Get Started

Quicken has an in-product guide to get you started using Quicken. If you haven't already see it, or want to return to it, open Quicken and go to the View menu, then select Show Quicken Setup.

We have posted many helpful videos on YouTube as well. You can start with An Overview of Quicken.

You may also find these slide shows useful:

Contacting Support

This is a guide to using the product. If you are having issues setting up your Quicken or your Quicken subscription, go to the Quicken Support Page.
The information for phone and chat support is at the bottom of the Quicken Support Page.

Key information to get you started

The sections below will help you with setup and understanding key concepts.

Add your Accounts

This page is a general guide to adding accounts. If you are having issues/errors adding an account you should visit the Quicken Support Page or contact Quicken Support directly.

To use Quicken you must start by adding your financial accounts. It's easy to add the accounts you want to track in Quicken. The more accounts you add the more closely Quicken reflects your true financial situation, which can assist you in short- and long-term financial planning.

Add an online account

With online accounts, you download your transactions directly from the financial institution. If you do prefer to enter your transactions manually, see Add an offline spending account below.

Select the Add Account icon on the top right of the Account Bar.

You can also add a new account by selecting Tools → Add Account from the top menu.
Start typing the name of your financial institution, such as your bank or credit card provider. Quicken will filter the results based on what you type. When you see your financial institution in the panel below, select it and click Next.

For online accounts, Quicken finds accounts based on the financial institution. This way, if you have multiple accounts at the same bank, you can add them all at once. You will have a chance to select the type of account later.
Enter your account/user information. This is the information you use to sign in to your online account, such as a user name and password. you may be asked for additional information, such as a challenge question or a code that is sent to your email or phone.
Review your accounts. Quicken will find all the accounts associated with your login. On this screen, you can make any adjustments, then click Next.
- Type: Your options will vary according to the financial institution but Checking and Savings are the standard types.
- Nickname: Enter any name that helps you easily identify the account.
- Used for: Most accounts will be Personal, but depending on your versions you may have the option of Business and Rental.
- Action: Select Add to Quicken if you want to add an account.
Quicken now adds your accounts. You'll see a message letting you know what accounts were added. You can choose to either Add Another Account or Finish.

Add an offline account

Offline accounts (sometimes called manual accounts) don't connect to a financial institution. It is your responsibility to enter all the information and track your transactions accurately. In most cases, it is preferable to use an online account, but you may choose this for security, control, or because the account is not with an institution Quicken can connect to.

Select the Add Account icon on the top right of the Account Bar.
You can also add a new account by selecting Tools → Add Account from the top menu.
Select Offline Account.
Select the account type. Spending accounts include Checking, Savings, and Credit Card.
Name your account and select Next. Depending on your version of Quicken, you may also have options for selecting how your account is used.
Enter your Statement ending date (The date you want to start tracking from) and your Statement ending balance (how much was in your account that day). Select Next.
Your account will be added. Select Finish. You can also choose to Add Another Account.

More Information

Types of accounts

Add a cash account for Merchant Account Services

Add spending accounts

Add property & debt accounts

How do I add a house account?

Add business accounts

How do I add a business banking account?

Add rental property accounts

Enter your account balance

Edit the opening balance of an account

Enter your account information

Enter the ending date and balance from your statement, if you have it

Tell us about this account

Add a liability account

Add an asset account

Add a vehicle account

Enter starting point information

Add investment accounts

Add a home equity line of credit (HELOC) account

Understand Categories

Categories are an important aspect of the Quicken software, as they help to organize and track your financial transactions. When you download your transactions from your bank into Quicken, the software automatically assigns categories to each transaction based on its best guess about the purpose of the transaction.

For example, if you spend money at a supermarket, Quicken will likely assign the Groceries category to the transaction. This helps you to easily understand where your money is going and track your spending in different areas.

It's important to note that while Quicken is good at assigning categories, there may be cases where it makes an incorrect assumption about the purpose of a transaction. In these cases, it's important to review your categories and make any necessary changes to ensure that your spending and income are being tracked accurately.

