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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Setting Up Your Quicken Environment

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• Launching Quicken
• Setting Up Your Quicken Data File
• Opening a Quicken File
• The Quicken Guided Setup
• A Quick Guide to Quicken Preferences

After you install Quicken (see Appendix C for instructions), you have just a few more steps before you experience the joys of electronic personal finance. Quicken stores all your information and settings in a data file, which is like an electronic version of the filing cabinet that contains your financial papers. (Actually, behind the scenes, it's a small set of files, as the box on Section 1.2 explains.)

Despite the awkward name, a data file is a good thing, because it lets you back up your Quicken data, move it to another computer, keep different family members' info in separate files, and so on. The first time you launch Quicken, the program asks you to help set up your data file.

If you've used a previous version of Quicken, your setup process is shorter, but even existing data files require a quick conversion to work with the new version of Quicken. If it's your first time using Quicken, the program asks you a few questions, creates a new data file, and then launches the Quicken Guided Setup to help you tailor the file to your needs.

In addition to setting up your data file, it's a good idea to take a look at Quicken's preferences. Preferences (called Options in some other programs) are the settings that control how Quicken looks and acts. You'll return to the preferences dialog box throughout this book, but there are some you want to set right away—like which currency you're using and which screen you want to see when you start up each day.

To start using Quicken, you launch it like most any program. Here are some popular methods:

• Quick Launch toolbar. Clicking the Quicken icon in this toolbar launches Quicken, making it the fastest way to get going.
  The Quick Launch toolbar is to the right of the Start button. If you don't see Quicken's icon there—or

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Launching Quicken

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To start using Quicken, you launch it like most any program. Here are some popular methods:

• Quick Launch toolbar. Clicking the Quicken icon in this toolbar launches Quicken, making it the fastest way to get going.
  The Quick Launch toolbar is to the right of the Start button. If you don't see Quicken's icon there—or any icons there—see the box on Section 1.2.
  Despite Intuit's insistence on the singular term data file, Quicken actually stores your data in five separate files, similar to your word processing or spreadsheet files. (Technical types call this kind of file collection a data set, but don't worry, there's no quiz later.) Quicken's data file is the electronic equivalent of the filing cabinet, drawers, and paper folders you use to store your checking account and credit card statements.

  The granddaddy of the group is the one with the .qdf file extension. It contains your account information and transactions. In the folder with the .qdf file, you'll also find files with the same filename but different file extensions: .qel, .qph, .qsd, and .qtx. Quicken updates these other files behind the scenes, and there's no need to worry about what they do. In fact, you could even delete these additional files, only to find that the program recreates them the next time you open the .qdf file.
• Desktop shortcut. Double-click the Quicken 2006 desktop shortcut that Quicken added to your computer during installation.
• Programs menu. Without a desktop icon, you can launch Quicken from the Windows Start menu. Click Start, and then choose Programs → Quicken → Quicken 2006.

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Setting Up Your Quicken Data File

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The first time you launch Quicken, the "Get Started with Quicken 2006" window pops up with two options: If you're a Quicken neophyte, the program helps you build your data file from scratch; if you've used Quicken in the past, you can get started by using an existing Quicken data file. The setup program guides you through the conversion process.

Windows' Quick Launch toolbar (no relation to Quicken) gives you a fast way to launch programs you use most often, helping keep your desktop from being overrun with shortcut icons. Unlike the Start menu, you won't see installed programs automatically appear in the Quick Launch toolbar—you have to add them yourself.

The Quick Launch toolbar appears in the taskbar at the bottom of your screen, as shown here. If you don't see this toolbar, it just means you need to turn it on. To reveal it, right-click an empty area on the taskbar, and then choose Toolbars → Quick Launch from the menu that pops up. A checkmark appears on the menu next to Quick Launch, indicating you've turned it on.

To install Quicken's icon on the Quick Launch toolbar, you simply right-drag it there from somewhere else.

If you have a Quicken desktop shortcut (like the one the setup program offered to create during installation), right-drag its icon onto the Quick Launch toolbar and then choose Copy Here to create a shortcut on the toolbar. (If you're trying to clean up your desktop, choose Move Here to move the shortcut to the Quick Launch toolbar.) You can also use the right-drag technique to copy or move a shortcut from the Start menu or in Windows Explorer.

In the "Get Started with Quicken 2006" window, choose one of the following options:

• I am new to Quicken. Choose this option if you want to create and set up a brand new Quicken data file using Quicken Guided Setup. Read on for detailed instructions on creating a brand new data file.
• I am already a Quicken user. Choose this option to get started without all the handholding; for instance, if you already have a Quicken data file and have installed Quicken on a spiffy new laptop. For your options and instructions, skip to Section 1.2.2.

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Opening a Quicken File

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Once you've opened a data file, Quicken accommodatingly opens that file the next time you launch the program. If you have only one Quicken data file—and most people do—you may never have to choose File → Open again.

Even with a handful of data files, you need go no further than the File menu to open them, as demonstrated in Figure 1-2.

