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QUICKEN FOR MAC 2006
User Manual
445 pgs8.11 Mb0
Table of contents
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Intuit QUICKEN FOR MAC 2006 User Manual

Quicken for Mac 2006 User Guide
Copyright
© 2005 Intuit Inc. All rights reserved.
Trademarks
Apple, the Apple Logo, Macintosh, Mac, the Mac logo, Mac OS and .Mac are trademarks and/or service marks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S.A. and other countries.
All other product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners and should be treated as such. Some names, company names, and data used in examples and help content are fictitious and are used for illustration purposes only. Any resemblance of fictitious data to a real person or company is purely coincidental.
All features, services and any terms and conditions are subject to change without notice. Online financial services, online account services, online banking, online investing, transaction download, online payment, online bill presentment, and online tax preparation, whether prepared by Intuit or third parties, are available only in the United States and require Internet access. These services may vary from participating financial institutions and may be subject to application approval, terms, conditions, and additional fees.
Software License Agreement
Please see the Software License Agreement (from Quicken, choose Help > Quicken Help, then click the "Software License Agreement" link) for the terms and conditions under which the Software is licensed to you.
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Table of Contents
1 Installation and setup 11
System requirements 11 Installing Quicken 12 Getting started if you’re new to Quicken 13 Upgrading from a previous version of Quicken 14 What’s new in this version of Quicken 16
2 Here’s what Quicken can do for you 17
Managing your bank accounts 17 Online account access 19 Tracking your investments 20 Tracking your assets and debts 21 Planning ahead 22 Reports and graphs 22 Up–to–the–minute financial information on the Web 24
3Working with Quicken 25
The Quicken workspace 25 Customizing your Quicken workspace 27 Getting step-by-step assistance from Quicken Help 29 Using this manual 31
3
4 Accounts track what you own and owe 32
About Quicken data files 32 About Quicken accounts 34 Setting up a Quicken account 35 Opening an account register 37 Editing, hiding and deleting accounts 38
5 Categories and classes track income and expenses 40
About categories 40 Setting up categories and subcategories 42 Editing, deleting, and moving categories and subcategories 47 About classes 48 Setting up classes and subclasses 50 Editing, deleting, and moving classes and subclasses 50
6 Keeping your accounts up to date 52
Recording your day-to-day expenses 52 Correcting mistakes 58 What do I put in the Category field? 59 Transferring money between accounts 64 Entering transactions with more than one category 68 Speeding up data entry 73 Finding a specific transaction 75 Customizing the register 76 Printing the register 77
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7 Paying your bills 78
Scheduling bill payments 78 Writing checks with Quicken 84 Adding Quicken transactions to iCal 87 Printing Intuit checks 90
8 Reconciling Quicken accounts 104
Before you start reconciling 105 Starting reconciliation 107 Marking cleared transactions 111 Completing reconciliation 113 Solving reconciliation problems 115
9 Banking online 124
Quicken’s online banking services 125 How online banking works 125 Applying at your financial institution 127 Setting up a Quicken account for online banking 128 Downloading transactions 129 Making your downloaded transactions easier to read 134 Transferring money between online accounts 141 Making online payments 142 Communicating with your financial institution 148 Keep your accounts up to date 151 Storing your PINs and passwords 154 Setting up Quicken Bill Pay 157 Using Web Connect 158
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10 Tracking your cash 162
When to use Quicken cash accounts 162 Entering cash transactions in Quicken bank accounts 163 Setting up and using Quicken cash accounts 165
11 Tracking your credit cards 169
When to use credit card accounts 169 Entering credit card transactions in a checking account 170 Setting up and using credit card accounts 172
12 Tracking assets and liabilities 178
When to use Quicken asset and liability accounts 178 Setting up and using asset and liability accounts 181
13 Tracking loans and mortgages 187
How Quicken tracks a loan 187 Setting up a loan 190 Handling different types of loans 196 Making a loan payment 198 Changing and deleting loans 202 Refinancing a loan 202 Estimating year-to-date loan interest 205
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14 Tracking investments 206
About investment accounts 206 Tracking your investment data in Quicken 213 Setting up an investment account 225 Setting up a Quicken mutual fund account 235 Recording investment transactions 239 Updating security prices 263 Tracking indexes and securities you don’t own 267 Entering a transaction history for investments 268 Changing, deleting, and moving securities 271 Reconciling investment accounts 274
15 Investing online 276
Setting up an investment account for online access 276 Downloading investment transactions 276 Updating security prices online 280 Researching securities on the Web 286 Exporting your portfolio to Quicken.com 287
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16 Creating reports 288
About reports 288 Creating an EasyAnswer report 289 Creating a QuickReport 291 Creating a basic Quicken report 291 Customizing reports 293 Reusing custom report settings 310 Investigating items in reports with QuickZoom 312 Changing report preferences 314 Updating reports 314 Printing and exporting reports 315 Seeing the big picture with Insights 316
17 Creating graphs 318
About graphs 318 Creating an EasyAnswer graph 319 Creating a standard graph 320 Customizing a graph 322 Investigating items in graphs with QuickZoom 326 Changing graph preferences 328 Printing graphs 328
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18 Planning your financial future 329
An overview of Quicken’s planning tools 330 Budgeting 333 Forecasting 345 Financial planning calculators 355 Quicken.com planning tools 358 Home Inventory 359 Emergency Records Organizer 359
19 Getting ready for tax time 360
Tracking tax-related income and expenses 360 Creating tax reports 370 Transferring Quicken data to tax software 373 Estimating taxes with Quicken Tax Planner 374 Estimating capital gains 379
Appendix A: Working with Quicken data files 381
Using more than one Quicken data file 381 Importing and exporting Quicken data 382 Backing up your data file 386 Archiving your data file at the end of the year 389 Setting up passwords 395
Appendix B: Troubleshooting and contacting Intuit 397
Saving a phone call 397 Before you contact us 401 Who to contact 404
9
Index 407
Quicken Keyboard Shortcuts 445
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1