Overall, categories are a valuable tool in Quicken for organizing and tracking your financial transactions and help you to gain a comprehensive understanding of your finances.

The Power of Categories in Quicken

Categories are a powerful tool in Quicken that help to track your spending and create budgets. The categories you assign to your transactions serve to categorize and organize your financial information.

When you create a budget in Quicken, you have the ability to identify the different categories you plan to spend money in. This allows you to set spending limits for each category and track your actual spending against those limits. Quicken will automatically categorize your transactions and track your spending in each category, providing a clear picture of your financial situation.

In addition to tracking your spending, categories in Quicken can also be used to create reports and graphs. These reports and graphs provide insights into your spending habits, allowing you to identify areas where you may be overspending and make necessary changes to your budget.

Overall, categories are a crucial part of the Quicken software and play a key role in helping you to manage your finances, track your spending, and create budgets. By effectively using categories, you can gain a better understanding of your finances and make informed decisions about your spending.

The Importance of Reviewing Categories in Quicken

While Quicken is good at identifying transaction categories, it's not perfect. There may be cases where Quicken makes an incorrect assumption about the purpose of a transaction, leading to inaccuracies in your financial tracking and reporting.

For example, if you spend money at a supermarket, Quicken may assume you bought groceries. However, you may have also bought pots and pans, a magazine, or medicine during your visit to the store. In this case, the category assigned by Quicken may not accurately reflect the nature of the transaction.

That's why it's important to regularly review your categories in Quicken. By doing so, you can ensure that your financial transactions are accurately categorized and that your spending and income are tracked correctly. This helps you to make informed decisions about your finances and stay on top of your financial situation.

Reviewing your categories in Quicken is a crucial step in ensuring the accuracy of your financial tracking and reporting. By taking the time to review your categories regularly, you can gain a better understanding of your finances and make informed decisions about your spending.

Finding the right category

Quicken offers a wide range of categories, making it easy to accurately categorize your transactions. Depending on your version of Quicken, you may see several sections of categories, including personal expenses, business expenses, and investment transactions.

When categorizing transactions, a good place to start is the Personal Expenses section. This section contains the most commonly used categories for day-to-day transactions, such as shopping, auto expenses, and mortgage and rent. Starting here, you can easily categorize your transactions and ensure that your spending and income are tracked accurately.

In addition to the Personal Expenses section, you can also select to see more information about individual categories. This can help you to better understand each category and make informed decisions about which category to assign to a transaction.

Overall, finding the right category in Quicken is an important step in accurately tracking your spending and creating useful reports and graphs. By taking the time to choose the right category for each transaction, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of your finances and make informed decisions about your spending.

Editing Uncategorized Transactions in Quicken

There will be instances where Quicken does not have enough information about a transaction to assign a category. In these cases, you will need to supply the category yourself.

The Category list in Quicken appears in your register and allows you to assign a category to a transaction. You can easily change the category assigned to a transaction if it does not accurately reflect the nature of the transaction. Right-click on the Category column of the transaction in the register and select the correct category from the list.

Sometimes, Quicken will not be familiar enough with a payee to suggest a category. In these instances, you will see a blank entry in the Category list. In these cases, you must manually supply the category by selecting the appropriate category from the list or creating a custom category if necessary.

Editing uncategorized transactions in Quicken is a straightforward process that helps to ensure the accuracy of your financial tracking and reporting. By taking the time to categorize all of your transactions, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of your finances and make informed decisions about your spending.

Review your transactions

After Quicken downloads your transactions, you can review the transactions before entering them in your register in a matching process called Compare to Register.

Compare to Register gives you the opportunity to choose what to do with each downloaded transaction. For example, is it a new transaction? Or should it match a transaction that has already been entered into the register? Compare to Register helps keep your registers accurate. If you don't want this level of control, Quicken has a great new time-saving feature called Automatic Transaction Entry.