The first time you open a data file that was created with a previous version of Quicken, the program opens the Convert Your Data dialog box. To convert the file to the new version, just click OK. Quicken saves a copy of your existing data file in C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\My Documents\Quicken\Q05Files (or …\Q01Files if you're converting from the 2001 version) and converts your data file to the Quicken 2006 format.

When the conversion is complete, Quicken launches the Quicken Guided Setup (see below). If the file is fine as is, click Exit Setup and you're ready to manage your money. If you have some changes to make, such as adding an account or changing your profile, you can use the Quicken Guided Setup or click Exit Setup and choose commands from the Quicken menu bar (as described in Chapter 2).

From now on, you'll be working in the all-new, improved Quicken 2006 copy of your data file. Your previous data file remains on your hard drive right where you left it, until you delete it. Should you decide to go back to using the previous version of Quicken, you can always open this pre-conversion data file in the previous version.

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The Quicken Guided Setup

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There's no escaping the Quicken Guided Setup—Quicken opens it as soon as you create a data file (or convert one from a previous version). If you know your way around Quicken, you can do everything that the Guided Setup does using menu commands. The first time around, though, the Guided Setup's step-by-step procedure can't be beat. It clearly lays out all your options, lets you make your own financial choices, and then gives you an error-free data file that's tailor-made for you.

For example, the setup tool helps you create accounts, which are the electronic cousins of the accounts you have at financial institutions—checking accounts, savings accounts, credit cards, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), and so on. It can also create categories that help organize your budget and track the money you spend. For instance, if you tell the Guided Setup that you own a house, it adds a category for mortgage interest.

Figure 1-2: This is the File menu. To find and open a Quicken data file, choose Open (circled), or press Ctrl+0. The bottom of this menu lists recently opened data files and adds a checkmark to the one that's currently open (in this case, MyMoney). Click a file name to open that file.

From the Quicken Guided Setup Welcome screen, shown in Figure 1-3, you can navigate the setup process in two different ways. Clicking Next Step to proceed to the next setup task is the easiest way to work through the Guided Setup. If this isn't your first time through the tool, you can also click a category on the left side of the window to jump to the task you want.

For Quicken 2005 and later, Quicken stores data in C:\Documents and settings\<your username>\My Documents\Quicken—unless you choose a different folder during installation or move your data file afterward. The advantage of this small change is that a backup (using a program like Windows Backup, not Quicken's Backup command) that backs up your My Documents folder grabs your Quicken data without any extra work.

Finding your data files is rarely an issue if you start off on the right foot by creating a folder specifically for your Quicken data. If you move a data file to another folder, Quicken isn't smart enough to find it. As long as you know where the file is, choose File → Open, navigate to the folder, and double-click the data filename.

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A Quick Guide to Quicken Preferences

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Quicken doesn't give you as much control over its behavior as some other programs. You won't find anything like the vast array of options in Microsoft Word, for example. Some of Quicken's preferences make tiny changes barely worth noticing, while others—like Backup—just might save your sanity. This section describes the preferences you're most likely to change and why.

To open the Quicken Preferences dialog box, choose Edit → Preferences and then choose Quicken Program. These preferences determine Quicken's basic behavior and appearance, so you might find yourself drawn back from time to time to make adjustments as your experience grows and your needs change.

Figure 1-9: The Setup Summary screen lets you bask in the glory of your achievement (or to put it more prosaically, "Review your data"). You'll have to scroll down to see all the accounts, paychecks, and bill payments you've set up.

When you choose Edit → Preferences, you'll see two other menu choices: Customize Online Updates and Internet Connection Setup. Both of these categories let you control how Quicken handles your online transactions. See Chapter 6 for the details.

The Startup preference tells Quicken what to display when you first launch the program. Out of the box, the program displays Quicken Home, a financial shopping mall for all your Quicken tasks. To choose a different view, or even a single account, choose Startup. In the "On startup open to" drop-down menu, choose the Quicken Center or account you'd rather see. For example, if you use Quicken as a checkbook, choose your checking account or Cash Flow Center to see checking, saving, and credit card accounts and options.

Before you turn off Quicken Home, note that you can customize it to show only what you want to see. Learn how in Online Appendix F.

The Setup category is home to settings that control Quicken's basic appearance, keyboard shortcuts, and sounds, shown in Figure 1-10. Since your preferences for keyboard shortcuts and your noise tolerance are individual matters, this panel can have a big impact on your Quicken experience.

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Chapter 2: Accounts and Categories

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• How Accounts and Categories Work
• Types of Accounts
• Creating Cash Flow Accounts
• Editing Account Information
• Hiding Closed Accounts
• Categories
• Customizing Categories

Quicken abounds with tools to help you plan, track, and analyze your finances. If you use the Quicken Guided Setup as described in Chapter 1, it creates an assortment of accounts and categories for you. That arrangement's a mere starting point, though.

This chapter defines Quicken's various account types and shows you how to set up new accounts, as well as manage existing ones. You'll also learn how to organize your finances by category, so you can see where your money's coming from and what you're spending it on.

