I find Quicken's budgeting feature to be inadequate, or at least
enormously inconvenient. There is no nice way of making budget
variances (i.e. take what's left over in this account (or, in
quicken-speak, "category") and apply it to that overage in that
account).

I have set up a spreadsheet in Quicken that approximates this, but I
have problems exporting my data from Quicken into Excel reliably--
when there is no activity in a category for a given month, it is
simply not included in any Quicken reports. This means that I can't
export the same data layout every month into Excel.

E.g: If I have this set up in Excel:
Apples     $5
Pears      $15
Bananas    $8

and I don't buy any Pears this month, Quicken's budget report will
look like this:
Apples     $5.50
Bananas    $7.29

...which means I can't use Quicken's "copy" function to copy the data
into Excel.

Furthermore, when I do the "copy" command, the totals aren't exported
as formulas, so if I tweak a number or delete a line from the budget,
the totals aren't updated.

What I do now is this: I have a several rows set up in excel with all
the correct formulas. I copy and paste one row to replace everything
to the right of the 'Budget' column in Quicken's budget report, and
then another few rows to replace the totals at the bottoms of the
category groups and the totals at the bottom. Plus, I have to get rid
of all the category subtotals because they throw off the computed
totals.

What I'm looking for is one of three things: 
1) An easier way of getting my monthly spending and budget data from
Quicken into Excel
2) A better software package for budgeting that supports budget
variances and online transaction retrieval.
3) A way to use Quickbooks for personal finance (see below)

I've considered using Quickbooks (which I already own) and writing my
own budgeting plugin for the Quickbooks API, but then I'd lose the
ability to download transactions from my bank and credit cards, and
the ability to export to TurboTax at the end of the year. I'd need a
QIF->IIF converter (free, preferably), and a solution to the TurboTax
dilemma.

I know, it's kind of a complex question for $5, but I'm hoping
someone's dealt with this before and won't have to do a ton of
research.

Thanks!

---

Request for Question Clarification by taxmama-ga on 07 May 2003 18:09 PDT

Hi Josh,

Have you checked with your bank?

My bank lets me download transactions into QuickBooks.

Actually, take a look at the Online Banking link
in QuickBooks. Look at set up - and see if your bank
is in there. 

That should take care of your download problems. 

As to the Excel export...I am not sure that it won't 
do the same thing. I really don't know.

But re: TurboTax, you bet you can export QuickBooks
to TurboTax. At least to the business version of 
TurboTax. QuickBooks is set up to let you specify
the tax type for each account you set up.

So, the only thing I can't guide you on is the Excel
issue. Sorry. 

Your TaxMama-ga