Open the account you want to work with.
Click the Downloaded Transactions tab. If you'd like, you can click the column headings to sort the transactions.
Quicken assigns a Status to each downloaded transaction:
- For transactions marked New
  A status of New means that Quicken did not find a match for the downloaded transaction in the register.
  - To enter the downloaded transaction in the register, click Accept.
  - If the downloaded transaction should be matched to a register transaction, click the Edit button, and then choose Match Manually. Quicken opens a window to allow you to select one or more transactions to match the transaction with. If you select more than one transaction, Quicken enters a split transaction in your account register with a single line for each selected transaction and a line for the difference in amounts, if any.
- For transactions marked Match
  A status of Match means that Quicken has found a match for the downloaded transaction in the register. This happens when you enter a transaction in advance of it being downloaded. For example, if you use Quicken Bill Pay or Quicken Reminders.
  - If the downloaded transaction is correctly matched to a register transaction, click Accept.
  - If the downloaded transaction should not be matched to any register transaction, click the Edit button, and then choose Make New. Quicken changes the transaction's status to New.
  - If the downloaded transaction is matched to the wrong register transaction, click the Edit button and then choose Unmatch. Quicken attempts to match the transaction again. If no transactions are close enough, Quicken changes the transaction's status to New.
- For transactions marked Updated
  A status of Updated means that your bill pay provider has changed your payment request in some way. For example, you may have requested that a payment be processed on a certain date, but it was processed slightly earlier because the requested date did not fall on a business day for your bill pay service provider.
  - To update the transaction information in your register, click Accept. If you prefer not to update the transaction, click Ignore instead.
- For transactions marked Canceled, Failed, or No Funds
  - For transactions marked Canceled, Failed, or No Funds, click Accept. Quicken voids the transaction in your register.
You can delete one or more transactions if they do not match. Select your transaction(s), then delete them using the Delete key, CTRL+D, right-click Delete Transactions, or the Delete button. You will be asked to confirm the deletion.
When you've finished accepting transactions, click Done.

Can I undo accepting a transaction?

You can undo only the action of accepting multiple transactions (for example, if you clicked Accept All but later changed your mind). To do this: on the Downloaded Transactions tab, click Undo Accept All. Undo Accept All is available until you close Quicken or until you next update the account in question. You cannot undo transactions that have been accepted individually. Transactions having multiple attachments, receipts or Notes would be lost if you Undo Accepted/Reviewed transactions from other Quicken Products. You will have to Accept or Mark the transactions as reviewed and upload the attachments again.

Can I accept all transactions at once?

Yes. If everything appears correct in your downloaded transactions list, you can click Accept All to accept all transactions into your Quicken register.

Can I accept transactions automatically?

Yes you can. Quicken has a great new time-saving feature called Automatic Transaction Entry. Check it out!

Can I remove transactions from the list as I accept them?

Click the Hide Accepted button to remove transactions from downloaded transactions list as they are accepted into your register. This helps with readability. After clicking the button, its name changes to Show Accepted, which you can click again to restore the transactions to the list, if necessary.

What about accepting investment transactions?

The steps above apply only to spending account transactions (checking, savings, and credit card). The process for accepting downloaded investment transactions is different.

Why can't I find the Downloaded Transactions tab?

The Downloaded Transactions tab normally appears just below your Quicken register. If you don't see it, click here for more information.

Categorize your transactions

Categorize each transaction to get the most out of Quicken.

What about one transaction that includes several types of purchases? Or a home loan payment, where part goes to principal and part to interest? Just select Split

and enter the transaction detail.

To assign a category to a transaction

Open the account you want to use.
In the register, select the Category field of the transaction you want to categorize.
Enter a category name or select the drop-down arrow to select the category you want to use from a list.
- Tell me more about entering categories
  - The category list is divided into several groups such as personal income, personal expenses, business income, business expenses, and so on. In the left pane, choose the group you want to work with and then select the specific category.
  - Certain category groups are hidden by default, largely based on information you provided when you set up Quicken (for example, whether you own a business or manage rental property). Select Show > Hidden categories to make the hidden categories visible both as groups and as individual items in the All Categories list.
  - Start typing the name of the category you want to use. Quicken will search for what your are typing by matching either the category or subcategory name.
  - If you type the name of a category Quicken doesn't recognize, you are prompted to set it up as new category.
  - Use subcategories if you need a more detailed way of classifying your transactions. Select them from the list, or enter them directly in the category field by typing a colon (:) after the parent category, and then entering the subcategory (for example, Utilities:Water).
  - If you previously entered other transactions for a payee, Quicken displays the payee's most recently used categories (up to five) when you type a category name directly in the category field.
Select Save to record the transaction.

