Get Started

To use Quicken you must start by adding your financial accounts. It's easy to add the accounts you want to track in Quicken. The more accounts you add the more closely Quicken reflects your true financial situation, which can assist you in short- and long-term financial planning.

Add an online account

With online accounts, you download your transactions directly from the financial institution. If you do prefer to enter your transactions manually, see Add an offline spending account below.

1. Select the Add Account icon on the top right of the Account Bar.
   

   

   
   You can also add a new account by selecting Tools → Add Account from the top menu.

2. Start typing the name of your financial institution, such as your bank or credit card provider. Quicken will filter the results based on what you type. When you see your financial institution in the panel below, select it and click Next.

   

   For online accounts, Quicken finds accounts based on the financial institution. This way, if you have multiple accounts at the same bank, you can add them all at once. You will have a chance to select the type of account later.

3. Enter your account/user information. This is the information you use to sign in to your online account, such as a user name and password. you may be asked for additional information, such as a challenge question or a code that is sent to your email or phone.

   

   
   

4. Review your accounts. Quicken will find all the accounts associated with your login. On this screen, you can make any adjustments, then click Next.

   • Type: Your options will vary according to the financial institution but Checking and Savings are the standard types.

   • Nickname: Enter any name that helps you easily identify the account.

   • Used for: Most accounts will be Personal, but depending on your versions you may have the option of Business and Rental. 

   • Action: Select Add to Quicken if you want to add an account.  
     
     

     

5. Quicken now adds your accounts. You'll see a message letting you know what accounts were added. You can choose to either Add Another Account or Finish.

Add an offline account

Offline accounts (sometimes called manual accounts) don't connect to a financial institution. It is your responsibility to enter all the information and track your transactions accurately. In most cases, it is preferable to use an online account, but you may choose this for security, control, or because the account is not with an institution Quicken can connect to. 

1. Select the Add Account icon on the top right of the Account Bar.

   

   You can also add a new account by selecting Tools → Add Account from the top menu.

2. Select Offline Account.
   

   

3. Select the account type. Spending accounts include Checking, Savings, and Credit Card.
   

   

4. Name your account and select Next. Depending on your version of Quicken, you may also have options for selecting how your account is used.
   

   

5. Enter your Statement ending date (The date you want to start tracking from) and your Statement ending balance (how much was in your account that day). Select Next.
   

   

6. Your account will be added. Select Finish. You can also choose to Add Another Account.

More Information

• Types of accounts
• Add a cash account for Merchant Account Services
• Enter your account balance
• Edit the opening balance of an account
• Enter your account information
• Enter the ending date and balance from your statement, if you have it
• Tell us about this account
• Add a liability account
• Add an asset account
• Add rental property accounts
• Add a vehicle account
  • Enter starting point information
• Add property & debt accounts
  • How do I add a house account?
• Add spending accounts
  • How do I add an account to track reimbursable expenses?
  • How do I add a PayPal account?
  • How do I set up a joint bank account?
  • How do I decide how to track credit cards in Quicken?
  • How do I add an account to track a line of credit?
• Add investment accounts
  • How do I add an investment account?
  • About placeholder entries
  • How do I decide how to resolve placeholder entries?
  • Track cash in an investment account
  • Special investment accounts
• Add business accounts
  • How do I add a business banking account?
• Add a home equity line of credit (HELOC) account

Categories are an important aspect of the Quicken software, as they help to organize and track your financial transactions. When you download your transactions from your bank into Quicken, the software automatically assigns categories to each transaction based on its best guess about the purpose of the transaction.

For example, if you spend money at a supermarket, Quicken will likely assign the Groceries category to the transaction. This helps you to easily understand where your money is going and track your spending in different areas.

It's important to note that while Quicken is good at assigning categories, there may be cases where it makes an incorrect assumption about the purpose of a transaction. In these cases, it's important to review your categories and make any necessary changes to ensure that your spending and income are being tracked accurately.

Overall, categories are a valuable tool in Quicken for organizing and tracking your financial transactions and help you to gain a comprehensive understanding of your finances.

The Power of Categories in Quicken

Categories are a powerful tool in Quicken that help to track your spending and create budgets. The categories you assign to your transactions serve to categorize and organize your financial information.