Armed with this knowledge, you can make changes to your data file as your financial needs change over time. For example, whenever you switch banks, succumb to a fabulous credit card offer, or take out a home equity loan to get your mobile dog-grooming business going, you'll need a new account. Or say you get married and need new accounts and categories to track your husband's salary, taxes, and all those salon facials.

Sometimes, the arrival of a new business or person in your life means you need to create an additional data file as well. See the box on Section 2.1.

As you learned in the previous chapter, an account in Quicken corresponds to an account you have at a financial institution, like a checking account at a bank, a savings account at a credit union, a Roth IRA at a brokerage, and so on. Quicken also lets you give each transaction a category, which identifies it as belonging to an area of your financial life. Categories like Groceries, Auto Insurance, and Poker Winnings help you see where your money is going (or coming from). Every time you record a deposit, check, or credit card charge, you can assign it a category.

To get a handle on the difference between accounts and categories, consider how a married couple uses Quicken:

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How Accounts and Categories Work

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As you learned in the previous chapter, an account in Quicken corresponds to an account you have at a financial institution, like a checking account at a bank, a savings account at a credit union, a Roth IRA at a brokerage, and so on. Quicken also lets you give each transaction a category, which identifies it as belonging to an area of your financial life. Categories like Groceries, Auto Insurance, and Poker Winnings help you see where your money is going (or coming from). Every time you record a deposit, check, or credit card charge, you can assign it a category.

To get a handle on the difference between accounts and categories, consider how a married couple uses Quicken:

• Marsha uses one Quicken data file to manage both her and her husband Jeff's finances.
  In the first chapter, you learned that data files are where Quicken stores all the information about your finances: bank, investment, and other accounts and all the transactions in them. If you take on managing someone else's money with Quicken, the first decision is whether you need another Quicken data file. And the answer is, "It depends."

  Separate tax returns are often a big hint that you should create a separate data file for Party Number Two. For example, suppose you manage your parents' money or keep the books for a local nonprofit organization. Their money isn't your money, and you prepare separate tax returns. Gunking up your Quicken data file with someone else's income and tax deductions is just asking for trouble. The safe route is to create another data file.

  Separate tax returns but joint accounts are one exception that may make a single data file the right answer. For example, suppose an unmarried couple files separate tax returns, but pools their money as if they've been married for years. They have a mixture of joint and individual accounts, from joint checking and taxable investment accounts to their individual 401(k)s and IRAs. Despite the glaring absence of a marriage certificate, these folks look a lot like spouses, which makes one data file the easiest approach. (As you'll learn in this chapter, Quicken provides categories for each spouse for tracking tax-related deductions and other spousal spending.)

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Types of Accounts

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As complicated as personal finances can be in the 21st century, Quicken has an account type for every situation. When you create an account in Quicken, you must choose from the dozen types that the program offers. Quicken further divides each account type into different types of financial activities, as the Account Bar in Figure 2-2 illustrates. This section describes the types of accounts you can create in Quicken and what you use them for.

Cash flow accounts deal with the money that flows into and out of your life—checks, paycheck deposits, credit card charges, or the wadded-up bills you hand to the toll taker on the turnpike. Each type of cash flow account offers slightly different features, based on how you use it. For example, Checking and Savings account registers include a Num field for entering a check number. Credit Card and Cash account registers omit this field, because transactions aren't typically numbered.

Here's Quicken's selection of cash flow accounts.

• Checking. Use this type of account to track your real-world checking accounts.
• Savings. This type of account works for real-world accounts that pay interest on your deposits, including passbook savings accounts, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. You can also use Savings to track other stockpiles of money that don't pay interest or aren't at a bank.
• Credit Card. This account type represents real-world accounts that extend a line of credit to you, including credit cards, charge cards, and other lines of credit. Use this type of account when you can withdraw money (charge) and make payments. (By contrast, the Liability account type discussed on Section 2.3 is designed for loans that you pay back through regularly scheduled payments of principal and interest.)
  

  Figure 2-1: Top: As you can see in the checking account register, the checks that Marsha writes reduce the balance in the Quicken checking account. The assigned categories appear below the Payee's name.

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Creating Cash Flow Accounts

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The steps for creating any type of banking account aren't difficult. Once you've gone through the steps the first time, you'll get a feel for it and be able to create new accounts much more quickly. This section walks you through the process, start to finish.

To create an account, you must first get to the Quicken Account Setup dialog box, which you can do in any of the following ways:

• The Account Bar. If you keep the Account Bar visible (as most people do), right-click it and choose "Add new account" from the shortcut menu.
• The Quicken menu bar. Perhaps the fastest access to the Quicken Account Setup dialog box is from the Quicken window's menu bar. For example, to create a cash flow account, choose Cash Flow → Cash Flow Accounts → Add Account. The Investing and Property & Debt menus have similar entries.
• The Account List. In the middle of the Account List menu bar, choose Add Account. For the keyboard maven, opening the Account List window requires no more than pressing Ctrl+A. You can also open the Account List window by choosing Tools → Account List.
• Cash Flow Center. If you launch Quicken displaying the Cash Flow Center, simply click Add Account to create any type of cash flow account in Quicken.
• The File menu. The fastest (and perhaps least obvious) way to the Account Setup dialog box is choosing File → New. In the "Creating new file" dialog box that opens, choose the New Quicken Account option and click OK

If you can't get enough of the Quicken Guided Setup, which you first saw as you were setting up your Quicken environment (Section 1.4), you can instead use that tool to create new accounts.

