Introduction to Quicken

What is Quicken?

What you can do with Quicken

∙ Organize and track your income and expenses

∙ Balance your checkbook

∙ Prepare financial reports and graphs

∙ Organize and report on tax-related transactions

∙ Track and reconcile credit card transactions

∙ Track your investments

∙ Set up budgets and track budget progress

∙ Keep track of your assets and liabilities

Getting started in Quicken

∙ Quicken setup guide

∙ Terminology

∙ Detail level is up to you

Ways to enter transactions

∙ Manual entry – screen looks just like your checkbook

∙ Download from Internet

∙ Memorize payees and transactions to make future entries easier

How to organize income and expenses in transactions

∙ Enter transactions into appropriate account (e.g. checking, savings)

∙ Use categories with each transaction (e.g., utilities, gasoline, etc.)

∙ You may also use classes to differentiate similar expenses (e.g. two cars)

Reconciliation

∙ Choose reconcile from register – can enter bank charges and interest

∙ Check off cleared transactions

∙ Make corrections or changes as you reconcile

The importance of backups

A little beyond basic

∙ Split transactions

∙ Scheduled (automatic transactions)

∙ Searches

Reports

Glossary

Accounts

Ways to organize your financial information: checking account, savings account, investment accounts, assets (e.g., home, automobile) and liabilities (e.g. home mortgage).

Assets: Things you own

Liabilities: Things you owe

Categories

Within accounts, you may organize information by categories. Categories track the source of a deposit (such as salary), the reason for an expenditure (such as Utilities), or the name of the account to which you are transferring funds.

You may also use subcategories to organize information. For example, you may further divide Utilities into Utilities:Electric and Utilities:Water.

Classes

Classes provide an additional way to label transactions in Quicken. You use classes to specify where, to what, or to whom the transactions apply. (E.g., if you have two cars you may use classes to track expenses for each).

Files

Financial information is stored in a data file on your computer. Each Quicken file will have a name. Most people have only one file for their personal financial information. If you have a business or rental property, you may wish to set up a separate file for that information.

Memos

When entering transactions, you may provide additional information in the Memo field. This is just like the Memo area on your checks. You may use Memos when you are searching for information in Quicken.