When you create a budget in Quicken, you have the ability to identify the different categories you plan to spend money in. This allows you to set spending limits for each category and track your actual spending against those limits. Quicken will automatically categorize your transactions and track your spending in each category, providing a clear picture of your financial situation.

In addition to tracking your spending, categories in Quicken can also be used to create reports and graphs. These reports and graphs provide insights into your spending habits, allowing you to identify areas where you may be overspending and make necessary changes to your budget.

Overall, categories are a crucial part of the Quicken software and play a key role in helping you to manage your finances, track your spending, and create budgets. By effectively using categories, you can gain a better understanding of your finances and make informed decisions about your spending.

The Importance of Reviewing Categories in Quicken

While Quicken is good at identifying transaction categories, it's not perfect. There may be cases where Quicken makes an incorrect assumption about the purpose of a transaction, leading to inaccuracies in your financial tracking and reporting.

For example, if you spend money at a supermarket, Quicken may assume you bought groceries. However, you may have also bought pots and pans, a magazine, or medicine during your visit to the store. In this case, the category assigned by Quicken may not accurately reflect the nature of the transaction.

That's why it's important to regularly review your categories in Quicken. By doing so, you can ensure that your financial transactions are accurately categorized and that your spending and income are tracked correctly. This helps you to make informed decisions about your finances and stay on top of your financial situation.

Reviewing your categories in Quicken is a crucial step in ensuring the accuracy of your financial tracking and reporting. By taking the time to review your categories regularly, you can gain a better understanding of your finances and make informed decisions about your spending.

Finding the right category

Quicken offers a wide range of categories, making it easy to accurately categorize your transactions. Depending on your version of Quicken, you may see several sections of categories, including personal expenses, business expenses, and investment transactions.

When categorizing transactions, a good place to start is the Personal Expenses section. This section contains the most commonly used categories for day-to-day transactions, such as shopping, auto expenses, and mortgage and rent. Starting here, you can easily categorize your transactions and ensure that your spending and income are tracked accurately.

In addition to the Personal Expenses section, you can also select to see more information about individual categories. This can help you to better understand each category and make informed decisions about which category to assign to a transaction.

Overall, finding the right category in Quicken is an important step in accurately tracking your spending and creating useful reports and graphs. By taking the time to choose the right category for each transaction, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of your finances and make informed decisions about your spending.

Editing Uncategorized Transactions in Quicken

There will be instances where Quicken does not have enough information about a transaction to assign a category. In these cases, you will need to supply the category yourself.

The Category list in Quicken appears in your register and allows you to assign a category to a transaction. You can easily change the category assigned to a transaction if it does not accurately reflect the nature of the transaction. Right-click on the Category column of the transaction in the register and select the correct category from the list.

Sometimes, Quicken will not be familiar enough with a payee to suggest a category. In these instances, you will see a blank entry in the Category list. In these cases, you must manually supply the category by selecting the appropriate category from the list or creating a custom category if necessary.

Editing uncategorized transactions in Quicken is a straightforward process that helps to ensure the accuracy of your financial tracking and reporting. By taking the time to categorize all of your transactions, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of your finances and make informed decisions about your spending.

After Quicken downloads your transactions, you can review the transactions before entering them in your register in a matching process called Compare to Register.

Can I undo accepting a transaction?

Can I accept all transactions at once?

Can I accept transactions automatically?

Can I remove transactions from the list as I accept them?

What about accepting investment transactions?

Why can't I find the Downloaded Transactions tab?

Use the Spending tab to see a breakdown of where your money is going. The pie chart provides a way to drill down and see the transactions in a particular category. You can also see which transactions are uncategorized, so you can easily assign them to categories.

See where your money is going

1. Click the Spending tab.

2. Use the filters at the top of the window to change the accounts, time period, and type of transactions (spending, income, or spending without taxes) that you want to see.
   

   

3. Click a slice in the pie chart to see the transactions in a particular category. You can also click any of the items in the legend. The list of transactions below the pie chart changes to show only the transactions in that category. Using the list you can easily change the categories and payees assigned to your transactions.
   

   • If transactions are assigned to the wrong category

     If any transactions are incorrectly categorized, click a transaction in the list below the pie chart and select the correct category.

   • If transactions are assigned to the wrong payee

     If transactions are assigned to the wrong payee, click a transaction in the list below the pie chart and select the correct payee.

