Has been the default personal finance manager of Mac users for years. But despite its ubiquity, I still run across many Quicken users who aren’t getting the most out of the program, because they don’t know some simple tricks that can make it easier to use. Best app for budget and expenses for iphone. Here’s my top-ten list of tricks every Quicken user—from novices to experts—should know. Customize the keyboard If you don’t like Quicken’s default keyboard shortcuts, change them or add your own. Just hold down the 1 key and choose the item you want to customize from the menu bar.

In the Edit Command Key dialog box, you can enter your preferred shortcut. Don’t open Quicken Need to quickly record an expense? Just tap the key you’ve configured to launch Dashboard, and then use the QuickEntry widget that was introduced with Quicken 2007. You can make entries in any of your Quicken accounts; those entries will be automatically imported into your account registers the next time you launch Quicken. Unclutter your categories Quicken’s categories are the key to tracking your spending. But even though some of Quicken’s default categories may not work for you, those categories will still appear every time you view the Categories & Transfers window or use the pop-up category list in the account registers. Get rid of categories you’ll never use by choosing Lists: Categories & Transfers: Remove Unused Categories.

Quicken doesn't currently contain a specific investment transaction for share class conversions, but the corporate acquisition (stock-for-stock) transaction will handle a class conversion and maintain an accurate cost basis for the new share class.

Use classes Quicken makes it easy to create categories for all your financial transactions—perhaps too easy. For example, let’s say you want to track individual medical expenses for you and your spouse. You could create two subcategories under the Medical category. But what about your kids? Do you really need a different Medical subcategory for each family member?

If you do, and if you apply the same logic to your other expenses, you’ll soon have an unmanageable number of categories and subcategories. The smarter thing to do is to create classes in Quicken. Classes are distinct from categories, so they can further define a transaction that has already been assigned to a category. For example, you might create a class for each of your family’s members. Just choose Lists: Classes, click on the New button in the Classes window, and add a new class name.

Then, during data entry, you can assign a class to a transaction by appending a forward slash and a class name to the category name. For example, you’d enter Medical/Bob for one of Bob’s medical expenses. Once you’ve set up these classes, you can easily generate a report for the entire family’s medical expenses (sorting by category), another for all your expenses (sorting by class), and a third for just your medical expenses (sorting by both class and category). Calculate faster If you want to make a quick calculation while you’re entering data in the account register, you don’t have to reach for the calculator on your desk or in Dashboard. Instead, Quicken’s QuickMath feature gives you a simple “paper-tape” calculator (like an old adding machine) right in the account register.

Here’s how to use it: While you’re in any field that you can enter an amount in, press an arithmetic-operator key (+, –, *, /, or =) to open the QuickMath paper tape. Enter the numbers you want to calculate, pressing an operator key between each number. When you’ve entered all your numbers, click on the Total but-ton at the bottom of the paper tape (or press enter). Quicken does the calculation and places the result into the field. Don’t skip backups Your Quicken data file is one of the most important files you have, and a good backup is a must.

Quicken will back this file up automatically, but you can customize the backup location. A second hard drive is ideal. Choose Quicken: Preferences, and then go to the File Backup pane.