Koinonia/AutoRep Category Setup
1.0 "Connie-izing" Your Existing Quicken Categories

Note: Koinonia's nickname "Connie" will be used throughout this documentation

(Screen shots are from Quicken 2004 Basic)

1.2 Edit an Income Category
1.1 Show the Category List

This will show your existing categories known to Quicken. The following is a sample shown from my computer:

Left-click on Tools, then on Category List (or hold down the CTL key and click C)

Note: You only need to "Connie-ize" Categories used to track work-related income and expense.

The items which begin with NCS and/or NCF have been "Connie-ized". Once "Connie-ized, you need not ever do it again

Items beginning with IBP, PEF, and PES are not work-related categories, and will not be used by Connie/AutoRep--it will just ignore them.

Here is an example of how to "Connie-ize" your work-related Quicken Categories
Highlight the "Work Support" income Category, then click on Edit
You are now ready to "Connie-ize" the Work Support Category.

Add "NCS " to the left,and "_03" to the right, then click OK

Here is the "Connie-ized" Category, once and forever changed. All transactions which used the Category are automatically updated by Quicken!
1.3 Edit an Expense Category
Highlight the "School Tuition" expense Category, then click on Edit
You are now ready to "Connie-ize" the School Tuition" Category.

Add "XPS " to the left,and "_23" to the right, then click OK

Here is the "Connie-ized" Category (highlighted in blue), once and forever changed. All transactions which used the Category are automatically updated by Quicken!
2.0 Connie-izing Theory

2.1 Connie must be able to do three things in order to accurately allocate a category's monthly total to the BBFI monthly report:

1. Identify work-related categories

2. Identify type of currency (stateside dollars or your foreign currency) used for the category

3. Identify where to allocate the monthly total of the category on the BBFI report

To do this, a three position prefix and a three position suffix must be added to each work-related income and expense category (as in the examples in section 1. above)

"NCS" (is one of the 4 valid prefixes):

1. Identifies this as a work-related category

2. The "S" in "NCS" identifies this as a Stateside category whose monthly total is in US dollars. An "F" (as in "NCF") indicates a Foreign category whose monthly total is in your foregn currency

3. The "_03" (BBFI line number) indicates where to allocate the monthly total on the BBFI report. This will be explained below

"XPS" (is one of the 4 valid prefixes):

1. Identifies this as a work-related category

2. The "S" in "XPS" identifies this as a Stateside category whose monthly total is in US dollars. An "F" (as in "XPF") indicates a Foreign category whose monthly total is in your foregn currency

3. The "_23" (BBFI "Report-line number") indicates where to allocate the monthly total on the BBFI report. This will be explained below in section 2.2

2.2 The "BBFI Report-Line" Chart:

The two-digit numbers on the left are the ONLY valid Report-line numbers for use with Koinonia. A selection of these numbers will be used as suffixes on your work-related income and expense categories.

Examples of valid suffixes would be

_03

_17

_36

Examples of invalid suffixes would be

_07

_10

_49 (highest valid number is 47)

18 (the leading _ is missing)

_01 (lowest valid number is 03)

Hint: After installing Connie, open "BBFI Monthly Report Categories.txt" in the Connie folder (C:\Program Files\Koinonia). It contains the list shown on the left.

2.1.1 Prefix coding

Prefixes are always three positions long:

For Income-type categories: Use either NCS or NCF

For Expense-type categories: Use either XPS or XPF

The third position of Prefix:

S = Category's monthly total is in US dollars

F = Category's monthly total is in your foreign currency (Pesos, for example)

Now, open up your Quicken file, and using the above information, "Connie-ize" your work-related categories. Remember--following the steps above will automatically change ALL of your transactions to use the "Connie-ized" categories automatically! It's a good idea to backup your file before making these changes.
The Koinonia setup shown on this page applies equally to AutoRep
Important: If you use sub-categories under a main category, you should only Connie-ize the main category!