Installation and setup

System requirements ............................................................................................................11
Installing Quicken.................................................................................................................12
Getting started if you’re new to Quicken..........................................................................13
Upgrading from a previous version of Quicken ..............................................................14
What’s new in this version of Quicken..............................................................................16

System requirements

To use Quicken for Mac 2006, you need the following:
• Macintosh with G3 processor
• Mac OS X, version 10.2.8, 10.3.9, or 10.4.1
• 128MB of RAM
1
• 50MB of available hard disk space
• Color monitor with at least 1024x768 resolution
•To print checks: Intuit checks and a laser or inkjet printer
•To access online features: Internet access (fees may apply), and Internet Explorer
5.2.2 or Safari 1.0.3
11
•To back up to iDisk: a .Mac account (fees apply)
To find out which version of the system software you are using or how much RAM you have, choose About This Mac from the Apple (K) menu. To find out how much free space you have on your hard disk, look at the bottom of the Finder window.

Installing Quicken

It’s a good idea to back up your existing Quicken data files before installing if you’ve used a previous version of Quicken. (See “Backing up your data file” on page 386 for more information.)
in your
1
Insert the Quicken
2
Double-click the Install Quicken icon.
3
Enter your computer administrator password and click OK.
4
Read the Read Me file and click Continue.
5
Read the Software License Agreement, click Continue, and then click Agree.
6
Select an installation destination and click Continue.
7
Follow the onscreen instructions to complete installation.
If you’re new to Quicken, go to “Getting started if you’re new to Quicken” next.
CD
CD-ROM
drive.
Chapter 1, Installation and setup 12
If you’re upgrading from a previous version of Quicken for Mac, skip to “Upgrading
from a previous version of Quicken” on page 14.

Getting started if you’re new to Quicken

If this is the first time you’ve used Quicken, Quicken will create a new data file for you and then guide you through setting up your first bank account and entering your first transaction. The whole process takes only a few minutes.
The Quicken icon looks like this:
See Chapter 6, Keeping your accounts
up to date, on page 52 for information
about entering transactions in a register.
1
Go to the folder where you installed Quicken and double-click the Quicken icon.
2
Quicken asks you to personalize your copy of Quicken; type your name and click OK.
3
In the welcome screen, click New User to set up a file for your Quicken data.
4
Follow the onscreen instructions to create your first Quicken account.
Congratulations! You’ve set up your first account. Now you can bring the account up to date:
• Enter all the transactions that have occurred in this account between the ending balance on your last bank statement and today. These transactions may be checks that you have written and recorded in your paper check register, electronic funds
transactions (deposits to or withdrawals
transfers to or from the account, or
ATM
from the account).
Chapter 1, Installation and setup 13
• Enter all transactions dated before the statement’s ending date that have not yet appeared on any bank statement.
Or you can wait and enter these transactions when you get your next bank statement and are ready to reconcile your Quicken account with the bank statement. See “Before you start reconciling” on page 105.
Then, when your next bank statement arrives, you can reconcile it with the transactions you’ve recorded in your Quicken account. See Chapter 8, Reconciling
Quicken accounts, on page 104 for information about reconciling bank accounts.

