Splasm Software Discussions

I am hoping to move from Quicken 2006 for Mac to Checkbook Pro. I have successfully migrated data from 2 Quicken accounts and am now trying to figure out how to create a report that would include the total for all items spent in each Category during a specific time period. For instance how much was spent for "Out, General:Groceries", "Out Accrual:Ins-Car", etc. during the period June,15, 2011 to July 17, 2011. Also, is there a way to view the list of Categories?

Thanks, Lewarm

The place to start would be the All Accounts section. This is where you will want to create your summaries that include data from all of your accounts.

To get to the All Accounts section, just click on the All Accounts bar at the top of the accounts drawer. Once there, you can then click on the Summary section at the bottom of the main window. This is where you create your summaries that involves all of your data. if you create a new summary or edit an existing summary, make sure you set your date to the range you want, and that subtotal for categories and subcategories are checked. If you want just one category per summary, you can use the filter section of the summary options at the bottom to filter for a specific category, to/from, or description.

I hope this helps get you started in the direction you are looking for.

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Randy Knoble
Splasm Software
www.Splasm.com

Excuse me for jumping in here, but I was interested in this topic, too. You didn't answer the other question, which was is there a way to view the whole category list? I'd also like to know if there is a way to view *and edit* the category list. Thanks...

Account > Edit All Accounts > then click on "Categories" and edit to your heart's delight. Is this what you're looking for?

Randy K.

Thanks for the reply. That provided the clues I needed. I was looking for a "Reports" section, rather than "Summaries".

Again thanks, Lewarm

Yes! Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for.

.... adding that perhaps the menu item for editing categories should read "Edit Categories" instead of "Edit all accounts"

That section also pertains to Currencies as well as Categories, and any other future options that will pertain to all accounts. This sort of data is stored in the Accounts file and not in the general preferences file.

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Randy Knoble
Splasm Software
www.Splasm.com

Yes, I saw currencies and categories in that dialog box. What I didn't see was accounts. So if I was looking to edit categories or currencies, I wouldn't look where it says "Edit all accounts". If I was looking to edit accounts, I think I'd be puzzled that the "Edit all accounts" deals not with accounts, but categories and currencies.

As a user, I don't really know and generally don't care which file the data is stored in unless there's some reason I have to know. For me, the app consists of an interface that guides me to the data, and it just doesn't make sense from this user's perspective to have things labeled this way. It was not obvious, and I couldn't find guidance in the help file. Not sure I would have ever figured it out if someone didn't tell me. So now I know, but I really think you ought to re-think "Edit all accounts". Unless you just enjoy making your software obscure.

Currencies and Categories are shared between all Accounts, therefore you are editing the properties of All Accounts and thus 'Edit All Accounts...' was born. It is also the label for the section of 'All Accounts', which allows you to view entries from all of your accounts without being in any one account, as well as create smart folders and summaries across all of your entries regardless of which account they are from. 'All Accounts' is sort of treated as a master account, and editing its properties will affect all Accounts within CheckBook.

If you type in Categories in search field of CheckBook's help, there should be several results at the top of the list that would guide to you the all accounts section via the creating, editing, and removing categories. We don't have any direct results for a category list, so we can look into making the finding of the category section itself with the intent of just viewing it a bit easier.

We of course try to present data in an orderly organized fashion. We aren't in the business of confusing our users. We will discuss the organization and layout of the features that span all accounts again when we pour over our request list, in which this request will be added. Thanks for the feedback!

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Randy Knoble
Splasm Software
www.Splasm.com

Thanks!