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Posted by Margaret on January 4, 2008, 2:58 pm
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A while back, several of us bemoaned Q2008's change to the categories
list, where it no longer tells how many transactions use a given
category and IIRC, allowed the reporting/editing of those transactions.
Well, I just discovered more feature reduction in the categories list.
It's no longer possible to hide/unhide categories. There's just a "hide
type" field, which doesn't appear to do much of anything. (I'm not sure
where it's hiding the category type *from*.) So I checked out Q's help
on hiding categories, and the help content is consistent with how we
could hide & unhide categories in prior versions of Quicken. Further,
under category options (at the *bottom* of the window?), there is no way
to hide/unhide categories, just that danged "hide type" again.
I discovered this when the Income vs Expense graph (on the
Expense/Income screen within the Home tab) mysteriously started
reporting erroneous numbers on 1/1/2008. This graph's customization
options only allow for modifying categories and tags, no accounts. I
have two internet savings accounts at different banks, and to do a
transfer between them, I have to send the $$ through my credit union
checking account. Even though the three transactions are all transfers
(which worked fine previously), it's now showing the amount moved as
*income*.
Anyway, am I missing something? Help much appreciated.
Thx and Regards,
Margaret
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Posted by John Pollard on January 5, 2008, 9:46 am
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Margaret wrote:
> A while back, several of us bemoaned Q2008's change to the
> categories
> list, where it no longer tells how many transactions use a
> given
> category and IIRC, allowed the reporting/editing of those
> transactions.
> Well, I just discovered more feature reduction in the
> categories list.
> It's no longer possible to hide/unhide categories. There's
> just a
> "hide type" field, which doesn't appear to do much of
> anything. (I'm
> not sure where it's hiding the category type *from*.) So I
> checked
> out Q's help on hiding categories, and the help content is
> consistent
> with how we could hide & unhide categories in prior versions
> of
> Quicken. Further, under category options (at the *bottom* of
> the
> window?), there is no way to hide/unhide categories, just that
> danged
> "hide type" again.
> I discovered this when the Income vs Expense graph (on the
> Expense/Income screen within the Home tab) mysteriously
> started
> reporting erroneous numbers on 1/1/2008. This graph's
> customization
> options only allow for modifying categories and tags, no
> accounts. I
> have two internet savings accounts at different banks, and to
> do a
> transfer between them, I have to send the $$ through my credit
> union
> checking account. Even though the three transactions are all
> transfers (which worked fine previously), it's now showing the
> amount
> moved as *income*.
>
> Anyway, am I missing something?
I think so. :)
What appears to say "Hide Type" in the Category List display, is
really two separate list headings that are very close together:
"Hide" and "Type".
I did not do extensive research, but when I checked the "Hide"
box for a category, it did not appear in the account register
category drop down list ... when I unhid that category, it did
appear in the account register drop down list.
--
John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
Please reply to newsgroup
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Posted by Margaret on January 5, 2008, 5:34 pm
Please log in for more thread options John Pollard wrote:
> Margaret wrote:
<snip>
>> I discovered this when the Income vs Expense graph (on the
>> Expense/Income screen within the Home tab) mysteriously
>> started
>> reporting erroneous numbers on 1/1/2008. This graph's
>> customization
>> options only allow for modifying categories and tags, no
>> accounts. I
>> have two internet savings accounts at different banks, and to
>> do a
>> transfer between them, I have to send the $$ through my credit
>> union
>> checking account. Even though the three transactions are all
>> transfers (which worked fine previously), it's now showing the
>> amount
>> moved as *income*.
>>
>> Anyway, am I missing something?
>
> I think so. :)
>
> What appears to say "Hide Type" in the Category List display, is
> really two separate list headings that are very close together:
> "Hide" and "Type".
>
> I did not do extensive research, but when I checked the "Hide"
> box for a category, it did not appear in the account register
> category drop down list ... when I unhid that category, it did
> appear in the account register drop down list.
OK, I've experimented some more and can see that I was confused. I
won't take the entire blame, though, as IMNSHO, it's partly a
user-interface problem, not to mention the Quicken help on
hiding/unhiding categories reflects how it worked in prior versions of
Quicken. (I used to design GUIs, so....) But I do thank you for
explaining and correcting me on this.
Any ideas on the second issue? Why the graph (mentioned above) is
simply ignoring transfers among my accounts? This graph worked fine
last year (same Quicken version), but if I include all categories, it
shows the transferred amount as an expense. When I exclude categories
(like closed CC accounts, etc.) that shouldn't have any effect on the
income/expense data, the transferred amount will show up as *income*.
