list?

Not sure what the problem is, but there might be some
corruption.

If Quicken thinks that any other categories besides "account
categories" (your Quicken accounts, in square brackets) are
"Transfers", then something is certainly wrong.

Did you make a backup before starting your project to delete
catagories? If so, you might make a Windows copy of that backup
fileset and open it to see if there were mis-identified
categories before you started your project.

You could try exiting Quicken and restarting to see if that gets
the categories correctly "sequenced".

You could try making a Quicken "Copy" of your current data (the
data that has had some categories deleted/merged), Validating
that Copy, then opening the Validated Copy to see if the problem
remains.

If the Validated Copy does not exhibit the odd behavior, make
that your regular data file; if the Validated Copy still has the
problem, you can just discard it. And if Validating a Copy of
your Quicken data doesn't solve the problem, I'm not sure what
else you can do.

[If "Transfer and Payments" is a Quicken category, you could try
deleting it. You could also try deleting the category just
before and/or just after that. The theory being, perhaps there
is corruption in the Category List.]

You can use "Recategorize" or "Find/Replace" to "merge"
categories, albeit, one at a time. But that shouldn't do
anything to correct Quicken's mis-treatment of some categories
as "transfers". Or to resequence your Category List.

--

John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
Please reply to newsgroup

Posted by John Pollard on September 23, 2008, 8:40 am

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John Pollard wrote:

> Not sure what the problem is, but there might be some

> corruption.

> If Quicken thinks that any other categories besides "account

> categories" (your Quicken accounts, in square brackets) are

> "Transfers", then something is certainly wrong.

> Did you make a backup before starting your project to delete

> catagories? If so, you might make a Windows copy of that

> backup

> fileset and open it to see if there were mis-identified

> categories before you started your project.

> You could try exiting Quicken and restarting to see if that

> gets

> the categories correctly "sequenced".

> You could try making a Quicken "Copy" of your current data

> (the

> data that has had some categories deleted/merged), Validating

> that Copy, then opening the Validated Copy to see if the

> problem

> remains.

> If the Validated Copy does not exhibit the odd behavior, make

> that your regular data file; if the Validated Copy still has

> the

> problem, you can just discard it. And if Validating a Copy of

> your Quicken data doesn't solve the problem, I'm not sure what

> else you can do.

> [If "Transfer and Payments" is a Quicken category, you could

> try

> deleting it. You could also try deleting the category just

> before and/or just after that. The theory being, perhaps

> there

> is corruption in the Category List.]

> You can use "Recategorize" or "Find/Replace" to "merge"

> categories, albeit, one at a time. But that shouldn't do

> anything to correct Quicken's mis-treatment of some categories

> as "transfers". Or to resequence your Category List.

I should have said to backup before doing any of the above.

--

John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
Please reply to newsgroup

Posted by kaplan3jiim on September 25, 2008, 10:52 pm

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wrote:

>kaplan3jiim@example.com wrote:

>> I am trying to clean up unused income and expense categories

>> and merge

>> duplicates. The problem is that the drop down box for merge

>> into goes

>> no further than "Deluxe Check", an expense category. This is

>> not

>> changed by the fact that I have deleted many categories.

>> In the complete category list, following "Deluxe Checks" and

>> seemingly out of place is "Transfer and Payments", with

>> "Deposit

>> Account" underneath. And after that the list of expenses

>> resumes

>> alphabetically with "Dining". However,

>> the "tree" at the far left

>> shows all those expenses beginning with "Dining" as being a

>> part of

>> "Transfers and Payments"

>Is "Transfers and Payments" the name, or is it just "Transfers"?

>> which is apparently why they do not show in

>> the drop down list.

>> We have a deposit account into which all deposits are entered

>> and

>> then transferred (in Quicken) to the checking account, out of

>> which

>> all checks are written.

>> This file was recently imported from Q99.

>> Is there anyway I can rectify the above situation so that all

>> expense

>> categories will appear in the drop down list?

>Not sure what the problem is, but there might be some

>corruption.

