Categories

I have a category called "Misc Exp" to track "fun" expenses like dining, clothing, lunch, etc. So I additionally set up sub- categories for each. So when I spend money on say Credit Card1 acct. I put Misc Exp:Dining, or Misc Exp:Clothing to track these expenses accordingly.

I also have a category called [Credit Card1] so when I pay this credit card from my Checking acct. I put [Credit Card1] in the category for this payment.

I do not use the common name Credit Card since I have about 4 to 6 cards. Instead, I use the actual name of each credit card for "regular categories" such as Visa, Younkers, Sears, JCPenney, etc. Why go through another level?

You don't categorize based on the way that you pay for the expense. Groceries are groceries regardless of whether you paid by cash, check or card.

Your utility bills remain Gas, Water, Electricity regardless of whether the bill is paid by auto deduction, check, credit card debit or bill payment.

I agree that you pay for utilities through the regular categories for each. I mistakenly indicated Sears, Younkers etc. when I really am using those for "accounts" and share "regular categories" for any type of payment. Sorry.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you and Zilla when you (it seems) say that you put the name of the credit card as the category for a transaction when you're paying that credit card bill. Quicken gives you the option of using the transfer function when paying accounts you've already set up and that takes the place of the category in the transaction. Let's say I have an account named "Old Navy" for my Old Navy credit card. When I make payments to that account (say, from my checking account) I simply use the transfer function, and under category it shows "[Old Navy]" in brackets to indicate the money's been transferred there. It sounds like (and again, I may be misreading) you have gone through the extra step of creating another category called (using the example above) "Old Navy." So you not only have an account by that name but you have a category by that name as well? That means that money paid from your checking account to a CATEGORY called "Old Navy" would never show up in the ACCOUNT called "Old Navy" unless you manually went into the Old Navy account and somehow showed the payment from your checking account. Robert, I saw your post to another post in this thread, so I think you've cleared up your statement in this regard. I'm still a little curious as to how Zilla is doing things.

"Robert Sharon" wrote in message news:QtNGe.49154$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...

I use the transfer account which I name using the credit card name [Sears, etc]. Then the credit card account has the categories so that I can track spending and expenses affecting taxes. I do have one credit card that is not used a whole lot; for that credit card I use the Split Category function when I make the payment.