Despite a few major differences between types of accounts in the Cash Flow category, you'll find the steps for creating these accounts refreshingly similar. Savings accounts pay interest, whereas credit card accounts charge interest and limit how much you can spend. Yet, in the Quicken Account Setup dialog box, the fields you must fill in are almost identical.

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Editing Account Information

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Once you've created an account, you can edit its details any time you want. You may have set your accounts up perfectly the first time, but the Account Details dialog box is worth a visit, if only to see the many other account characteristics you can document. Look at Figure 2-6, for example. In addition to the name and other information you entered when you set up the account, you've got space for comments and a nifty Alerts feature, so you can have Quicken warn you when your balances reach certain levels.

Just about the only thing you can't change about an account is its type. Quicken doesn't let you change a savings account into a checking account, for instance.

To edit the details of an account, use either of the following methods:

• In the Account Bar, right-click the name of the account and choose Edit Account from the shortcut menu.
• In the Account List window, select an account, and then click Edit in the menu bar.

Figure 2-5: When Quicken creates the new account, you can open its register from several places. Here are just a few: the Account bar, the Menu bar, and the appropriate Quicken Center, such as the Cash Flow center.

Investing, asset, and liability accounts have a few fields that are totally different from the ones you see for banking accounts. See Chapter 5 (asset and liability accounts) and Chapter 9 (investing accounts) to learn about them.

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Hiding Closed Accounts

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Over time, you'll probably close some accounts: CDs mature, you switch banks, or you finally smarten up and move your credit card balance to one with a single-digit interest rate. In Quicken, you don't delete accounts that you're no longer using, even if they have a zero balance. Deleting an account deletes all of the transactions in the account, including transfers to and from other accounts—potentially mangling those accounts!

Figure 2-6: Top: For cash flow accounts, you can add a description, the account number, the interest rate, and a contact phone number. The Comments box is perfect for noting fees or rules.
Bottom: The fields that change from account type to account type are usually in the Set Up Alerts area. For example, the credit card account has an alert for the credit limit on the card, while the checking account in the top figure has alerts for both minimum and maximum account values.

As you'll learn throughout this book, Quicken offers alerts that notify you of tasks you should perform or situations you may want to respond to. For example, the minimum-balance alert is particularly useful for checking accounts that charge exorbitant fees if your balance drops too low. Conversely, most banks wouldn't dream of telling you that you've deposited too much. But you can use the alert for the maximum balance field to see when it's time to move some money into an account with a higher interest rate.

You'll probably see some alerts whenever you launch Quicken. Alerts also appear in the Cash Flow Center, or if you customize Quicken Home to display them. Get in the habit of reviewing the list of alerts, because Quicken doesn't always display a message box with an obvious warning as soon as something triggers the alert. Occasionally, the program pops up a message box, but not often enough to ensure that you'll see it in time.

Fortunately, there's a way of getting those old accounts off your Account Bar and Account List (and out of your hair). All you have to do is hide your closed or inactive accounts. Hidden accounts—and, more importantly, their transactions—remain in your data file, but you won't see them in account lists.

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Categories

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When you first create a new Quicken data file, the program automatically sets up a boatload of categories for you. Quicken chooses these categories based on the answers you give during setup, including your marital status and whether you own a home. For commonly used categories, Quicken also specifies the tax form and line item to which the category applies, saving you a lot of heartburn when it comes time to generate tax reports.

Categories are the foundation of Quicken's tracking and budgeting features. You can use them to budget how much you spend on different items, see how your income and expenses are allocated, or generate reports to make it easier to fill out that tax return.

In Quicken, categories come in three basic types. Income categories are for the money that comes into your personal coffers, like salary, part-time income, and winnings from the gals' bunko game. Expense categories represent the money you spend, including unavoidable expenses like Groceries and discretionary expenses like Hobbies. As you create or edit categories as described in this section, you can assign them to either Income or Expense. However, the Category List includes one additional type of category— Transfers and Payments. This type of category works a little differently: Quicken automatically creates categories representing each of your accounts. Then, when you transfer money from checking to savings or make a mortgage payment, you use these categories to show which accounts the money is going into and out of.

Before you start modifying Quicken's categories en masse, read this section to gain an understanding of how they work as you think about how you need to categorize your own information. (For more advice, see the box on Section 2.7.)

Figure 2-7: Top: Accounts start out with their Hide checkboxes turned off, so that they automatically show up in all lists and reports.
Bottom: When you turn on the "Hide in Quicken" checkbox, the program turns off and dims the "Don't Include in Totals" and "Remove from Bar" checkboxes.