To enter or edit a transaction with multiple categories (a split transaction)

Open the account you want to use.
In the register, select the transaction you want to categorize.
On the transaction toolbar, select the Split icon (
).
In the Split Transaction dialog, enter (or edit) the category, tag (optional), and amount for each individual item on a separate line.
What can I do here?
As you enter a split transaction, the Transaction Total may no longer match the Split Total. Quicken displays the difference between the two amounts -- the leftover amount -- below the last split line. There are a few ways to handle this difference, depending on your situation:
- Change the amounts in the split lines so that the Split Total is equal to the Transaction Total.
- Select Adjust to change the Transaction Total to equal the Split Total.
- Select Edit and choose Apply remainder to current line to absorb any remainder amount into the selected split line.
- Select Edit and choose Allocate this line to other split lines to distribute the amount of the selected split line among all other split lines.
- Select Allocate to distribute any leftover amount among all other split lines.
As necessary, adjust the individual line amounts. (Optional)
Tell me more
As you enter a split transaction, the Transaction Total may no longer match the Split Total. Quicken displays the difference between the two amounts -- the leftover amount -- below the last split line. There are a few ways to handle this difference, depending on your situation:
- Change the amounts in the split lines so that the Split Total is equal to the Transaction Total.
- Select Adjust to change the Transaction Total to equal the Split Total.
- Select Edit and choose Apply remainder to current line to absorb any remainder amount into the selected split line.
- Select Edit and choose Allocate this line to other split lines to distribute the amount of the selected split line among all other split lines.
- Select Allocate to distribute any leftover amount among all other split lines.
Select OK to close the Split Transaction dialog.
On the transaction toolbar, select Save to enter the transaction into the register (unless you've enabled the register preference Automatically Enter Split Data).

Notes

Can I categorize investment transactions?

For investment transactions, the Category field only appears in the transaction entry/edit dialog when it's applicable (for example, for checks you write from the cash management portion of your brokerage account). The field doesn’t appear in the dialog if categories don’t apply to the transaction type.
- Quicken reminds you to enter a category whenever you leave one out. (You can change this behavior by choosing Edit menu > Preferences > Notify.) If you don't assign a category, Quicken marks the transaction as Uncategorized in reports and graphs. If you see these labels when you've assigned categories to all transactions, it may be because for a particular category you sometimes add a subcategory and sometimes you don't. To find uncategorized transactions and assign categories to them, Select the Home tab and take a look at the See Where Your Money Goes section.
- If you memorize or download transactions, Quicken can help automate the process of assigning categories. If you'd like to use the category Quicken suggests, just record the transaction as you normally would. If you make a change, Quicken remembers the new category. (You can change this behavior by choosing Edit menu > Preferences > Data entry and QuickFill.) To learn more about how Quicken assigns categories, see How Quicken suggests categories for you.

Can I automatically assign a category based on the transaction's payee?

Yes. When you download a transaction from your financial institution, Quicken tries to automatically categorize it based on a database of payee merchant codes. If you don't download transactions or if the categories Quicken suggests don't meet your needs, you can memorize the payee and associate it with related transaction information such as a category, amount, method of payment, and so on.

How can I remove split information from a register transaction?

To clear all split lines in a register transaction, Select the X button—to the right of Split—in the Category field. You can then assign a new category to the transaction.

Why is the word "Form" displayed in the category field?

In some cases, Quicken uses a special form to help you enter a complex split transaction. For these transactions, the word Form indicates that the transaction has been split into multiple categories or line items. You can see an example of this with the Quicken paycheck transaction or an invoice in an invoice/receivables register (only in Quicken Home & Business).