>If Quicken thinks that any other categories besides "account

>categories" (your Quicken accounts, in square brackets) are

>"Transfers", then something is certainly wrong.

>Did you make a backup before starting your project to delete

>catagories? If so, you might make a Windows copy of that backup

>fileset and open it to see if there were mis-identified

>categories before you started your project.

>You could try exiting Quicken and restarting to see if that gets

>the categories correctly "sequenced".

>You could try making a Quicken "Copy" of your current data (the

>data that has had some categories deleted/merged), Validating

>that Copy, then opening the Validated Copy to see if the problem

>remains.

>If the Validated Copy does not exhibit the odd behavior, make

>that your regular data file; if the Validated Copy still has the

>problem, you can just discard it. And if Validating a Copy of

>your Quicken data doesn't solve the problem, I'm not sure what

>else you can do.

>[If "Transfer and Payments" is a Quicken category, you could try

>deleting it. You could also try deleting the category just

>before and/or just after that. The theory being, perhaps there

>is corruption in the Category List.]

>You can use "Recategorize" or "Find/Replace" to "merge"

>categories, albeit, one at a time. But that shouldn't do

>anything to correct Quicken's mis-treatment of some categories

>as "transfers". Or to resequence your Category List.

Validation didn't indicate any problems found and didn't fix the
problem.

In the complete catgeory list, There are 3 major groupings titled in
bold print for which "hide" is not an option, and edit, delete and
merge cannot be done.

They are Income, Expenses and Transfers and Payments.
Transfer and Payments has a line following it which is
[Deposit Acct] in which the transactions are listed - an internal
transfer from the deposit account to the checking account. I do not
know whence this Transfers and Payment grouping came - the original
file was imported from Q99 a while back and probably 2 people prior to
me were operating this program.

I did find by experimenting that deleteing the item just before
Transfers and Payments just moves the problem to the new immediately
prior entry. That is, the transactions for Transfers and Payments is
listed both under that item and whatever category proceeds it.

I did neglect to mention in the original post, that this is actually a
religious organization account but as far as day to day operations the
standard Q99 and 2006 work just fine (with the glitch noted above).

Also...at the time of original import there may have been some
validation error message but I am not sure. But that was some time
ago.

Further suggestions?

Perhaps if there is nothing else to be done, I will archive the data
at the end of this year. Then...would it be possible to mass delete
the entire category list and begin anew?

TIA Jim

Posted by John Pollard on September 26, 2008, 9:18 am

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kaplan3jiim@example.com wrote:

> On Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:37:31 GMT, "John Pollard"

> wrote:

>> kaplan3jiim@example.com wrote:

>>> I am trying to clean up unused income and expense categories

>>> and merge

>>> duplicates. The problem is that the drop down box for merge

>>> into goes

>>> no further than "Deluxe Check", an expense category. This

>>> is

>>> not

>>> changed by the fact that I have deleted many categories.

>>>

>>> In the complete category list, following "Deluxe Checks" and

>>> seemingly out of place is "Transfer and Payments", with

>>> "Deposit

>>> Account" underneath. And after that the list of expenses

>>> resumes

>>> alphabetically with "Dining". However,

>>> the "tree" at the far left

>>> shows all those expenses beginning with "Dining" as being a

>>> part of

>>> "Transfers and Payments"

>> Is "Transfers and Payments" the name, or is it just

>> "Transfers"?

>>> which is apparently why they do not show in

>>> the drop down list.

>>>

>>> We have a deposit account into which all deposits are

>>> entered

>>> and

>>> then transferred (in Quicken) to the checking account, out

>>> of

>>> which

>>> all checks are written.

>>>

>>> This file was recently imported from Q99.

>>>

>>> Is there anyway I can rectify the above situation so that

>>> all

>>> expense

>>> categories will appear in the drop down list?

>> Not sure what the problem is, but there might be some

>> corruption.

>> If Quicken thinks that any other categories besides "account

>> categories" (your Quicken accounts, in square brackets) are

>> "Transfers", then something is certainly wrong.

