How to Exclude and Include Transactions from Reports and the Spending Plan

Quick Review

• What: Exclude or include specific transactions from Reports and/or Spending Plan

• Why: Focus on transactions that matter for budgeting and analysis

• How: Three dots menu > Exclude from section > Check/uncheck options

• Note: Transfer transactions always excluded from Reports; Investment accounts excluded by default

Overview

Quicken lets you exclude transactions from Reports, the Spending Plan, or both. This flexibility helps you focus on the transactions that matter for your budgeting and financial analysis. Excluded transactions still appear in lists but are marked with an excluded icon and don't affect calculations.

Ashley uses exclusions to manage reimbursable business expenses. They exclude these from their Spending Plan since the money will be repaid, preventing artificial inflation of their spending numbers.

Excluding Transactions

Individual Transactions

1. Navigate to Transactions

2. Hover over the transaction and click three dots

3. In the Exclude from section, select:

   • Spending Plan to exclude from budgeting

   • Reports to exclude from analysis (also excludes from Watchlists)

   • Or both

Excluded transactions display an "Excluded" icon next to the amount but remain visible in transaction lists.

Important Exclusion Rules

Transfer Category Transactions: Always excluded from Reports, even if you try to include them. This includes "Credit Card Payment" category transactions.

Investment Accounts: All investment transactions are excluded from both Reports and Spending Plan by default. You can include "cash flow" type transactions (deposits/payments) but not buys/sells.

Hiding Excluded Transactions in Spending Plan

You can hide excluded transactions in specific areas:

In Planned Spending

1. Go to Spending Plan

2. Click Planned Spend

3. Click on the expense

4. Click three dots next to planned amount

5. Select Hide excluded transactions

In Other Spending

1. Go to Spending Plan

2. Click Other Spend

3. Click three dots in upper right

4. Select Hide excluded transactions

Including Transactions

To reverse an exclusion:

1. Navigate to Transactions

2. Hover over the transaction and click three dots

3. In the Exclude from section, deselect:

   • Spending Plan and/or

   • Reports

The checkmarks disappear and transactions are included in calculations again.

Special Cases

Investment Transactions

Investment accounts have both exclude flags set by default. For cash flow transactions (deposits/payments) you want to count:

• Override at the transaction level by unchecking exclude options

• Or change the entire account setting (affects all existing and future transactions)

Transfers and Credit Card Payments

These appear in the Spending Plan's "Excluded this month" section, greyed out by default. You can include them if needed for your budgeting approach.

Common Use Cases

Reimbursable expenses: Exclude until reimbursed (Ashley's approach)

One-time windfalls: Exclude from Reports to see normal spending patterns

Internal transfers: Usually kept excluded to avoid double-counting

Gift purchases: Some users exclude to see personal spending only

Tax-related items: Include/exclude based on your tax tracking needs

Filtering by Exclusion Status

Use Advanced Filters to find excluded transactions:

• Filter by "Ignored" to see excluded items

• Filter by "Not Ignored" to see included items

• Available for both Reports and Spending Plan

Limitations

No partial exclusions: Cannot exclude part of a split transaction

No exclusion rules: Cannot create automatic exclusion rules like Category Rules

Transfer restrictions: Transfer category always excluded from Reports

The Bottom Line

Excluding transactions in Quicken provides control over what counts in your financial calculations. Use exclusions to create more accurate budgets and meaningful reports by removing transactions that don't reflect your typical spending patterns or that will be reimbursed.

Hint: Review excluded transactions quarterly to ensure you're not accidentally hiding important spending. Ashley discovered they had excluded several business meals that weren't reimbursed, artificially lowering their dining spending in reports. Now they maintain a simple rule: only exclude if money is definitely coming back.