Makes no sense to me, and perhaps it's a fluke, but ... John, if you
have any insight on this one, I'd appreciate it.
Thx and Regards,
Margaret
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Posted by John Pollard on January 6, 2008, 10:54 am
Please log in for more thread options Margaret wrote:
> Any ideas on the second issue? Why the graph (mentioned
> above) is
> simply ignoring transfers among my accounts? This graph
> worked fine
> last year (same Quicken version), but if I include all
> categories, it
> shows the transferred amount as an expense. When I exclude
> categories
> (like closed CC accounts, etc.) that shouldn't have any effect
> on the
> income/expense data, the transferred amount will show up as
> *income*.
First, I think it's a bug that the small Income/Expense graph
does not allow the selection of "Accounts" (it does in Q2005,
and I can't think of any good reason for that restriction).
If all accounts and all categories were selected for the graph,
the effect of transfers should be a wash. If you start
excluding "account categories", especially when you can't
control which accounts appear in the graph, I would think you'd
see some strange results; the FROM half of a transfer might be
present, but the TO half be excluded. Likewise, if Quicken is
already excluding some accounts from the small graph, but
including all "account categories", the results might not be
what is desired.
[To duplicate the effect of the old "Exclude Internal Transfers"
feature for a report/graph, you would normally exclude all the
"account categories" for the accounts present in the report, but
leave all the other "account categories" selected. With no
ability to control (or see) the Accounts included in the small
graph, I'm not sure how one would achieve the same results.]
I don't know how to debug the small graph; the best I can
suggest is to try to display the "Full Graph" and see if you can
determine what is happening from there (with the Full Graph, you
can also see the Report to look at individual categories and
drill down to individual transactions). [But trying to debug
the small graph using the full graph assumes that the Full Graph
will be initially created with the exact same customizations as
the small graph, an assumption I'm not certain is true.]
--
John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
Please reply to newsgroup
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Posted by Margaret on January 6, 2008, 1:29 pm
Please log in for more thread options John Pollard wrote:
> First, I think it's a bug that the small Income/Expense graph
> does not allow the selection of "Accounts" (it does in Q2005,
> and I can't think of any good reason for that restriction).
Yes, this was my thought, too.
> If all accounts and all categories were selected for the graph,
> the effect of transfers should be a wash. If you start
> excluding "account categories", especially when you can't
> control which accounts appear in the graph, I would think you'd
> see some strange results; the FROM half of a transfer might be
> present, but the TO half be excluded. Likewise, if Quicken is
> already excluding some accounts from the small graph, but
> including all "account categories", the results might not be
> what is desired.
I never bothered to modify the graph during 2007, as the info looked
correct to me. Toward the end of 2007, I also had a large transfer
between these same two accounts via my local checking account, and as
you mention below, the transfers were a wash. That's why I'm confused
as to why suddenly on 1/1/2008, with no changes to the graph, it's
showing the full amount of the transfer as an expense (with all
categories selected). Interestingly enough, even though the amount was
transferred *twice*, the total "expense" is not doubled.
As you say, when I start excluding categories is when the "expense"
becomes "income" of the same amount. I even opened up a backup fileset
from the end of 2007 and can see that the graph works as expected!
These two transfers (one in 2007 and one in 2008) are identical. So why
one is working and the other is not is a mystery.
> I don't know how to debug the small graph; the best I can
> suggest is to try to display the "Full Graph" and see if you can
> determine what is happening from there (with the Full Graph, you
> can also see the Report to look at individual categories and
> drill down to individual transactions). [But trying to debug
> the small graph using the full graph assumes that the Full Graph
> will be initially created with the exact same customizations as
> the small graph, an assumption I'm not certain is true.]
Yes, I've tried this too, which is why I finally posted to the group,
hoping that someone else had experienced this same phenomenon. Frankly,
if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it! It's not
like this graph is essential, but I do have Quicken open to this page,
and I did find it useful. Oh well.
BTW, I went to the Quicken page I have bookmarked to report a bug, send
feedback, and the most recent version in the drop-down box is Q2006! I
noted in the comment box that my version is 2008. Do you know of a
newer feedback page, or is it simply a matter of Intuit not having
updated the list of versions. Any idea? The URL I used follows:
http://www.quicken.com/voc/feedback/?type=2
Anyway, thx for your comments, John.
Margaret
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