Explore the Home tab

The Home tab is the central hub for using Quicken. It allows you to view your key financial information at a glance on the Dashboard. You can also add one or more views that can be customized to suit your needs. Below is information about what you can find on your Home tab and tips for customization.

You have a choice between our newer, Modern Dashboard and the Classic Dashboard.

The Modern Dashboard allows you to change the order of your financial cards such as Top Spending Categories, Top Payees, Recent Transactions, Uncategorized, Investment Top Movers, and Portfolio Value. It also offers newer interface tools and is the dashboard we will continue to update and refine going forward.

To switch between the Modern Dashboard and the Classic Dashboard, use the gear icon at the top of the Dashboard.

Using the Classic Dashboard

To add items to the Main View or to a custom view of the Home tab

Click the Home tab.
On the top of the page, click the required view name.
Click the Gear icon
.
Select Customize View.
From the Available Items list, select the items to add to the selected view. (If necessary, click the plus sign next to a heading in the Available Items to display the list of items under that heading.)
Click the Add button.
Click Save.

To remove and rearrange items in a view

Click the Home tab.
On the top of the page, click the required view name.
Click the Gear icon
.
Select Customize View.
From the Available items list on the right side of the Customize View dialog, select an item to move or delete.
- To remove the item, click the Remove button.
- To reposition the item, click the Move Up or Move Down button until the item is in the desired position.
Click Save.

To expand or collapse items in a view

You can expand or collapse the items in a view. Simply click the expand (plus) icon or collapse (minus) icon on the upper left side of the item panel.

See Where Your Money Goes

This section shows you how much of your money is being spent on each of your spending categories.

To change the date range or the accounts included in the graph, click Options in the upper right of the section.

Only spending accounts can be selected for display. For most users, their checking account is their spending account. To see which of your accounts are spending accounts, choose Tools menu > Account List > Personal Banking. The accounts listed under the Spending header are your spending accounts.

Double-clicking the pie chart, any category name, or Examine Your Spending opens the Spending tab where you can review each transaction included in the pie chart and recategorize them if they are in the wrong bucket.

Stay on Top of Monthly Bills

This section shows you how much money you have coming in and going out, so you can pay bills on time and avoid late payments and overdraft charges.

The list includes all upcoming bill reminders and scheduled income for the specified date range.

To change the time period, or to add a new reminder, click Options in the upper right of the section.

Any bill or income reminders that fall within the specified date range are displayed here.

The What's Left section displays the total amount of unallocated funds you have in your spending accounts at the end of the specified time range.

You will also see a Risk of Overdraft or a Projected Balances button, depending on your account balances. Clicking either button displays the Projected Balances graph, which shows your spending account balances over time, based on the planned spending and income you have told Quicken about.

Budget Your Spending

This section shows you how you're doing against your budget. The card displays a summary graph of your total spending for the month. If you want more detail, click on the graph to see how much you are over or under budget, or click Options in the upper right of the section to add categories to the card or go to your full budget.

Using the Modern Dashboard

The Modern Dashboard has cards that display different aspects of your finances. It is an excellent place to start each time you use Quicken.

Hiding a card

To hide a card, click the three-dot menu

at the top right corner of the card and select Hide Snapshot.

You can also go to the gear menu and select Customize.

You will see a list of the cards and can turn any of them off or on by clicking the display toggle.

Available Cards

The first time you come to the Home tab, if you have not added any data (set up your accounts), these cards will be blank. Select Get Started in each section to go through the setup process for that section. Once you’ve done this, the buttons go away, and you can simply use the Home tab to track your financial picture.

Top Spending Categories

The Top Spending Categories card shows what categories you are spending your money in. The default view is for the Last 30 days, but you can choose other time periods as well. You can hover your pointer over any category to see more information about your spending in that category. You can click a category to see the transactions associated with that category.

Click the three-dot menu

if you wish to select specific accounts to display, rename the card, or delete the card.

Top Payees

The Top Payees card shows you the payees that have received the most money. You can adjust the date range to get a better idea of your spending over time. You can also hover your pointer over a payee to see how much money you have sent them, and what percentage of your total spending was given to that payee. Click a payee to see a spending report for that payee.

