i.e., you can show combined earnings and spending or get reports for same for each of you.

I think your confusion may be in thinking you’d set up a separate Quicken FILE for each of you…one for her, one for you. Doing that, you could not merge the data. However, by putting all the accounts in one Quicken file, you can play around in many, many ways.

Thanks for all the interesting articles on this site : )

Quicken 07 no longer supports QIF imports for most account types, but it DOES support them for liability accounts. I found a workaround to import QIF files from some of my credit card accounts.

1) Create a new liability account – call it what you like, I used “temporary QIF imports”.
2) Create an account for the account that only offers QIF downloads (for me, these are small-outfit credit card accounts).
3) Import your QIF file into the liability account.
4) Highlight the imported transactions in the liability account’s register, right click and select “move transactions”. Choose your credit card’s account from the list, and you’ve just saved yourself a bunch of manual entry.

So, I created a “ledger” account, which I call “All Income” Any incoming checks for either of us is shown as a deposit in the All Income account, and appropriately categorized. Then I use a transfer to send the deposit to the account where we actually deposit it. Split transactions take care of the fact that sometimes we deposit a portion to one account and another portion to a second account.

The blaance of All Income must always be zero (incoming checkes are always transferred to another account.) If it is not, I know immediately that I have to look for a missing transfer.

A mini double entry arrangement.

While the double-entry accounting system is the best to use for accurate records, I would believe that most Quicken users do not use it. Those serious about accounting would be better served by QuickBooks, PeachTree, etc.

I’m writing from the point of view of a typical Quicken user who also wants to include airline miles like Microsoft Money.

I agree that the new currency step isn’t necessary, but it’s a nice way to look at the approximate redeemable value of your points and to recognize that you’re not looking at dollars in the rewards account.

I like the idea of having a receivable rewards account as well as an earned rewards account, especially since credit cards don’t credit your rewards until the statement is created. But do you really want to split every credit card transaction that creates receivable rewards between the expense and a transfer? It’s a great idea in theory, but I think it’s too detailed for everyday use.

Creating one increase in the one Rewards account each month for the credit card rewards and once for each airline ticket purchase or hotel stay will probably suffice for the vast majority of users who want to track this information.

Thanks for your comments! It’s definitely an interesting discussion.

oh no, here I go again,- very dangerous to look at categories as accounts, but I do understand your logic.

I do not have miles, like I shared before. If I had a client who wanted to track I would advise this:

1. create account for points like you shared above. Although I wouldn’t advise them to create a currency.
2. Then when they charge on the card in question – using your example:

a. Enter charge to Airlines $250
b. open the split
1. enter travel expense $250
2. enter points earned into Asset Account Miles/Points $400
3. enter to an other income account, called Miles/Points earned.

This way I could track all necessities:
1. travel expenses
2. credit card balance
3. Redeemable miles/points balance
4. Total earned in miles/points for specific period.

Anyway that is my view. I just can’t advice a single sided entry, not if you want accurate #’s. Welcome to my anal side.

Thank you for this fresh look!

Quicken doesn’t function with double-entry accounting like professional business accounting software. Double-entry won’t really work for miles because you can’t consistently take a portion of your airline ticket price or credit card bonus and apply part of that towards your miles. A flight to California may cost $250, and you’ll receive 1,000 miles. A flight to Boston may also be $250, but you’ll only receive 400 miles. The miles you receive is related to the distance traveled, not the price of the ticket, so the “exchange rate” varies. I use 1mi = $0.01 just because that’s the most you can get if you try to cash in the miles in many cases, if possible at all.

Back to your question, to use double-entry accounting, each credit card purchase for which you are awarded miles or every ticket bought, you’d have to offset it somehow against a transaction in your miles account, and while this might work well for credit card purchases in which you gain one mile per dollar (for example), you’d have to “split” each of those entries… and it wouldn’t work at all or miles awarded for distance flown.

To use double entry accounting in Quicken, you should be looking at each category as a separate account, and I don’t think many people use the software that way.

QuickBooks is a different story.

For your other question, points awards are entered as an “increase,” and the Payee can be the name of the airline or the credit card. You can create a new income category for creating reports or leave the transaction uncategorized. If you do create a category, you’ll have to remember to keep that category out of your other income/expense reports.

Here’s more on double-entry accounting and Quicken.

I think you have the makings for another post here.

Either you are welcome, or I am sorry!

Basic knowledge is that all entries are balanced – for every debit there is a credit.

How are you entering your points – once the account is created? I guess is my question.
Do you have a “Rebate Account” or how is it expressed on the P & L (income statement)?

I actually track my points manually in the REF column, but mine are $1 for $1.