By Jessica Groskopf
Extension Educator for Agricultural Economics
With your December pre-tax planning meeting right around the corner, it is time to get your Quicken file in order. If you are like most farms and ranches, it has been a few months since you entered transactions. When inputting several months of entries, it is likely that you are going to make a few mistakes. Here are a few tips to tackle two common problems when entering transactions into Quicken.
Lost Transactions
Don’t panic if you are “losing” transactions. It is rare for entries to actually be lost. Many times they are automatically sorted by Quicken and, once they are saved, they move off the screen you are viewing. Here’s what to do:
- Check your filters. If your transactions are “disappearing” it may be because you have filtered your transactions in such a way that your new entries are being saved, but are not appearing on your immediate screen. Check to make sure the three dropdown filters under the account name at the top of the screen are not limiting the transactions you are viewing.
- Check how your columns are sorted. Once you have checked the filters at the top of the screen, look at how your columns are being sorted. Quicken automatically sorts transactions using the column settings you have chosen. The column by which the transactions are being sorted will have a small blue triangle next to the column title. When entering data, it is most common to sort transactions by date.
- Check that the transaction was entered on the proper account. After checking the filters and the column sort, search for the entry you believe you may have lost. The easiest way to verify which account a transaction was entered in is to view all of the transactions within your Quicken file at once. To do this, click on “All Transactions” on the accounts sidebar on the left-hand side of the screen. Then, in the search bar on the top right enter the transaction amount or the payee name. If the entry does not appear, it was not saved and you will need to re-enter the transaction. You can change the account by typing the correct account name in the account column.
Unbalanced Accounts