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Customizing Categories

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Now that you understand category characteristics, you can make changes to the categories that Quicken set up for you. Initially, you'll probably spot several categories that you don't need (like Rent if you're a homeowner). You can hide or delete categories you don't want, or consolidate several of Quicken's categories under one main category.

You don't have to get your categories perfect before you start doing your finances in Quicken. If you enter a credit card charge and can't find the category you want, you can add a new category to the Category List then and there. You can even recategorize transactions if you decide to revamp the categories you use.

You can remove categories from the Category List by hiding or deleting. For example, if personal hygiene isn't a priority, you can (if you must) delete the Personal Care category. If you own a home but worry about your spouse kicking you out, you may want to hide the Rent category only temporarily.

How do I use Quicken categories to prevent overspending and analyze income?

Quicken offers lots of ways to track your spending—but it can't control your spending for you. There's no magic button in Quicken that stops you from pulling out your credit card to buy a cobalt blue Kitchen Aid mixer at Nordstrom.

But tracking is the first step to understanding your financial situation, and ultimately, to controlling it. To track income and spending, you assign categories to the transactions you create—the paycheck you deposit, the mortgage payment you make, or the checks you write. For example, if you work full-time during the day and earn freelance income as a superhero at night, you can create two income categories: Salary and Skeeter Boy Donations. To reserve your tax expense categories for the taxes you pay, you can create an Income category for Tax Refund.

To build a budget in Quicken, you specify the maximum amount you want to spend for a category. When you generate a report that shows your budgeted amounts compared to your actual spending, you can see where you've done well and where spending has gone horribly awry. (Chapter 8 discusses creating and working with budgets.)

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Chapter 3: Backing Up Your Financial Information

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• Backing Up Data Files
• Restoring Quicken Backups

Once you start using Quicken, paper and pencil rapidly start to look like an unthinkable hassle. You can now balance your checkbook, prepare your taxes, plan for a comfortable retirement, and have enough time left over to go spend some money—and dutifully enter those transactions into Quicken, as well.

The pleasure of doing your finances in Quicken evaporate instantly, though, if you lose your data to a hard-disk crash or other computer disaster. Good backups, as this chapter outlines, get you back to work quickly.

You're probably reading this chapter so you can be prepared when your PC's hard drive crashes and takes your Quicken data file with it. But keep in mind these other situations when backup files can restore your adrenaline level to normal:

* You delete your Quicken data file by mistake.
* You've assigned a password to protect your data file and now even you can't open it.
* Your data file doesn't open after being damaged by a power outage or power surge.

Quicken backups are also the easiest way to move a Quicken data file from one computer to another; for instance, to load it onto your laptop before leaving on an extended business trip. Back up the data file on the first computer, copy the backup file to the new computer, and restore the backup file there.

Quicken provides several backup methods, all of which work well for backing up your data files. But like millions of others, you may already back up all the information on your PC. If you're already using, say, Windows Backup, then Quicken backups may seem as useful as an icemaker in Siberia. After all, your Quicken data is getting backed up on a regular basis with all your other files.

Quicken backups can give you an extra layer of flexibility as well as protection. Suppose you're about to experiment with a Quicken feature, like downloading transactions or archiving your data; there's no sense backing up everything on your computer. You can back up only your Quicken data by running a Quicken

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Backing Up Data Files

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Quicken provides several backup methods, all of which work well for backing up your data files. But like millions of others, you may already back up all the information on your PC. If you're already using, say, Windows Backup, then Quicken backups may seem as useful as an icemaker in Siberia. After all, your Quicken data is getting backed up on a regular basis with all your other files.

Quicken backups can give you an extra layer of flexibility as well as protection. Suppose you're about to experiment with a Quicken feature, like downloading transactions or archiving your data; there's no sense backing up everything on your computer. You can back up only your Quicken data by running a Quicken manual backup, which immediately creates a backup data file. Then, if the experiment goes horribly wrong, you can restore your Quicken backup and try a different approach. A Quicken backup is also a good idea if you've spent several hours getting your accounts, categories, and preferences just the way you want them, and your next scheduled Windows backup won't kick in until 3:00 tomorrow morning. Just run a manual backup (and sleep like a baby).

Quicken offers a second type of backup, the online backup. In the Quicken Backup dialog box, select the Online option if you want Intuit to handle backing up your data file. This service sends your files via the Internet to Intuit's data center, as described in the box on Section 3.2.

How often should I back up my data?

Good question. The closest thing to a right answer is "When you wouldn't want to recreate the data you'd lose." If you hammer out more transactions a day than Stephen King writes best-selling pages, a daily backup is an excellent choice. And if you've successfully completed a particularly gnarly Quicken task, a mid-day backup isn't out of the question.

On the other hand, if you pay a few bills each month and use your PC as a sticky-note holder the rest of the time, a monthly backup may be all you need. Of course, that monthly backup may mean you back up your Quicken file every time you use the program.

