Spending Report

Overview

The Spending Report shows you exactly where your money is going over a selected period. It turns your transactions into a clear, visual breakdown—so you can quickly understand your expenses, spot patterns, and make better financial decisions.

You can view spending across all accounts, focus on just business or personal finances, or zoom in on specific categories, payees, or projects. Whether you want a quick snapshot or a detailed transaction-level view, the report adapts to how you think about your money.

What This Report Helps You Do

The Spending Report helps you move from guesswork to clarity.

With it, you can:

See where your money actually goes (not just where you think it goes)
Identify trends and surprises—like rising costs or recurring charges
Make informed decisions about budgeting, reducing spend, or reallocating money
Prepare for taxes with organized, category-based expense data

For business owners, this report is foundational. It helps you understand operating costs before moving into higher-level reporting like Profit & Loss.

Who This Is For

This report is useful for anyone who wants visibility and control over their finances:

Personal users
Understand spending by category (groceries, dining, travel) and compare it to your expectations or budget.
Business owners
Track business expenses, monitor cost categories, and gather organized data for tax time.
Mixed finances (business + personal)
Separate and validate spending across both—ensuring nothing is miscategorized or overlooked.

How It Works

When you open the Spending Report, you’ll see:

A visual chart (donut chart)
Highlights your top spending categories at a glance
A transaction table
Breaks down every expense contributing to those totals

Together, these give you both:

A high-level summary (what’s driving your spending)
A detailed view (every transaction behind it)

Customize Your View

The Spending Report is flexible—you control what you see.

Choose Accounts to Include

The account selector at the top left of the report (labeled All Business/Personal by default) lets you control whose spending you're looking at

Select:

All accounts (combined view)
Business only
Personal only
A specific account

Use this to separate business vs. personal spending or validate specific accounts.

Set the Date Range

Choose a timeframe like:

Month to date
Last month
Year to date
Last 3, 6, or 12 months
Custom dates

Example: Review spending during a vacation or compare two specific months.

Filter Your Results

Use Filters to narrow your report view by:

Categories — Include only certain categories (for example, show only Business expenses, only Personal expenses, or a specific subcategory like Office Expenses or Dining & Drinks). You can expand Business or Personal to select individual subcategories.
Payees — Focus on transactions from a specific vendor or merchant.
Tags — Filter by tags you've applied to transactions (useful for tracking project spending or trips).
Accounts — Limit the report to one or more specific accounts.
Clients & Projects — If you've set up clients or projects in Quicken, filter to see spending associated with a specific one.

Why it matters: Filters help you answer specific questions quickly.

Tip: You can combine filters. For example, you can filter to show only Business > Office Expenses transactions from a specific account — helpful if you're reviewing reimbursable expenses or preparing for a tax deduction.

Change How Choose How Rows Are Displayed

On the right side of the toolbar, the Category button controls how rows are organized in the transaction table below the chart. Click it to choose a different grouping:

Category (default) — Groups transactions by category, with parent and subcategory rows that expand to show individual transactions.
Account — Groups transactions by the account they came from.
Tag — Groups transactions by any tags you've assigned.
Payee — Groups transactions by the merchant or person you paid.

Switching to Payee view, for instance, can quickly show you how much you've spent at a specific vendor over the month — useful if you suspect you're overspending somewhere in particular.

Toggle Between Summary and Detail Views

Summary view → High-level totals
Transaction view → Every individual transaction

Use Summary for planning, and Transaction view for validation or review.

Customize Columns

Click the settings icon in the upper right corner of the transaction table. Adjust the table to show what matters most to optimize your report view:

Date
Payee
Account
Tags
Amount

Real-World Examples

Personal: “Am I overspending on dining?”

Mara wants to see how much she spent on restaurants and coffee shops last month. She sets the date range to Last month, opens Filters, selects Categories > Personal > Dining & Drinks, and clicks Apply.

The chart updates to show only that category, and the transaction table lists every dining charge from the month — including the name of the payee, the date, and the account it came from. She can now compare her total to what she expected to spend.

Personal: “Where did my money go this year?”

David wants to understand his full annual spending breakdown before setting next year's budget.

He sets the date range to Year to date, leaves the account selector on All Business/Personal, and switches to Summary view. The chart shows his top categories at a glance, and the table below confirms the totals for each one without the transaction detail — a quick, clean overview for planning purposes.

Business: “What did I spend on my business this month — not counting personal?"

Priya runs a marketing business. She clicks the account selector and selects only her business entity to exclude all personal transactions.

The report now shows only her business expenses for the current month, broken down by category — Office Expenses, Car & Truck, Software, and so on. She can drill into any category to see the individual transactions behind the total.

Business: “What did I spend on software subscriptions?”

James needs a list of all the software subscriptions he paid for this year. He sets the date range to Year to date, opens Filters, and selects Categories > Business > Office Expenses > Software.

The report now shows only software transactions — each one with its date, payee, and amount. He can review the list and pass it along to his accountant, confident that nothing is missing.

Mixed: “Did I mix personal and business expenses?”

Ana wants to verify that her business credit card only has legitimate business expenses. She sets the account selector to her business account, then opens Filters and selects Categories > Personal to check whether any personal categories appear.

If anything shows up, she can identify the transaction and recategorize it.

Guidelines for Best Results

Keep categories accurate
Uncategorized transactions reduce the report’s usefulness
Use consistent date ranges
Compare full months to full months (not partial periods)
Save custom reports you use often
If you've set up a specific combination of filters and date ranges that you return to regularly, click Save to preserve it as a named report in your Reports tab.

Tips and Notes

Tip: Click a segment in the donut chart to jump directly to those transactions

Tip: Expand the chart legend to view all categories

Note: The Spending Report shows expenses only. Income transactions are not included. To see income and expenses together, use the Profit & Loss Report (for business users) or the Savings Report.

Note: Uncategorized entries indicate transactions that need review. Categorizing them will improve the accuracy of your report.