Project your cash flow

Cash flow is the money that comes in (income) and the money that goes out (spending and bills). You can review cash flow in a report and use scheduled reminders to help you anticipate what your spending account balance might look like over time.

What you can do in Quicken

Quicken gives you two practical ways to work with cash flow: reporting (what happened) and projections (what might happen next).

Review cash flow with a report

The Cash Flow report summarizes Inflows and Outflows for the date range you choose so you can see totals and category details in one place.

Project balances with reminders

When your bills and income are scheduled as reminders, Quicken can use those dates and amounts to help you plan around upcoming deposits and payments.

Set up Quicken for cash flow

These setup steps make both the Cash Flow report and any projections more accurate.

Add the accounts you spend from

Quicken can only include activity from accounts that exist in your file. Add the real-world accounts you regularly spend from, such as your checking account and any credit cards you use.

Create bill and income reminders

Reminders drive forward-looking planning because they tell Quicken what you expect to happen and when.

1. Create bill reminders for recurring expenses, including the next due date, amount, and frequency.

2. Create income reminders for paychecks and other recurring income.

If you don’t schedule bills and income, you won’t get meaningful cash flow projections.

Categorize your transactions

Categories let Quicken group your activity so totals mean something. When transactions aren’t categorized, they appear under Uncategorized, which can make the report harder to interpret.

Create and customize the Cash Flow report

The Cash Flow report shows your cash flow for a selected period, with totals broken out under Inflows and Outflows and an OVERALL TOTAL summary.

1. Go to Reports > Banking > Cash Flow.

2. In Date range, choose the timeframe you want to review.

3. In Column, choose how you want the report to group (subtotal) results.

Choose a date range

Use Date range to control the time period shown in the report. Common choices include Year to date, Last quarter, Last year, and Custom dates….

Choose how the report groups results

Use Column to change how Quicken organizes results across the top of the report.

• To group by time, choose options like Month, Quarter, or Year.

• To show a single total column without time grouping, choose Don’t subtotal.

• To group by other details, choose options such as Category, Tag, Payee, or Account.

Use cash flow projections when…

Cash flow projections are most helpful when timing matters and you need to know whether money will be available when bills hit.

• When you want to confirm you’ll have enough cash in your checking account before several bills are due close together.

• When you get paid on specific dates and want to see whether a payment should be scheduled before or after your next deposit.

• When you expect a large one-time expense and want to see which upcoming weeks or months have the most room in your budget.

• When your income is irregular and you want to plan bill timing around higher- and lower-income periods.

• When you want to decide whether you can move money to savings without leaving your spending account short for upcoming payments.

If your results don’t look right

If the Cash Flow report or your cash flow picture looks off, a few quick checks usually explain why.

• Confirm the correct Date range is selected.

• Try a different Column setting to see more detail (for example, switch from Don’t subtotal to Month).

• Look for totals under Uncategorized and categorize those transactions.

• Confirm your bill and income reminders exist and reflect your current due dates and amounts.