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Restoring Quicken Backups

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Here's the reason you've been so carefully getting your Quicken backup routine in place. After you've survived a hard drive crash, power outage, or natural disaster, you have to take one of those backup files and turn it into a working data file before you can start using Quicken again.

If you're restoring a backup file after a hard disk crash, you'll have to reinstall Windows and Quicken 2006 before you can complete these steps. Once your PC is up and running and you've launched Quicken, proceed as follows:

1. If you backed up your data to removable media, put the disk containing your backup in the appropriate drive.
   If you instead backed up your data to another hard drive on your computer or on a home network, you must connect to it. For example, if the backup file is on a laptop, connect it to your desktop PC and turn on file sharing.
   For more information about sharing files on different computers, see Windows XP for Starters: The Missing Manual by David Pogue.
2. Choose File → Restore Backup File.
   Quicken displays a submenu, which lists the backup copies that you've made. If the backup that you want to restore is listed on the menu, click its name.
   To restore any other files, click Browse at the bottom of the submenu. In the Restore Quicken File dialog box, navigate to the folder or media that contains the backup you want to restore.
3. Select the filename and click OK.
   When you see the message that says your data has been restored successfully, you're ready to open the data file.
4. Open the data file and look it over. Reenter any transactions that the backup doesn't contain.
   For example, look for a gap between the last check number in Quicken and the number on your next paper check and reenter any checks that don't appear in Quicken. Alternatively, you can wait until you receive your next bank statement and add missing transactions as you reconcile your account.
5. Back up your recovered data file onto removable media or a different computer now .
   See Section 3.1.1 for instructions on performing a manual backup.

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Chapter 4: Banking, Credit Cards, and Cash

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• Transaction Basics
• Quicken's Quicker with QuickFill
• Recording Checks
• Recording Deposits
• Paying with a Credit Card
• Paying with Cash
• Splitting Transactions
• Transferring Money Between Accounts
• Editing Transactions
• Voiding Transactions
• Searching for Transactions
• The Transaction Edit Menu
• Managing Memorized Payees
• Scheduling Transactions
• Automating Your Paycheck in Quicken

As you run errands, you probably write a few checks, swipe your credit card, and hand over some coins and bills. When you get home, you can record all your transactions to keep your Quicken account balances in sync with your wallet and the accounts at your financial institutions. You can create Quicken transactions as easily as handwritten ones—easier, in fact, since the program automatically completes entries for you, lets you schedule transactions to happen automatically, or downloads them from your bank.

You can take even more work off your plate by automating transactions in Quicken. With scheduled transactions, you don't have to remember when bills or deposits are due—Quicken reminds you and fills in all the fields for you. Although automation requires a bit of setup, the time you save down the road makes it all worthwhile.

This chapter describes how to record your daily cash flow transactions and how Quicken features can make short work of them. You'll also learn how to handle other common transaction tasks, like transferring money between accounts, voiding transactions, or finding transactions you recorded a while back.

You'll learn best how transactions work when you enter some yourself, as you'll learn in this section. Later, when you take advantage of automatic features like scheduled transactions, you'll understand exactly what Quicken's doing. You record Quicken transactions in a

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Transaction Basics

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You'll learn best how transactions work when you enter some yourself, as you'll learn in this section. Later, when you take advantage of automatic features like scheduled transactions, you'll understand exactly what Quicken's doing. You record Quicken transactions in a register that looks much like the paper type. Each account you create in Quicken has its own register.

The Account Bar is the fastest way to open up a register—simply click the account name. If the Cash Flow Center is visible, you can click an account name there as well. From the Quicken menu bar, choose Cash Flow → Cash Flow Accounts, and then choose the account. Figure 4-1 shows one way to open an acount register and some of the helpful features you'll find when you do.

Figure 4-1: Top: On the Account Bar, open a register by clicking the name of the account.
Bottom: A Quicken register (right box) looks like a paper register, but every field has timesaving shortcuts. For example, in the Num field, you can choose Next Check Number to fill in a check number one higher than the last check number you used.

Here are some keystrokes that will move you through the fields of a transaction faster than grain through a goose:

• Move to a new transaction. In the register, press Ctrl+N or Ctrl+End to jump to the first blank row in the register. You're ready to record a new transaction.
• Move to the next field. If you're creating a transaction directly in the register, pressing Tab is the fastest way to move to the next field and display its QuickFill options. You can skip fields by pressing Tab several times in succession or by clicking the next field you want to enter.
• Record a transaction. As soon as all the fields you want have values, click or press Enter to record the transaction. Keyboard shortcut mavens can press Alt+T to record a transaction at any time.

With Quicken's factory settings, you press Tab to move between fields and press Enter to record the transaction. This method's advantage is that you can press Enter as soon as the transaction fields are filled in—which can be almost immediately if QuickFill features and memorized payees do their jobs.