Click the three-dot menu

if you wish to select specific accounts to display, rename the card, or delete the card.

Recent Transactions

The Recent Transactions card shows you what transactions you've made in the last three days. If you have many transactions, you can scroll through them on the card. You can also hover your pointer over a transaction to get more details about the Account and Category. You can click a transaction to see that transaction in your register.

Click the three-dot menu

if you wish to select specific accounts to display, rename the card, or delete the card.

Uncategorized

The Uncategorized card is an excellent resource that you can use to assign categories to your transactions. You can click any transaction to review it on a list of your uncategorized transactions.

Click the three-dot menu

if you wish to select specific accounts to display, rename the card, or delete the card.

Investment Top Movers

If you are using Quicken to track investments, the Investment Top Movers card will show the investments with the highest percentage change, either up or down. It will show the information for the day of your most recent update, listing the date on the card. During trading hours, the information will reflect a fifteen-minute reporting delay. You can also choose to view top movers in all of your holdings or only in securities.

Click the three-dot menu

if you wish to select specific accounts to update quotes, rename the card, or delete the card.

Portfolio Value

The Portfolio Value card shows the total worth of your investment holdings and tracks the change in value. You can choose from several different time periods. Turning off Y-axis at Zero will focus on the value changes rather than the total portfolio value.

Click the three-dot menu

if you wish to select specific accounts to display, rename the card, or delete the card.

How do I customize a view on the Home tab?

You can create multiple views on the Home tab; add, delete, or rearrange the components that each displays. You can add up to a total of 40 snapshots, depending on your version of Quicken—so that each contains only the Quicken data that is most important to you.

Quicken lets you create a total of 11 views to track different financial areas.

To add a custom view to the Home tab

Click the Home tab.
Click Add View.
Enter a name for the view.
Add any items that you want this view to display.
Click OK.

To arrange items to the Main View or to a custom view of the Home tab

Hover your pointer over the center top of an individual card. You should see a double row of dots.
Drag the card to where you want it to be located. The card will replace the one currently there, and the other cards will rearrange to reflect the new order.

To navigate between views on the Home tab

Click the Home tab.
On the top of the page, click the required view name.

To delete a view

Click the Home tab.
On the top of the page, click the required view name.
Click Customize.
Click Delete This View.

You can't delete the Main View unless you have created at least one other view.

Why am I seeing this page / window?

This help page is often the first help page people see because it is associated with the Home screen and Dashboard, one of our most commonly used features. You can access help from any screen in Quicken by pressing the F1 key

or by clicking on one of our circular question mark icons

. People sometimes do this by accident and are surprised to find themselves on this page.

Do you need to contact support?

You can contact support here.

Note for our Canadian Customers

The following terms will be different in the Canadian releases of Quicken.

Canada: "Cheque" / United States: "Check"
Canada: "Colour" / United States: "Color"
Canada: "Centre" / United States: "Center"
Canada: "Realise" / United States: "Realize"
Canada: "Behaviour" / United States: "Behavior"
Canada: "Analyse" / United States: "Analyze"

Review your spending

Troubleshooting

Are you having issues with your transactions? Please visit our support site.

Use the Spending tab to see a breakdown of where your money is going. The pie chart provides a way to drill down and see the transactions in a particular category. You can also see which transactions are uncategorized, so you can easily assign them to categories.

See where your money is going

Click the Spending tab.
Use the filters at the top of the window to change the accounts, time period, and type of transactions (spending, income, or spending without taxes) that you want to see.
Click a slice in the pie chart to see the transactions in a particular category. You can also click any of the items in the legend. The list of transactions below the pie chart changes to show only the transactions in that category. Using the list you can easily change the categories and payees assigned to your transactions.
- If transactions are assigned to the wrong category
  If any transactions are incorrectly categorized, click a transaction in the list below the pie chart and select the correct category.
- If transactions are assigned to the wrong payee
  If transactions are assigned to the wrong payee, click a transaction in the list below the pie chart and select the correct payee.
- To navigate back up
  To navigate back up, click the "breadcrumb" links in the upper left of the pie chart window.
Continue to click a slice in the pie chart or legend to see the transactions paid to a particular payee.

