Using Scheduled Bills & Deposits
The Scheduled Bills & Deposits section of the Quicken Home page lists all transactions for the current month and those that have not been completed from previous months. Transactions include
paychecks
, bills, mortgage payments, utilities, banking, and every other account transaction you have entered in Quicken. You can use Scheduled Bills & Deposits to enter the transactions in your registerfor example, when you make a payment for a bill or when a paycheck has been deposited into your bank account. In addition, you can add new transactions, change information for a single transaction, make changes to all transactions for an account, or delete a transaction. There are also some tools you can use to review your account checks and
balances
over a specific period of time by using graphs, or you can use the calendar to see exactly where your transactions fall within a month. Scheduled Bills & Deposits provides an efficient and quick way of keeping up with your incoming and outgoing account transactions.
Record Transactions
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Open
the Quicken Home page and scroll down to the
Scheduled Bills & Deposits
tab.
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If a Print button appears
next
to a transaction, it is because that transaction is paid using Quicken checks, which are printed on special checks that you print using your printer.
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Click
Enter
to log a transaction in your register. The transaction information opens in the Record Transaction window.
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The status and
color
of a transaction and the check mark next to it tell you what actions you need to take.
When you select the Allby Month option from the Show menu, the check marks next to transactions mean they have already been recorded in your register. If the transaction appears in red, it means that it is overdue. If Due Soon appears next to a transaction, look at the Due Date column to take note of when it is due. If Due Today appears in the Status column, the transaction is due on the current day. Use the Currentby Status to
sort
all your transactions to quickly see which transactions are overdue and which are coming up soon.
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To make changes to this transactionfor example, an amountclicking in any of the fields and type over the existing information.
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You can also click the
Edit
and
Delete
buttons
to change or remove information, respectively, as shown in this example.
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To add information to a paycheck transaction, click one of the
Add
buttons. For example, in this instance we are updating a paycheck transaction by clicking
Add Pre-Tax Deduction
to add medical insurance information.
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Change the
name
, if needed, select the category that you want to use to track this expense, type the amount, and click
OK
.
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When you are finished making changes, or if you don't need to make any changes to the transaction, click
Enter
(as in this example). Or, if you are recording a payment, click
Record Payment
.
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Changes that you make when entering a transaction apply only to that transaction.
When you enter a transaction and make changes to the transaction information, the change applies only to the current transaction. The change does not apply to future transactions for the account. If you want to make changes that apply to all transactions for an account, you must edit the transaction. See "Edit Transactions" on the next page.
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Edit Transactions
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To edit all future instances of a scheduled transaction, from the Scheduled Bills & Deposits section of the Quicken Home page, click
Edit
next to the transaction you want to update.
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Make any changes needed, keeping in mind that these changes will take effect for all future transactions for this account.
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To change when you want to be reminded the transaction is due, whether you want the transaction to appear as a bill in Scheduled Bills & Deposits, or to change the
group
to which it is assigned, click
Options
.
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Click
OK
to save the changes.
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If you want to track a transaction between different categories, you can add up to 30 categories. For example, if you want to track a payment you make to a credit card, for which part of the payment goes to the principal balance and part goes to
satisfy
interest, you could track this transaction under the Bank Charge and Interest categories.
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1.
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You can split a scheduled transaction from either the Edit All Future Transactions window (accessed by using the
Edit
button from
Scheduled Bills & Deposits
) or the
Add Transaction
window (accessed from the Quicken Home page but not shown).
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2.
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Click
Split
(not shown).
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3.
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In the Split Transaction window, in the
Amount
box, type the amount you want to track for the first category.
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4.
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Click the second line and from the
Category
drop-down menu, select the second category. Then type the amount for that category.
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5.
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Create as many categories as you need (up to 30) and when you are finished, click
Adjust
. The figure in Transaction Total should equal the total amount of the transaction. If it is not, adjust your split amounts until the total equals the correct amount.
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6.
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Click
OK
to complete the split. The Category field for this transaction now shows "Split" and is grayed out. You can change the split by repeating this task.
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Skip Transactions
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To skip the current transaction, for example, if you don't intend to apply a transaction for a particular time period (for example, for the current month), in Scheduled Bills & Deposits, click
Skip
.
-
Click
Yes
to skip the current transaction or
No
to cancel. If you click
Yes
, the transaction will show up in the Scheduled Bills & Deposits list the next time it is due.
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Check marks show completed transactions.
The check marks next to the transactions shown in step 1
indicate
that those transactions have been entered in the appropriate registers.