   • To navigate back up

     To navigate back up, click the "breadcrumb" links in the upper left of the pie chart window.

4. Continue to click a slice in the pie chart or legend to see the transactions paid to a particular payee.

Note

If there are any uncategorized transactions, a message appears with a link that will take you to a list of the uncategorized transactions.

Reports

For more spending data you may want to try our reports.

Go to the Reports menu → Spending for a list of spending reports.

For more information

• Categorizing transactions in Quicken

• About tracking tax-related expenses by category

Creating a budget in Quicken helps you organize your finances by setting spending limits and tracking your expenses. With a budget, you can allocate funds to specific categories, compare actual spending to your plan, and make adjustments as needed. This guide explains how to create, customize, and manage a budget in Quicken.

Quick steps to create a budget

Follow these steps to set up your budget:

1. Open the budget tool:
   • Go to the Planning tab. If tabs are hidden, enable them via View menu > Show Tabs.
   • Click Budgets.
2. Start your budget:
   • If this is your first budget, click Get Started.
   • To create a new budget, select Budget Actions > Create New Budget.
3. Name your budget: Enter a name to help identify it (e.g., "2024 Budget").
4. Select the year:
   • Budgets default to the current year. Use Advanced Budget Settings to adjust this if needed.
5. Choose categories:
   • Quicken can automatically include recurring categories, or you can select categories manually. Both options allow changes later.
6. Complete setup: Click Next to generate your budget.

Once the budget is created, you can start tracking your spending and make changes as needed.

How Quicken creates your budget

When you create a budget, Quicken uses your transaction history to provide a starting point. The program analyzes prior spending patterns and organizes the data into budget categories.

• Categories included:
  • Recurring personal expense categories (e.g., groceries, utilities).
  • Transfers, income, and special categories like _401Contrib are excluded by default.
• Transaction data used:
  • Quicken looks at transactions from the past 12 months. If less data is available, it uses as few as three months.
• Budgeting method:
  • Quicken uses actual spending for past months and averages for current and future months.
• Rounding: Amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.
• Accounts included:
  • Quicken includes personal expense transactions but excludes Invoice and Sales Tax accounts (Quicken Home & Business only).

This process gives you a baseline budget that you can customize to better reflect your financial needs.

Customizing your budget

After creating a budget, you can adjust it to better fit your financial situation. Customization allows you to focus on specific spending areas and make updates as your needs change.

Adding or removing categories

1. Click Select Categories to Budget at the bottom of the Budget window.
2. Add categories that are relevant to your spending or remove those that aren’t.

Adjusting amounts

1. Click a category in the Budget window.
2. Enter a new monthly budget amount as needed.

Customizing your budget ensures it aligns with your spending patterns and goals.

Extending your budget to a new year

Quicken can copy your existing budget into a new year. This allows you to maintain consistency while making adjustments for any changes in your expenses or income.

Extending your budget:

1. Use the date control at the top of the Budget window to select the new year.
2. Choose one of the following options:
   • Copy budget categories and values: Retain the same categories and amounts.
   • Copy categories and actuals: Use spending data from the prior year as the new budget values.
   • Copy categories only: Carry over categories without preset amounts.
3. Click OK to create the new budget.

This approach simplifies the process of updating your budget annually.

Advanced budgeting options

Quicken includes features for planning ahead or reviewing past budgets. These tools can help you analyze trends and prepare for future financial changes.

• Planning future budgets: Use the date control to create a budget for an upcoming year before it begins.
• Analyzing past budgets: Create budgets for prior years to examine historical spending patterns.
• Tracking actuals: Budgets automatically reflect income and expense actuals based on transactions for the selected year.

These features provide additional flexibility for organizing your financial data.

Notes about budgeting in Quicken

• Updating budgets: Quicken recalculates budget values automatically based on spending trends.
• Editing budgets: Changes to a current budget won’t affect previous budgets.
• Filtering categories: Use the Customize > Advanced tab to exclude non-budgeted categories.
• Integrating with reports: Budgets can be used to generate detailed financial reports.

Summary

Budgets in Quicken help you organize your expenses and track progress over time. By setting spending limits and comparing actual spending to planned amounts, you can make informed decisions about where to adjust. Creating, customizing, and maintaining a budget is straightforward and helps you stay organized financially.