Subcategories are Grayed out When Parent Category is Checked in Reports (edited)
There is a longstanding bug where, when selecting categories for reports, filtering transactions etc., the subcategories are automatically checked and grayed out. The auto-checking is fine and convenient. But the graying out is a bug that makes us unable to report on the top category and SOME of the subcategories, which we need to be able to do, of course. All other PFM's I have used including Quicken Classic do not have this bug. The weird thing is that it doesn't exist on all Simplifi platforms. I see it on the web interface but not on the Android app, but others have reported seeing it on the IOS app, but not the web interface. Is anyone aware of a workaround or a previous bug report that I have missed?
Comments
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If you choose a category in a report, it will include all the sub-categories, so there is no reason to choose the sub-categories. However, if you just choose sub-categories, it will only include the ones you choose.
[Edited] I think it may be that you sometimes use a top category itself and some sub-categories, so you want to just choose the top category and a sub-category or two. I couldn't do this either, and so I'm thinking it's [probably] by design, and not a bug.
I don't ever put things in the top category unless it's a mistake or I am being dirty and quick. If a category has a subcategory, the top category is really for organization, not for use. Sure you can use it, but it really should go into one of the more specific sub-categories. So if you are using a top category for a lot of transactions, I would make it a sub-category too.
If I have this wrong, please let me know.
Steve
Quicken Simplifi (Safari & iOS) Since 2021
Quicken Classic (MacOS) Since 2009
MS Money (1991-2009) and Dollars & Sense (1987-1991)0 -
I don't see why it shouldn't be allowed (from a non-technical point of view). Sometimes I want to use a more general category and sometimes I want to be more specific. Why not?
If Simplifi doesn't want us to do that for technical reasons, they should block using a parent category if there are subcategories, and block adding subcategories if a transaction uses a parent-level category. But if the interface allows it, the interface should support it.
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@EL1234 I see what you mean, and when I said it was by design, it was just my attempt to explain it. I had never actually attempted to do what @buttersh was attempting. So, of course, I could be wrong about its being a bug. (I realized upon re-reading my comment above that I was too certain and edited it.)
I have two dividend categories, a regular one and a non-taxable dividend. I have them both set up as subcategories under Yields. For a while, I had the non-taxable as a subcategory of Dividends. It made me think should I have Yields:Dividends:Taxable and Yields:Dividends:Untaxable. So I thought naw. Keep it simple.
Once in a while, when I am in a hurry with splits I might just categorize it in the parent category, but I go back later and move it. So I wouldn't want them to block us using the parent categories. It seems logical that the parent category is a catch-all while the subcategories are more specific.
I just had never thought about doing a report to get anything in the parent category and to choose just some subcategories but not all of them.
Steve
Quicken Simplifi (Safari & iOS) Since 2021
Quicken Classic (MacOS) Since 2009
MS Money (1991-2009) and Dollars & Sense (1987-1991)1 -
Yes, the parent category is normally used as a catch all if desired. And it can be used that way in other PFMs including their own legacy product (Quicken Classic). Also, we normally report on the parent category and SOME of the child categories. This bug breaks our ability to do that. And the fact that it is inconsistent between the web app and the android and IOS apps tells us that it is a bug. Maybe fixed in the droid app and somehow dropped from being fixed in the web and IOS apps...
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if it’s inconsistent among apps, that is bad.
On the iOS apps, choosing parent category chooses all the child categories just as it does on the web app.
So it’s different on Android?
Edit: I see Coach Natalie has replied to you and given a link to a suggestion that we might upvote.
Steve
Quicken Simplifi (Safari & iOS) Since 2021
Quicken Classic (MacOS) Since 2009
MS Money (1991-2009) and Dollars & Sense (1987-1991)0 -
@buttersh, thanks for posting to the Community!
When filtering reports or transactions, I see the same behavior on both the Web and Mobile Apps; it is just presented differently. It appears that Quicken Simplifi does not allow the Parent Category to be selected when only some of the Subcategories are selected. We have an Idea post that covers this topic here:
Please be sure to add your vote and feedback!
-Coach Natalie
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Thank you!
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Thanks! In your situation of using the parent category for a catch-all, theoretically you might want to filter for transactions that just have that top-level category, so you can see the ones that need to be recategorized. That would be a good use case for this feature.
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Yes, I could re-categorize everything in the top level categories, but that would just represent working around a bug. Seems it would be better to just fix the bug.
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Hi Natalie,
It's kind of odd to treat it as an idea rather than a bug or a mistake when there isn't a single user of Simplifi that would benefit from the way it is right now. Maybe I'm not explaining the problem adequately. The problem is not that it auto-checks the subcategories when the top category is checked. That is a nice feature. The problem is that the top category cannot be selected when only some of the subcategories are selected. The way it is now, I would have to go find all my transactions that are categorized into all the top level categories and move them all to subcategories, then make sure to never use any of the top level categories. Which has been suggested here as a workaround. It seems that fixing the problem would be a better solution than asking everyone to kludge around it.
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