A transfer is a special transaction used when you are recording a transaction between two accounts you track in Quicken. That is, any transaction that is not income or expense, just the movement of money from one account to another. Some examples of transfer transactions include:
Movement of funds between a checking account and a savings account
Movement of funds between a checking account and a brokerage account
A credit card payment (movement of funds from a checking account to a credit account)
Cash advances from a credit card account to a checking account
Loan payments from a checking account to a liability account that tracks the balance of the loan
Quicken considers a transfer to be neither an income nor an expense transaction. As such, transfers are excluded from Spending and Income reports and charts.
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Appropriate uses of the Transfer category would include:
Transactions that move money between two accounts that you track in Quicken (such as Checking to Savings). Just assign the Transfer category to both the outgoing checking transaction and incoming savings transaction. Assigning a specific account name is not required.
Transactions that move money between an account you track in Quicken and an account you do not track in Quicken. For example, if you added your Checking account to Quicken but did not add your Savings account, using the Transfer category ensures that this transaction is still considered "neutral" (neither income nor expense) in reports and graphs.
Transactions that move money between checking accounts and brokerage accounts.
Credit card payments (there is a special Transfer subcategory just for credit card payments--see also the help topic on credit cards below.
Inappropriate uses of the Transfer category might include:
A transfer of money to a friend or relative as a gift.
A transfer of money to a third party to pay a bill or expense.
a transfer of money to you from a third party, such as direct deposit of your paycheck or payment for services of goods.
In short, any account-to-account "transfer" where you gain income or incur a real expense is probably best handled by the appropriate income or expense category, not a transfer.
Using a Linked Transfer
A Linked Transfer creates a direct relationship between two transactions in different accounts tracked in Quicken. (If you've used older versions of Quicken for Mac or Quicken for Windows, this the classic Quicken transfer you've used in those products.)
Just like the Transfer category, a Linked Transfer is considered neither income nor expense and is excluded by default from spending reports.
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To create a Linked Transfer
Select the source account from the Accounts section of the sidebar.
Create a new transaction (Click the New icon in the register toolbar or type ⌘N).
Enter information about the transaction.
Enter the name of the destination account in the Transfer column.
If you don't see the Transfer column: Click the Columns icon in the register toolbar (or control + click the column header) and turn on the transfer column.
Click Save or hit the Enter key to complete the transaction.
Handling credit card payments
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The exception to this rule is if you do not pay your credit cards in full each month. In this case, you are incurring an interest expense and should track the interest as an additional expense. If your financial institution includes your interest payment as a unique transaction within the downloaded transactions, you can just categorize that transaction as an expense. If the financial institution does not show the interest as a "transaction" (many do not), then you can split your credit payment--with the interest portion assigned an expense category and the remaining payment assigned as a transfer.
Splits and transfers
A split transaction can include a transfer. It's handled just like any other split line item.
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For these cases, just create a split transaction and make one (or more) of the split lines a transfer by selecting the appropriate account from the Transfer column in the split window.
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