Upgrading from a previous version of Quicken

If you are upgrading from a previous version of Quicken, be sure to move your existing Quicken data files into your Documents folder. Then, if you still have your Install CD from your previous version of Quicken, you can delete your old Quicken
CD
folder from your hard disk. If you no longer have your original before you delete it. We strongly recommend that you delete your old copy of Quicken.
, back up the folder
Note: If you are upgrading from Quicken 1 or 1.5, a document with instructions for
upgrading is available from Intuit Technical Support; choose Online > To the Web > Online Technical Support.
1
After you have installed Quicken, moved your Quicken data files to your Documents folder, and removed your old Quicken application from your hard disk, you can open your Quicken data file one of these three ways:
Chapter 1, Installation and setup 14
• Double-click your Quicken data file icon.
• Double-click the Quicken application icon.
• Drag your Quicken data file icon to the Quicken icon.
2
If Quicken asks you to personalize your copy of Quicken, type your name and click OK.
3
In the welcome screen, click Upgrading User.
You’ll see a series of screens telling you what’s new in Quicken. Click Continue after you read each screen.
4
If the Open File dialog appears, select your data file and click Open.
Before Quicken opens your data file, it creates a backup copy of the file and puts it in your Documents/Quicken Backup Folder/Old Quicken Data folder.
Converting your data file may take a little while, especially if the file is large.
After the backup file is created, Quicken updates your original data file for Quicken 2006 and you’re ready to work. To update another Quicken data file, choose File > Open File and select that file.
Note: After you update your file to Quicken 2006 format, you
CANNOT
go back and use the same file with an earlier version of Quicken. If you ever need to use your old data with your previous version of Quicken, you can open the copy of the file that Quicken put in the Old Quicken Data folder.
Chapter 1, Installation and setup 15

What’s new in this version of Quicken

To see what’s new in this version of Quicken, go to Quicken Help and click
What’s new in Quicken 2006
Chapter 1, Installation and setup 16
Here’s what Quicken can do
2
for you
Managing your bank accounts............................................................................................17
Online account access...........................................................................................................19
Tracking your investments..................................................................................................20
Tracking your assets and debts...........................................................................................21
Planning ahead......................................................................................................................22
Reports and graphs...............................................................................................................22
Up–to–the–minute financial information on the Web.....................................................24

Managing your bank accounts

A Quicken bank account register looks a lot like a paper checkbook register. You enter all the transactions that affect your account balance in the register, including checks
(automated teller machine)
you’ve written, deposits, electronic transfers, transactions, and so on.
ATM
2
17
Quicken displays the name of the account (Joint Checking) in the window title.
You can use more than one series of check numbers at a time. You can write your checks by hand, print Intuit checks directly from Quicken, or use a combination of both.
Quicken computes the account balance automatically each time you record a transaction.
Quicken helps you accomplish many banking tasks quickly and easily:
• Keep detailed records of all your transactions without spending a lot of time
entering data. QuickFill™ remembers each transaction you enter, so you only have to type recurring transactions once.
• Reconcile your Quicken accounts to make sure they agree with the statements from
your bank.
•Transfer money between Quicken accounts. Quicken records the transfer in both
accounts and updates your balances automatically.
• Schedule any kind of transaction—from a car payment that you pay at the same
time every month, to a class fee that you pay only once, to a paycheck direct deposit. When a bill is due or when payday finally rolls around, Quicken either
Chapter 2, Here’s what Quicken can do for you 18
Entering categories is easy. As soon as you type the letters “Gr,” QuickFill completes the category name “Groceries.”
reminds you about it or simply enters it for you automatically—whichever you prefer.
• Keep track of where your money goes with categories. For example, if you buy
groceries at several different stores, you can tell Quicken to use the same “Groceries” category each time you record a payment to any of those stores in any Quicken register. Then, at the end of the month, you can create a report or graph that shows how much you spent on groceries that month.
You can also choose a category name from the pop-up menu in the Category field.

