How do I add a business?

When you add a business to Quicken, you associate a tag with a specific business. Once a tag is linked to a business, it becomes a business tag that enables Quicken to group the transactions for the specified business in the Business Center snapshots and the Tax Planner. Quicken also groups transactions by business in the Tax Schedule report and the Schedule C report.

• Can you give me an example?

  For example, say you have a candle business and a catering business. Each business has its own checking account, but you use a single credit card to make purchases for both businesses. When you download or enter your credit card transactions, you can enter the candle tag for purchases for the candle business and the catering tag for purchases for the catering business. That way Quicken considers these purchases when determining your deduction and spending information for each business.

When you enter a business transaction in the register, be sure to enter the business tag for the business in the Tag field.

• What if I am working in the transaction list?
  The transaction list doesn't include a Tag field, but you can enter the tag in the Category field using the format category/tag.

You can designate one business to include all of the business transactions that do not have a valid business tag. When you do, Quicken automatically associates all business transactions without a business tag to the business you have selected this check box for.

You can select this check box for only one business at a time. The first time you add a business to Quicken, Quicken automatically selects this check box, but you can clear the check box. To help you decide if you should, select each of the following links that applies to your situation.

• I track a single business
  If you plan to track only a single business in Quicken, selecting this check box can save you the time and effort it takes to tag your business transactions.
• I track several businesses now, or I plan to at some point
  If you plan to track several businesses in Quicken, clearing this check box for every business and tagging each business transaction with the appropriate business tag can help you preserve your historical data as your business prospects change and evolve.

  • Can you give me an example of how my historical data can be affected?
    For example, say you initially had this check box selected for a candle business, and you entered transactions for the candle business without a tag. Then let's say you decide to close the candle business and open a catering business. If you want to select this check box for the catering business, you need to do two things: 1) Edit the candle business information and clear the check box, and 2) Edit all the business transactions for the candle business to include a tag. Otherwise Quicken will have no way to know which untagged historical transactions go with which business and will display them all together.
• I am upgrading from a previous version of Quicken where I used classes to track my businesses
  If you are upgrading from a previous version of Quicken where you used classes to show which business a transaction belonged to, and you want to view your historical spending in the Business tab, selecting this check box can help you save the time and effort it takes to edit your historical transactions to include the new business tags. If you select this check box for the existing business with the most transactions, then you only need to edit the business transactions for the remaining businesses so that they include the tags that Quicken needs to separate your historical transactions by business.