Learning about the Quicken window

Sidebar, registers and the Quicken window

The Quicken sidebar

The sidebar is a single, always-accessible location that allows you to find all your accounts in Quicken. Using the sidebar, you can add accounts, update your transactions and balances, view individual accounts (click the account name) or view multiple accounts at once (click the headers: Banking, Investing, Debt, etc.).

Top of Sidebar

At the top of the sidebar you'll find three very useful buttons:

• Update All Online Accounts: Click the icon to update all your online accounts. Mouse over it to see its tooltip, which displays when the accounts were last updated.
• Add Account: Click the + sign to add a new account to Quicken.
• Sidebar Options: Click the three dots to see a menu of sidebar view options. Hide and show balances, turn cents display on or off, and more.

All Transactions

All Transactions groups all of the transactions from all of your accounts into one list. Click All Transactions to

• View a combined list of transactions from all accounts in one list.
• View a comprehensive look at Spending and Income.
• Use the search field to quickly find anything in Quicken, in any account.

Banking

All of your spending and savings accounts are in Banking.

• Click the section header (Banking) to see a combined view of all your checking, savings, credit card and cash accounts.
• The Spending and Income views show a graph of spending or income for all of these accounts.
• Click the sub-headers (Cash, Savings, Credit Card) to see a combined view of just those account types.
• Click an account name to drill down into a single account.

Investing

All of your investment accounts.

• Click the section header (Investing) to see a combined view of all your investment accounts. If you have multiple financial institutions or accounts, the Investing view gives you a combined overview of your entire portfolio.
• The Portfolio view shows the value of your investments over time, your holdings across all your accounts, lot-level holding details, cost basis, position gain and loss, unrealized and realized gain.
• The Transactions view has all transactions from all your accounts. Download transactions from your financial institutions, enter 23 different investing transaction types manually or do both
• Click the sub-headers (Brokerage, Retirement, Education) to see combined views for just those account types.
• Click an account name to drill down into a single account.

Property & Debt

Complete your financial picture by tracking your assets and liabilities.

• Property & Debt displays the net value of your assets & liabilities. Click the section header to see a combined view of all your asset and liability accounts.
• Click the sub-headers (Property, Debt) to see a combined transaction list for just those account types.
• Click an account name to drill down into a single account.

Note: You can resize the sidebar according to your working and viewing preference. For more information, see resizing the sidebar.

Net Worth

Your net worth is displayed at the bottom of the sidebar so you can actively track this amount each time you perform an update of your accounts and transactions.

Multi-Currency

Currency is displayed in your home currency. Typically this is the US or Canadian dollar but can be changed in Preferences. Accounts that are in a different currency will display their foreign currency symbol in the sidebar unless Sidebar Balance Options are set to Show Foreign Balances in Home Currency in the Sidebar Options menu (3 dots). Totals for account groups such as Cash, Savings, etc on the sidebar including Net Worth are always calculated in the home currency using the current exchange rate which Quicken downloads and updates.

The Quicken Feature (Blue) Bar

Home

Home is a dashboard you can use to track your finances and stay on top of your bills. It has three sections:

• The Charts - After adding your spending accounts, the top section of the overview has three charts that help you get a quick overview of your finances.
  1. Spending by Category: The first chart you'll see is a spending pie that allows you to see Where Your Money Goes. It provides a breakdown of how much you're spending in all of your categories. Click on the pie to drill down for more details, re-categorize transactions, select a different time range, and more.
  2. Spending Over Time: When you move your mouse over the chart area, you'll see a right arrow. Click this to see a spending over time graph.
  3. Net Income: Click again to see a snapshot of your Net Income over time.
• Upcoming Bills & Income - Stay on Top of Monthly Bills, Income and other upcoming expenses. Set up Bill & Income scheduled transactions to keep track of how much money you have coming in and going out in the future. Reminders can help you pay your bills on time and avoid late payments and overdraft fees. Combined with the Bill Reminder view (see below) you get a powerful Cash Flow Forecasting tool.
• Budget - Set Goals and Save Money. Create a monthly budget based on your past spending and easily track your progress.

Reports

The Reports section includes a number of reports to help you understand your spending and savings. You can customize reports by account category, tag, time range and more. You can also save custom reports for later viewing. Standard reports including account summary, spendings in last month, current month, category summary, spending over time, spending by tag, and a powerful Tax Schedule report. Learn more about reports. Click the arrow to see the list of reports or to create a new report.

Budget

Quicken creates a default budget based on your previous 12 months of spending. You can change the suggested goal amounts, add, or remove categories to watch. Learn more about budgets. Click the arrow to see a list of all the budgets or to duplicate or delete a budget.

Bills & Income

Bills & Income is more than just bills. Here you'll find a checklist of upcoming bills, a list of scheduled income, and a cash flow chart that displays the projected (or forecast) balance for your accounts. Choose multiple accounts for a cumulative total, or select an individual account from the account filter to see the impact of upcoming expenses and income on a single account balance. See exactly when you need to transfer funds or adjust your spending to meet your obligations. Just like any other register view, you can filter the scheduled and upcoming transactions in this view by using the filter bar or by typing in a search term to instantly see a graph of just those filtered transactions.

Calendars

The Quicken calendar feature provides a daily view of your transactions and cash balances at a glance. Click on the arrow to switch to different calendars.

Alerts

If you turned on mobile and web sync, you'll see a tab in the Feature Bar labeled Alerts. Click on it to see your over-budget, unusual spending or other types of alerts.

Pop Up Windows

Double-click anything listed in the sidebar to open that item in a separate window. This allows you to have multiple accounts/registers open at the same time for side-by-side comparisons.

Registers

• At the top of every register you'll find the Filter Bar with tools for managing and filtering the register content. Filter by date, transaction type, and more. Experiment with these settings to find the view that is right for you. Click the Reset Filters button to restore the default setting.
• To search or filter the register, just type into the search field in the filter bar. All visible columns are searched by default. Turn on additional columns to broaden your search or select the dropdown menu in the search field to narrow your search. You can search on payee, tag, category, amount, account--any column displayed in the register. To show all transactions again, click the Clear button ( ) in the Search field.
• At the bottom of every register is the Register Toolbar. This contains commonly used register actions:
  • New: Add a new manual transaction (or type ?N).
  • Edit: Edit the selected transaction (or double-click or type ?E ).
  • Split: Split the selected transaction (or click the split icon in the row or type option + ? + S ). Learn more about splits.
  • Delete: Delete the selected transaction (or type the delete key).
  • Schedule: Create a new scheduled transaction (bill or income reminder) OR create a scheduled transaction based on the selected transaction.
  • Paid: Mark the selected scheduled transaction as paid (i.e. enter the transaction).
  • Print: Print all transactions from the selected register (or type ?P).
  • Reconcile: Reconcile the selected account.
  • Columns: Select the columns to hide or show in the register (or hold down the Control key and click in any column header to select from a list).
  • Settings: View the settings for the selected account, including the download/connectivity settings.
• You can sort a register by clicking a column header. To reverse the sort order, click the column header again. Note that the balance column only displays values when the register is sorted by date.
• You can rearrange the displayed columns by dragging the column headers to the left or right.
• To adjust the width of a column, drag the separator line between column headers.