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Quicken's Quicker with QuickFill

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Before you learn how to record a transaction from A to Z, you can bask in the knowledge that you rarely have to do it. Quicken works hard to do as much of your transaction data entry as it can, and, most of the time, it does an outstanding job. Every time you create a transaction, Quicken remembers what you did and fills in your next transaction for the same payee. In no time, you can add transactions by typing just the date and a few letters of the payee's name. Quicken takes care of the rest.

The first time you record a transaction for a payee, Quicken memorizes almost everything about it to the Memorized Payee List (Section 1.5.8): the payee, amount, categories, and memo text. For new transactions, you still have to fill in the date, and, for check transactions, the check number.

Then, when you record a new transaction and choose a payee, the QuickFill feature automatically fills in all the other transaction fields for you, as demonstrated in Figure 4-2.

Figure 4-2: Top: As you type letters in the Payee field, QuickFill displays matching payee names from the Memorized Payee List.
Bottom: When you choose a payee and move to another field, QuickFill fills in the other fields with values for the memorized payee. You can modify field values, for instance to enter a different amount, before recording the transaction.

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Recording Checks

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Quicken provides three ways to record checks. Fortunately, your choice is easy because it depends on how you produce your check:

• Register. The register is the easiest and fastest way to record checks that you've written by hand. See Section 4.1.2 for several ways to open an account register.
• Write Checks window. If you plan to print your checks in Quicken, the Write Checks window's Print button makes it easy to queue up checks for printing (see "Recording Printed Checks" on Section 4.3.2). Open the Write Checks window by choosing Cash Flow → Write Checks or by pressing Ctrl+W.
• Online Center window. You can generate electronic payments directly in the register, but the Online Center window's Payments tab (Section 6.5.1) is the easiest way to create and send electronic payments.

With a combination of keyboard shortcuts, clicks, and the occasional typed character, you can make short work of recording checks in the register. Remember to press Tab (or Enter, as explained in the box on Section 4.2) to move to the next field. Here are the steps:

1. To create a new transaction in the register, press Ctrl+N.
   If you've been scrolling through past transactions, pressing Ctrl+N takes you to the end of the register and places the pointer in a blank transaction. You can also jump to a new transaction at the end of the register by pressing Ctrl+End.
2. In the Date field, enter the date you want for the check.
   Quicken automatically fills in today's date and if you want a date that's only a few days away, press – to move back one day at a time, or + to advance one day at a time.
   For other dates, Quicken assumes the current year so you can type just the month, a slash (/), and the day (12/4, for example). If you're overwriting the entire date, you don't have to type any slashes in a date. As you type numbers, Quicken automatically moves to the month and then year. For example, to change the date to November 15, 2006, you can type 111506. Appendix C includes additional keyboard shortcuts for selecting dates.

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Recording Deposits

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Recording a deposit into an account is almost identical to recording a check. Figure 4-8 shows an example of a deposit being entered. Follow the steps starting on Section 4.3.1, but with the following adjustments:

In the Num field, choose Deposit (or type D) instead of entering a check number. When you choose Deposit, Quicken changes the order in which you tab through fields to match the task at hand. The program automatically jumps to the Deposit field instead of the Payment field for deposit transactions, to stop you from accidentally recording the deposit as a payment.

Here are the fields and the order in which Quicken moves through them:

• Date
• Payee
• Deposit
• Category
• Memo

In the Deposit field, type how much money you're depositing.

Like checks, deposits can belong to categories, but there are some special considerations, as described in the box on Section 4.5.1.

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Paying with a Credit Card

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Credit cards have become many people's favorite way to pay. Some folks like the convenience of swiping a card out at the gas pump and avoiding the junk food inside the station. Others like the airline miles or cash back they receive. And of course, some people seem to enjoy paying obscenely high interest rates on the balances they carry on their cards. In Quicken, there are two ways you can track your credit card charges: Create a cash flow account to record each credit card charge, or record just the payments to the credit card company in your Quicken check register. As you'll see in this section, though, tracking each credit card charge individually offers so many advantages, it's almost a no-brainer.

If your deposit includes more than one item, turn your attention to the Quicken Calculator icon in the Deposit field. This feature isn't a data entry shortcut or a replacement for your business calculator. You'll use it most often to add up several checks you're depositing for the same category, because it automatically fills in the Deposit field with the result when you're done.

The Quicken calculator does the same simple calculations that the Windows calculator or the calculator keys on your computer do: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and percentages. In fact, when the pointer's in a transaction's Payment or Deposit field, you can start pressing the calculator keys on your keyboard and Quicken automatically launches its calculator for you. As you press number keys, the digits appear in the field. And if you press +, -, *, or /, the Quicken calculator keypad appears immediately below the field and shows the results of your keystrokes.

Figure 4-8: To deposit money in an account, in the Num field, choose Deposit. The Deposit field is where you specify how much money you're depositing.

The category that you assign to a deposit depends on the type of deposit. For example, when you deposit your paycheck or a monetary gift from your Dad, you might choose a category like Salary or Gift Received, respectively.