Online account access

Online account access gives you convenient, day or night access to your accounts using state-of-the-art encryption and security features. With online account access, you can:
• Update your Quicken registers, following a schedule you choose, with
transactions downloaded directly from your financial institution, saving data entry time and effort
• Easily reconcile your accounts with automatic transaction matching
• Pay your bills without ever writing a check or licking a stamp
•Transfer funds between accounts at the same financial institution
Chapter 2, Here’s what Quicken can do for you 19
• Retrieve account balances and credit and charge card information, so you have
up-to-date information for better financial decision making
• Schedule a payment now to be paid at a future date you specify
• Update securities transactions in an investment account

Tracking your investments

Use investment accounts to track what you own in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other types of investments that fluctuate in price. Investment accounts let you:
• Compare the performance of your investments
• Keep detailed records of investment transactions
• Update current market values
• Report on investment income and capital gains
The Portfolio window lets you see all your investment accounts in a single window. You can update security prices and view summary information for all your securities.
Chapter 2, Here’s what Quicken can do for you 20

Tracking your assets and debts

Quicken can help you track loan balances, the value of your car or other personal possessions, and the balances due on your credit cards. If you set up accounts for all your assets and debts, Quicken can include them in net worth reports and graphs to give you an accurate view of your total financial picture.
When Quicken tracks loans and mortgages, it keeps track of both the amount of interest you’ve paid and the loan’s outstanding principal balance—it even calculates the proportions of interest and principal for each payment.
Chapter 2, Here’s what Quicken can do for you 21

Planning ahead

Quicken offers a variety of long- and short-term planning tools to help you look into your financial future. Use reports, graphs, and budgets to assess your current financial health, and then try out “what-if” scenarios with the financial planning calculators. The Quicken Tax Planner helps you estimate what your next tax bill will be, and the loan tracking tools help you shop for loans by figuring exactly how much interest and principal you would pay in different loan scenarios.
For more information on Quicken’s planning tools, see Chapter 18, Planning your
financial future, on page 329.

Reports and graphs

Quicken can create many different kinds of reports and graphs to give you insight into your finances. With Quicken’s flexible reporting tools, you can include information from any or all of your Quicken accounts. You can create a QuickReport™ or an EasyAnswer report or graph for a quick update, or you can customize standard Quicken reports and graphs by changing the layout and choosing just the accounts and categories you want to see.
Suppose you want to look at your expenses for the last three months of last year. You can see the information you want in a category summary report or an expense comparison graph.
Chapter 2, Here’s what Quicken can do for you 22
In a category summary report, Quicken totals your income and expenses and displays the totals on the screen. You can also print the report if you like.
To view the transactions that make up a value in a report, double-click the value to get a QuickZoom report (a list of transactions). To change one of the transactions in that list, double-click it to go to the register with that transaction selected.
Subcategories help you analyze your spending or income patterns; you can look at a detailed breakdown of how much you’ve spent or earned for each subcategory as well as see a total for the category.
An expense comparison graph shows how much you are spending on individual categories in relation to your total spending and to other categories. You can use graphs to analyze spending patterns, show your top ten expenses, alert yourself to overspending, and compare historical data.
To see more detail about a value in a graph (for example, a specific pie slice), double-click the value to get a QuickZoom graph.
Chapter 2, Here’s what Quicken can do for you 23
Up–to–the–minute financial information on the Web
If you have a Web browser, it’s easy to connect to the Web right from Quicken. Just choose Online > To the Web and then choose your Web destination. Quicken’s home page on the Web is updated continuously to give you the very latest in financial information, online banking, and Quicken technical support.
Chapter 2, Here’s what Quicken can do for you 24
3

Working with Quicken

The Quicken workspace.......................................................................................................25
Customizing your Quicken workspace .............................................................................27
Getting step-by-step assistance from Quicken Help .......................................................29
Using this manual .................................................................................................................31

The Quicken workspace

Activity areas

Quicken has six activity areas that are represented by six tabs at the top of your screen. These tabs help organize your work and prevent your workspace from becoming cluttered with too many open windows.
• Banking: Work with bank accounts, including checking, savings, and money
market accounts.
3
• Investing: Track stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other investments.
• Planning: Budget and forecast how new events might affect your finances, plan for
tax time, and develop strategies to save more and pay less interest on your debts.
• Reporting: Create reports and graphs that tell you where your money comes from
and where it goes.
25
• Property & Loans: Track credit cards, loans and mortgages, and assets such as your
home.
• Services: The last area contains task buttons that help you access financial
information resources on the Web.