Note

If there are any uncategorized transactions, a message appears with a link that will take you to a list of the uncategorized transactions.

Reports

For more spending data you may want to try our reports.

Go to the Reports menu → Spending for a list of spending reports.

For more information

Create a budget

Creating a budget is one of the best things you can do in Quicken, helping you to get and maintain control of your finances. Creating a budget is, essentially, creating a plan for your money. You designate the amounts you plan to spend in individual categories that represent the areas you spend your money in. You can then track how you are doing with the budget, seeing your spending in individual categories and overall.

A slideshow presentation of the budget creation process is here.

Quicken automatically creates a budget based on your recurring expense categories. After the budget is created, you can easily add or remove categories to more precisely match your needs.

Select the Planning tab.

If you cannot find your tabs, verify that Tabs are turned on. Go to the View menu and make sure Show Tabs is selected.
Select Budgets if it is not already selected.
If you've never created a budget, select Get Started. If there is an existing budget and you want to create a new budget, choose Budget Actions → Create new budget.
Type a Budget name.
Budgets default to the current calendar year. If you want to apply the budget to previous years, use Advanced Budget Settings.
Budget Year
You can define a fiscal year that begins on any month of the year. When you do so, any yearly or quarterly preferences in Quicken are offset based on the first month of your fiscal year.
For example, if your fiscal year started in April 2016, and it's now January 2017, select April in the Start budget on field. Quicken then considers April 1, 2015, to March 31, 2016, as last year.
To base Quicken's yearly or quarterly budget options on January 1 to December 31, select January in the Start budget on field.
You have the option to have Quicken select your budget categories or to select them manually. It is often easier to let Quicken select the categories because you can always change the categories once the budget is created.
Click Next to create your budget.
- The type of budget created
  Quicken creates a budget for all of your recurring personal expense categories. It does not include transfers or income categories in the budget. If you want, you can add transfers and income categories later by clicking Select Categories to Budget at the bottom of the Budget window.
- The date range used
  Quicken creates the budget based on transactions from the previous 12 full months. If you don't have 12 months of transactions yet, Quicken creates the budget based on as few as 3 months of transactions.
- The budgeting method used
  Quicken creates the budget based on your actual monthly expenses for prior months, and your average monthly expenses for current and future months.
- The rounding used
  Quicken rounds each budget amount to the nearest dollar.
- The accounts and categories used
  Quicken creates the budget based on personal expense transactions in all of your accounts except Invoice and *Sales Tax* accounts (Quicken Home & Business only).
  
  Quicken excludes the following categories from a budget when it is first created:
  Income categories
  Special investment and paycheck categories (usually preceded by an underscore character), such as "_401Contrib"
  The Interest Exp, Misc, and Not Sure categories
  Categories with the following tax line item assignments: Schedule A: Home mortgage interest, W-2: Federal tax withheld, W-2:Medicare tax withheld, W-2:Medicare tax withheld, W-2:Local tax withheld, W-2:Soc. Sec. tax withheld, and W-2:State tax withheld.
  After the budget has been created you can add categories and further customize it, as necessary.
Work with your budget in the Budget window.

About extending your budget

The first time you view a prior year's budget in a new year, Quicken asks you if you want to extend it to the new year. Just click OK and Quicken creates a new budget for you automatically, copying all of your current budget categories and budget values to the new budget.

If you want to get an early start

If you want to create next year's budget before the start of the new year, or if you want more control over how the budget is created:

Use the date control at the top of the budget window to change the year.
Quicken asks you how you want to create the new budget:
- Copy budget categories and budget values to the new budget
- Copy budget categories and actuals as budget values to the new budget
- Copy budget categories only to the new budget
Click OK to create the new budget.

Notes

Your new budget will report income and expense actuals based on transactions from the year it represents.
You can edit your new budget without affecting your previous budget.
You can change budget years using the date control at the top of the window.
You can create budgets for prior years.