Using registers

Registers are where you track all the financial activity for your accounts. Each register lists the transactions for a specific account—such as a checking account, credit card, or investment—or for all accounts at once when using All Transactions. Registers are the foundation of your financial recordkeeping in Quicken.

Use the register to enter, review, and manage transactions. You can categorize spending, add tags, correct errors, and reconcile balances. Quicken also allows you to customize the register layout, control which columns are visible, sort your transactions, and choose which balance appears at the top of the window. These options help you manage your data in the way that works best for you.

Review transactions in the register

When reviewing your register, you can edit individual transactions directly. This is helpful for correcting details, adding categories or tags, or checking for duplicate or missing entries.

1. Select an account or choose All Transactions in the sidebar.

2. Move your pointer over a transaction to highlight it.

3. Click the transaction to select it.

4. Double-click the transaction to edit it.

5. Modify details such as the date, payee, category, tags, or amount.

Show or hide register columns

Each register can display different columns based on your needs. You can show or hide columns such as Check #, Memo, Tags, or Balance, depending on what information you want to see while working with that account.

1. Select an account or choose All Transactions in the sidebar.

2. Do any of the following:

   • Click the Columns icon at the bottom of the register.

   • Control-click any column header.

   • Choose View > Columns from the menu bar.

3. In the column list that appears, select the columns you want to display and deselect those you want to hide.

4. Changes are applied instantly. Click anywhere outside the list to finalize your changes.

Column settings apply only to the selected register. You can configure each account’s columns independently.

Sort the register

Sorting your register helps you view transactions by a specific column, such as Date, Payee, Category, or Amount. This is useful when reviewing activity over time, identifying duplicate entries, or organizing a large number of transactions.

1. Select an account or choose All Transactions in the sidebar.

2. Click the header of any column to sort by that column.

3. Click the same column header again to reverse the sort order.

An arrow in the column header shows which direction the register is sorted in.

Choose which balance to display

Quicken allows you to view different balance types at the top of each register. This lets you choose whether to see your actual balance, your future projected balance, or the most recent balance from your bank.

1. Select an account or choose All Transactions in the sidebar.

2. Click the label next to the balance at the top of the register.

3. Choose from the following balance types:

   • Today's Balance – The current balance based on all transactions entered up to today’s date.

   • Projected Balance – An estimate that adds scheduled income and subtracts upcoming scheduled expenses from today’s balance.

   • Online Balance – The balance reported by your financial institution during your last account update.

To view a breakdown of how the displayed balance was calculated, click the Info icon next to the balance.

Note: If the Online Balance differs from Today's Balance, this may be due to pending transactions or differences between Quicken’s data and your bank’s records.

Change register settings

You can adjust how all registers behave by updating the global register settings in the Settings window. These settings control default register behavior, such as how dates and decimals are entered or whether reminders are shown.

1. Choose Quicken > Settings from the menu bar.

2. Select the Register tab.

3. Change any of the available settings.

These changes apply to all registers unless otherwise specified in individual accounts.