>> Did you make a backup before starting your project to delete

>> catagories? If so, you might make a Windows copy of that

>> backup

>> fileset and open it to see if there were mis-identified

>> categories before you started your project.

>> You could try exiting Quicken and restarting to see if that

>> gets

>> the categories correctly "sequenced".

>> You could try making a Quicken "Copy" of your current data

>> (the

>> data that has had some categories deleted/merged), Validating

>> that Copy, then opening the Validated Copy to see if the

>> problem

>> remains.

>> If the Validated Copy does not exhibit the odd behavior, make

>> that your regular data file; if the Validated Copy still has

>> the

>> problem, you can just discard it. And if Validating a Copy

>> of

>> your Quicken data doesn't solve the problem, I'm not sure

>> what

>> else you can do.

>> [If "Transfer and Payments" is a Quicken category, you could

>> try

>> deleting it. You could also try deleting the category just

>> before and/or just after that. The theory being, perhaps

>> there

>> is corruption in the Category List.]

>> You can use "Recategorize" or "Find/Replace" to "merge"

>> categories, albeit, one at a time. But that shouldn't do

>> anything to correct Quicken's mis-treatment of some

>> categories

>> as "transfers". Or to resequence your Category List.

> Validation didn't indicate any problems found and didn't fix

> the

> problem.

> In the complete catgeory list, There are 3 major groupings

> titled in

> bold print for which "hide" is not an option, and edit, delete

> and

> merge cannot be done.

> They are Income, Expenses and Transfers and Payments.

> Transfer and Payments has a line following it which is

> [Deposit Acct] in which the transactions are listed - an

> internal

> transfer from the deposit account to the checking account. I

> do not

> know whence this Transfers and Payment grouping came

I don't have Q2006, and when I replied originally, I was looking
in Q2008 ... when I looked in Q2007 this morning, I could see
the "old" way of presenting categories in the Category List, so
I now see "Transfers and Payments".

So, for background:

"Transfers and Payments" is just a "heading" and should be
followed by the names of every one of your Quicken accounts ...
in square brackets ... and the last "category" listed should be
the last "account" in your Quicken file.

Those "account categories" have always been a part of Quicken,
they are legitimate "categories, and they are what you use to
"transfer" funds between two Quicken accounts.

If you have a non-"account category" (a category that is not the
name of a Quicken account in square brackets) mixed in with your
actual "account categories", there is certainly some kind of
corruption.

[Quicken will not allow you to create a main category that has
the same name as an existing Quicken account ... but Quicken
will allow you to create a subcategory with the same name as an
existing Quicken account.]

> - the original

> file was imported from Q99 a while back and probably 2 people

> prior to

> me were operating this program.

> I did find by experimenting that deleteing the item just

> before

> Transfers and Payments just moves the problem to the new

> immediately

> prior entry. That is, the transactions for Transfers and

> Payments is

> listed both under that item and whatever category proceeds it.

I'm a bit confused by this. There can't be any transactions
categorized to "Transfers and Payments": that's not a category,
just a heading in the Category List. Maybe you could provide an
example.

> I did neglect to mention in the original post, that this is

> actually a

> religious organization account but as far as day to day

> operations the

> standard Q99 and 2006 work just fine (with the glitch noted

> above).

> Also...at the time of original import there may have been some

> validation error message but I am not sure. But that was some

> time

> ago.

So the data in the Quicken file you are having problems with all
came from the "import" of a QIF file?

> Further suggestions?

You could try deleting the "Deposit" account to see if it is
causing the Category List problem?

Backup first.

> Perhaps if there is nothing else to be done, I will archive

> the data

> at the end of this year. Then...would it be possible to mass

> delete

> the entire category list and begin anew?

If your categories are truly hosed, then you can delete them all
and "start over", but that could be a very large job. Deleting
the categories will also cause all your transactions to become
uncategorized ... making it that much more difficult to
re-categorize them (though not impossible, especially with the
assistance of Find/Replace).

--

John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
Please reply to newsgroup