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Paying with Cash

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You can withdraw money from an ATM, spend it, and, within hours, have not the foggiest idea how you spent it. Unfortunately, Quicken doesn't improve your memory for petty cash expenditures in the least, so your memory's the deciding factor in how you track what you buy with cash. This section outlines two of the most popular methods.

If you've charged ahead once too often, Quicken alerts can raise a red flag before you get into trouble. A credit card account in Quicken includes a Credit Limit field, which you can set so that Quicken displays an alert when you've exceeded your limit. With credit cards, you don't want to exceed your credit limit, because that could result in an embarrassing turndown when you try to use your card, for instance to pay for dinner on a first date.

Instead of filling in the Credit Limit field with the actual credit limit on your card, use a value a few thousand below your limit. Better yet, fill in the Credit Limit field with the limit you set to ensure that you can afford to pay the balance off each month.

The fastest way to change the credit limit on a credit card account is in the Account Bar. Right-click the credit card account and, on the shortcut menu, click Edit account to open the Account Details dialog box. In the Credit Limit text box, type the value at which you want Quicken to alert you, and then click OK.

The only downside to this alert feature is that Quicken's subtle with its warnings. You can see alerts that you've triggered if you open the Cash Flow Center or if you include alerts in Quicken Home (see the box on Section 2.5 for more detail.)

If you remember every dime you've spent since the first grade and you want to track your cash expenditures, here's the rigorous way to track cash:

1. Create a cash flow account for the cash in your wallet.
   For a refresher on creating accounts, see Section 2.3.1 in Chapter 2.
2. When you withdraw money from the ATM, the drive-through window, or even inside at a teller window, record that withdrawal in Quicken as a transfer to your cash account

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Splitting Transactions

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Most of the time, a check or a credit card charge applies only to one category. Life is simple: You create the transaction, pick the category, and Quicken tracks how you spent that money. But more often than you might think, a transaction applies to more than one category. For example, you deposit a mélange of checks—a birthday present from your favorite aunt, a health insurance reimbursement, and the $20 prize you won in a pie-eating contest. The popularity of monumentally huge supermarkets also means that one check may cover groceries, auto supplies, running shoes, and a photo of your baby. Quicken handles these multipurpose payments with splits—transactions that you split among several categories.

Another fine use of a split transaction is when you want to deposit only part of a check amount in the bank and take the rest in cash. Simply record the check deposit into the bank account as one part of the transaction and a transfer to your Quicken cash account as another.

To split a transaction, begin creating the transaction as you normally would, by typing the payee name and the amount.

Then follow these steps to split a payment among several categories:

1. In the register, select the transaction you want to split, and then click the Split button (Figure 4-10, top) or press Ctrl+S.
   The Split Transaction dialog box opens with the insertion point in the first row in the Category column.
   You can also open the Split Transaction dialog box from the Category field. Click the down arrow and then, at the bottom of the Category drop-down menu, click the Split button or press Ctrl+S.
   

   Figure 4-10: Top: Click Split (indicated by cursor) to open the Split Transaction dialog box. You can also click Split at the bottom of the Category drop-down menu.
   Bottom: You don't have to enter the amount for the last split, because Quicken calculates how much of the payment's still unassigned after each split (in this case, it's 32.22).
2. In the Category field, choose the category you want.
   The Category fields in the Split Transaction dialog box work the same way as the Category field in a transaction. You can type the first few letters of a category name and let Quicken fill in the category. Or, you can scroll through the Category drop-down menu to choose the one you want.

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Transferring Money Between Accounts

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Chances are you transfer money between accounts all the time. For example, you keep your cash in a savings account where it earns interest and transfer it to your checking account only when it's time to pay the plumber. (What are those pipes made out of, anyway—gold?) Anyway, you can have Quicken record the movement of money between accounts by using transfer transactions. When you tell Quicken to transfer money from savings to checking, for example, the program removes the money from your savings account and adds it to your checking account. The clever thing about Quicken transfers is that the category you assign isn't a category like Groceries but the account to which you're transferring money. This section shows you how the whole process works.

Recording a transfer between accounts is much like recording a check, with a few minor differences. You can use Quicken's Transfer dialog box, which provides some handholding to help you get the transfer the right way 'round, but the quickest way to record a transfer is directly in the account register. Here are the steps:

Figure 4-12: Top: This is the transaction with its original total. To keep the split amounts and adjust the transaction total, click Adjust.
Middle: Quicken removes the Remainder value from the transaction total.
Bottom: This is the transaction after adjusting its total.

1. Open the register for the account from which you're transferring money.
   For example, if you're transferring money from your checking account to savings, open the register for your checking account. When you open a register, Quicken automatically positions the insertion point in a blank transaction.
2. In the Date field, choose the date for the transfer.
   If your financial institution has rules about when transfers occur, you can keep your account balances more accurate by using the date when the money will actually move between accounts.
3. In the Num field, type T to make the transaction a Transfer (Figure 4-13).
   As soon as you choose Transfer in the Num field, Quicken changes the name of the Payee field to Description and the Category field to Xfer Account.

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Editing Transactions

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