by Peter K

Created on: January 21, 2009

The invention of the computer has enabled an increase in efficiency and ability when it comes to managing our personal finances. Quicken by Intuit, and its counterpart, Microsoft Money, are the two leading personal finance software platforms, and have gone through years of development and revisions to make them outstanding financial tools. For some, however, even the best software leaves something to be desired. Thankfully, software engineers have enabled a high degree of customization in Quicken that is simply not available with the new trend of "online financial managers." This ability to customize the program allows each user to fit the software to their personal situation.

One of the things that has always bothered me about personal finance software is the amount of detail in transaction-level tracking. For example, do I really need to know if my money was spent on "Pet Food," "Veterinarian Expense," or "Pet Toys," or does it suffice to have a category called "Pets?" As I will show you in this article, you can think in even broader terms. I have always strived to keep my categories simple, but after having followed one of my favorite blogs for some time (www.zenhabits.net, I decided to give them another look and re-evaluate how I was really using categories.

The most important question to ask yourself before you start is: "What do I need the software to tell me?" For me, it was a general overview of where my money was going each month (in very broad terms, and hopefully using easy-to-read charts), and a running average of unexpected expenses that crept up every month. I used this question and answer as a guiding principle when evaluating my system.

Working with categories in Quicken is a fairly simple process. Selecting Tools > Category List from the menu brings up the master list. Deleting categories is as simple as selecting one and clicking Delete. Adding a category is only slightly more complicated, as you must deal with a pop-up window and select whether the category is and income or expense, a tax-related item, and if it's part of a special group. If you already have transactions entered, it is recommended that you set up the new categories first, then delete your old categories. When you delete a category that has transactions assigned to it, Quicken will helpfully prompt you to automatically move those transactions to another category.

The simple 10-Category expense system I created has enabled me to track my spending each month without having to

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