The easiest way to accomplish your goal LONG-TERM is to learn how to use Quicken yourself.
It is rather simple once you get the hang of it. Some accounts can be downloaded from within Quicken itself. Others, I have to go online to that account and click download history and then go over to Quicken and it is there.
I match receipts to these downloads, putting one category (or more) on each and every transaction. When you first start, it is a bit time-consuming because you are essentially setting up each new transaction.
After awhile, though, Quicken knows what to do with each transaction and will fill it in automatically for you. (You can change it easily, if something is different that time.) I literally match receipts to the downloaded transactions and then recycle 95% of the receipts.
It doesn't matter if you are using your debit card directly from your checking account or using your credit card from VISA or using a dozen different credit cards or a mix of debit and credit. Quicken can handle all of it.
You can then produce a boatload of reports at any time you wish. Quicken makes reporting very easy. Just a couple clicks and you can see all sorts of information in many different ways.
I download transactions and match receipts weekly. It only takes 15 minutes or less and we have quite a few accounts at this point in time.
I do "quick reports" every week or every two weeks, depending on what is going on and if we need the info. This adds a couple minutes of time. Very quick and easy and perfect for instant knowledge on our family finances!
Once a month, I produce more intense reports and I run them in Quicken. However, I dislike the way Quicken reports actually print out. They waste so much space and only have a certain amount of flexibility. So, I use Excel for any hard copy reports. There is an "export to excel" option and then you can reformat the data to fit on one page. Personally, I have several reports I just keep in Excel as templates and then type in the new figures from the Quicken report. Depends on which way is fastest for that specific data or report. This is all optional, though. (I am a finance geek, so I like to do this part. DH never does this part. It all works!)
It is rather simple once you get the hang of it. Some accounts can be downloaded from within Quicken itself. Others, I have to go online to that account and click download history and then go over to Quicken and it is there.
I match receipts to these downloads, putting one category (or more) on each and every transaction. When you first start, it is a bit time-consuming because you are essentially setting up each new transaction.
After awhile, though, Quicken knows what to do with each transaction and will fill it in automatically for you. (You can change it easily, if something is different that time.) I literally match receipts to the downloaded transactions and then recycle 95% of the receipts.
It doesn't matter if you are using your debit card directly from your checking account or using your credit card from VISA or using a dozen different credit cards or a mix of debit and credit. Quicken can handle all of it.
You can then produce a boatload of reports at any time you wish. Quicken makes reporting very easy. Just a couple clicks and you can see all sorts of information in many different ways.
I download transactions and match receipts weekly. It only takes 15 minutes or less and we have quite a few accounts at this point in time.
I do "quick reports" every week or every two weeks, depending on what is going on and if we need the info. This adds a couple minutes of time. Very quick and easy and perfect for instant knowledge on our family finances!
Once a month, I produce more intense reports and I run them in Quicken. However, I dislike the way Quicken reports actually print out. They waste so much space and only have a certain amount of flexibility. So, I use Excel for any hard copy reports. There is an "export to excel" option and then you can reformat the data to fit on one page. Personally, I have several reports I just keep in Excel as templates and then type in the new figures from the Quicken report. Depends on which way is fastest for that specific data or report. This is all optional, though. (I am a finance geek, so I like to do this part. DH never does this part. It all works!)