Toolbar

You can choose Quicken commands by clicking a button in the toolbar. The toolbar includes the buttons for the most commonly used commands in the activity area you’ve selected. For example, the toolbar in the Banking area includes buttons for common banking tasks.
To add, delete, and rearrange command buttons, see “Customizing your Quicken
workspace” on page 27.
Here is the keyboard shortcut for the Accounts command.

Keyboard shortcuts

A keyboard shortcut is a combination of keys you press at the same time to choose a command. To use a keyboard shortcut, hold down the x (Command) key while you press another key. To open the Account list, for example, hold down the x key and press A. You can see a list of keyboard shortcuts on page 445. You can also create your own keyboard shortcuts in Quicken. See “Creating your own Command-key
shortcuts” on page 28.
Chapter 3, Working with Quicken 26

Customizing your Quicken workspace

You can define your Quicken workspace by personalizing the toolbar, and adding, rearranging, or removing tabs and command buttons.

Customizing the toolbar

You can use the toolbar just as it is, or you can change it so it suits your working style.
Adding a button to the toolbar
You can add many Quicken menu commands to the toolbar in any activity area tab. You could, for example, add the Portfolio button to the toolbar in the Banking tab to easily access your Portfolio window while you work in the Banking area.
1
Choose Quicken > Configure Toolbar.
2
Click the activity area tab where you want to add the command button.
3
Choose the command button you want to add to the activity area tab from the scrolling list of commands.
4
Drag the button from the Command Button list onto the toolbar.
Rearranging and removing command buttons
To change the position of a command button, open the Configure Toolbar window. Select and drag the button you want to move to a new location in the toolbar.
Chapter 3, Working with Quicken 27
To remove a single command button, open the Configure Toolbar window. Select the button you want to remove and drag it off the toolbar. To remove the whole toolbar, clear the Show Tabs, Show Command Buttons, and Show Account Buttons checkboxes.

Creating your own Command-key shortcuts

You can access your favorite commands faster by creating shortcuts for them. A shortcut lets you execute the command with a simple key sequence: pressing the x key plus one other key. You can assign a Command-key shortcut to any menu command, including any account name in the Registers menu.
1
Hold down the x key and click in the menu bar. Don’t release the mouse button.
2
Release the x key and select the menu command to which you want to assign a shortcut.
3
With the command selected, release the mouse button.
Quicken displays a window that shows the menu name, command name, and existing Command-key shortcut (if any).
For example, if you want the shortcut for an account named Checking to be
-1, type 1 and click OK.
x
4 Type the key you want to combine with the x key and click OK.
If another menu command already has the same Command-key shortcut assigned to it, Quicken asks you to confirm the change. If you confirm the change, Quicken removes the shortcut from the other menu command and assigns it to the command you selected.
Chapter 3, Working with Quicken 28
Removing a Command-key shortcut
1 Hold down the x key and click in the menu bar. Don’t release the mouse button.
2 Release the x key and select the menu command.
3 With the menu command selected, release the mouse button.
4 Delete the shortcut from the Command Key field in the Edit Command Key
window.
5 Click OK.

Getting step-by-step assistance from Quicken Help

If you have a question about how to do something in Quicken, go to Quicken Help for step-by-step assistance. When you use Quicken Help, its window moves in front of any windows you have open in Quicken. If you need to move it, just drag its title bar. To return to Quicken, click in any Quicken window.
The step-by-step procedures that are available in Quicken Help are listed in tables like this one.
For step-by-step help, go to Registers in Quicken Help and select
How do I enter a transaction?
Chapter 3, Working with Quicken 29
There are a number of different ways to open Quicken Help:
• Choose Help > Quicken Help.
•Press x-?
•Press the Help key if you are using an extended keyboard.
• Hold down the Control key, and click in a window to display a contextual menu.
Choose Help for information specific to the window you’re working with.

Searching Quicken Help

When you type in your text and click Search (or press Enter), Quicken Help displays a list of related tasks. Click the topic that interests you.
Type a word or phrase and press Enter.
Chapter 3, Working with Quicken 30
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