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Add a New Transaction
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In Scheduled Bills & Deposits, click
Add Bill or Deposit
.
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In
Payee
, type the name of the recipient (a person, company, creditor, or for money transfers, the name of the account) to which the transaction is being made, if
applicable
.
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From
Category
, select the category you want to track for this transaction. If you don't see the category you want to use, type in a new one. (When you click OK in step 12, you are prompted to create the new category.)
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To assign more than one catgory to a transaction (with the exception of transfers), click
Split
.
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Click in
Memo
to type a note about the transaction, if desired.
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From the
Account to Use
drop-down list, select the account from which payments are made.
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From the
Method
drop-down list, select the type of transaction. This example uses Payment.
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If a website is associated with this billfor example, if you are making payments through a creditor's websitetype the website address in the
Web Site
field.
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Assigning categories can help you track your spending.
By assigning categories to all your transactions, you can see exactly where your money is going. Quicken tracks categories across all your accounts so that when you run a report, it can show you exactly how much you've spent for a specific category.
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See "Working with Reports" on page 309 for more information on running
reports
. See "Tracking Transactions with Multiple Categories" in this chapter for information on assigning more than one category to a transaction.
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In
Amount
, type the amount of the transaction. If you used split transactions, the amount will already be there, but will be grayed out so that you can't enter an amount. If the amount varies, type
or select the
Estimate
option and specify the number of payments to use as an average.
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In the Scheduling section, select or enter the begin, end, and frequency information for the transaction. If this is a one-time transaction, from
How Often
, select
Only Once
.
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In the Schedule this Transaction section, select an option to indicate when you want the transaction to stop. If the transaction does not have an end date or you are unsure when it will end, select
With No End Date
.
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Click
OK
. The transaction is added to the Scheduled Bills & Deposits list.
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If you entered a new category in step 3, you are prompted to enter a new category. Click
Yes
to set up the new category in the Set Up Category window or
No
to select a different category.
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You can add the payee address to use later.
To add the address for a payee, click the
Address
button next to the Payee drop-down menu and complete the Address window. Be sure to select the
QuickFill List
option so that the payee is available throughout Quicken. By selecting this option, when you are working in other areas of Quicken and you need to use this payeefor example, when using Quicken checksQuicken can automatically complete the payee address information for you and print the information on Quicken checks. In addition, if you have the Premier Home and Business version of Quicken, you can use the address for printing mailing labels, envelopes, and business forms.
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You can pay your online bills directly from Quicken.
When you enter a website address in the Web Site field in the Add Scheduled Transaction window, Quicken places a Go link next to that transaction in the Scheduled Bills & Deposits section of the Quicken Home page and in the Cash Flow Center. You can click
Go
and open the site to pay your bill without leaving Quicken.
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Create an Alternative View of the Transactions
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To change the transactions you see, select an option from the
Show
drop-down menu.
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To see a bar graph view of your finances, click the
Account Balance Graph
tab. Hover your mouse over a bar on the graph to view your balance for that time period.
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To view a different account, select it from the
Show
drop-down list.
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To view spending for your accounts broken down by category and payee, click
Spending Graph
.
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To get a closer look at a specific category or payee, hover your mouse over a slice of the pie graph.
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To view the Expenses report for either your account categories or payees, click the
Show Full Graph
button.
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To add or remove accounts, or change the categories that are included in the spending, click
Customize
.
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From the
Accounts
tab, select or clear the accounts you want included in the spending totals and from the
Categories
tab, select or clear the categories you want to use.
-
Click
OK
when you are finished.
Use the Calendar to View Monthly Transactions
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To view calendars with the dates of all your transactions, from either the Scheduled Bills & Deposits or Account Balance Graph tabs, click
Show Full Calendar
.
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Click
More
on any day of the calendar to view the transactions for that day in detail.
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Perform actions to manage your transactions, such as creating a new transaction, recording, or editing the transaction.
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Click
Close
when you are finished.
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To add a note to a day on the calendar, right-click the day and select
Note
. You can also click
Add Note
on the menu.
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Use the calendar to manage your transactions and bills.
Print the calendar to keep as a reminder or reference when paying your bills by clicking
Print
on the Calendar window menu.
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Type your note and click
OK
. The note shows up on the calendar as a small sticky note, which you can click to open, edit, or delete.
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To view a different month, select it from the
Go to Date
field and click
Go
. You can also click the back and forward arrows.
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You can perform the same functions from the calendar as you can from the Quicken Home page.
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When you are finished using the calendar and ready to return to the Quicken Home page, close the calendar.
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