Quicken for Mac 2016 Release 3.5.2 Discussion

Unknown

Quicken Kathryn said:

Hi All,
First, thank you for continuing to give us feedback on your experience with the 3.5.2 release--though they're unable to reply to everyone (due to the huge response!) they are reading and reviewing all of the posts in this thread so they can resolve any emerging issues as quickly as possible.

We know that the 3.5.2 release has created confusion around reconciling in Quicken Mac - while this feature won't be reverted, we do want to help users correct any issues that 3.5.2 caused with existing data.  Marcus and his team are working on a more comprehensive guide to using and troubleshooting the new reconcile feature. which we'll post here early next week.  If you'd like to be notified when this guide is posted, please "Follow" this post.

If you're experiencing an issue with online banking after updating, this could have a few different root causes related to account setup or the data file, so we recommend you contact our support channel to troubleshoot the specific issue.  You can also review our Announcements section of the community to make sure there aren't any current issues with your bank that are already being worked on by our development teams.


Thank you, all, for your help and patience!
Quicken Kathryn

I respectfully disagree that all the problems lie with the users data as though  these problems were not caused by the Quicken update.  Users experienced lost data transactions as well as reconciled transactions reverting to an unreconciled status, I know this for a fact as it happened to me too.  My data is was not corrupted in anyway; I have balanced every month to the penny using the proper method of reconciling with out enlisting adjustments etc. (I did this for a living). These data issues occurred as a direct result of the update itself and should be seriously looked at as it has caused a lot of time and grief to the users. Someone posted a problem with the credit card side not showing a negative balance if not paid in full.  I really do hope the MAC looks into this further so it doesn't happen with future updates.

smayer97

102_dar_70 said:

The new owner was from Intuit along with an investor.The private equity firm H.I.G. Capital and Eric Dunn, the general manager of the Quicken brand will purchase the program and its brand. And I'd guess he brought some of the Intuit team with him so they maybe one in the same. 

Quicken Kathryn post recently about 2 new Mac developers starting soon but I cannot seem to find the post at this time.

Robert B

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

3.5.2 is far better than 3.4.1.  For me reconciling is fine and it fixed some bill paying issues.  Still a work in progress.

RickO

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

I'm guessing that when I finally update, I'll be able to fix any reconcile problems if I even have any. But I'm a bit concerned still about the hidden accounts issue, which seems to still be cropping up and not addressed.

Unknown

102_dar_70 said:

The new owner was from Intuit along with an investor.The private equity firm H.I.G. Capital and Eric Dunn, the general manager of the Quicken brand will purchase the program and its brand. And I'd guess he brought some of the Intuit team with him so they maybe one in the same. 

I saw the video done by Dunn when he first took over Quicken and it did give some hope and why I decided to upgrade to 2016 because I was looking around at other products since the reviews of the more recent versions of Quicken were less than stellar. But I am concerned that this may not be reality given the most recent events and what the response to the problems users are experiencing and lack of excepting responsibility for them. I've seen this before with programmers, they want you to spend the time and efforts to give them feed back of the problems only to minimize or dismiss them later (job security). As they say talk is cheap, results are what people want to see.

jacobs

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

Agreed that it is very bad that no one from the Quicken team has acknowledged or commented on the re-appearing hidden accounts issue that has affected a lot of users. (It didn't happen to me, so there's got to be some specific conditions that trigger the issue for some users and not others.)

Unknown

M C Crockett said:

Quicken Marcus, Quicken Jeff, et. al.:  I have been a, somewhat, staunch defender of the new reconciliation feature in QM2016 3.5.2; however, I have just discovered a "bug" in this feature.

The first Reconcile window that is displayed opens with "Use Online Balance" selected.  If the account is not configured for automatic transaction downloads, a box is displayed for the user to enter the account's  current register cash balance.

If the account is configured for automatic transaction downloads, the amount displayed in the "Use Online Balance" box i the current register cash balance; however, this is not the case when the current register cash balance is negative.  There appears to be a "sanity check" in the reconciliation logic that does not allow a negative cash balance to be reported.  In this case, the balance displayed is the last positive cash balance in the register.

I discovered this problem in a retirement account that invests in a Unit Investment Trust.  These are similar to a mutual fund but exist for a limited period of time usually 12 months.  When the Unit Investment Trust matures, you can receive the current market value of your holdings or can use the current market value to buy shares in the next issuance of the Unit Investment Trust.  I do the latter in this account.

This creates a strange accounting phenomenon on the date that the Unit Investment Trust matures.  A Buy transaction for the next issuance of the Unit Investment Trust is recorded on the day that the last issuance matures; however, the cash needed for the Buy transaction will not be recorded until 3-5 days after the maturity of the previous issuance of the Unit Investment Trust.  This will be downloaded as a Miscellaneous Income or Sell transaction, I forget which.  If it is the former, you need to change it to a Sell transaction to remove the shares that no longer exist.

At any rate, this has a tremendous effect on the reconciliation process.  The Buy transaction that caused the cash balance in the account to go negative is discarded.  It is not displayed in the list of transactions to be reconciled in the shaded portion of the first Reconcile window.  In addition, the balance displayed in the "Use Online Balance" box is not the current balance in the register.  It is the cash balance displayed in the register before the discarded transaction.

If you switch to the "Use Statement Balance", Reconcile displays in the "Starting/Prior Balance" the correct value of all reconciled transactions in the account's register.  Next, enter the account's current negative cash balance and click Next.

In the second Reconcile window, the "Quicken Balance" displayed on the left will be the previously reconciled balance plus the sum of any transactions that are marked as cleared in the Clr column.  The "Statement Balance" on the right will be the current register account balance that you entered in the first Reconcile window.  The discarded transaction will not be displayed in the second Reconcile window.

If you use the Mark all as "Cleared" button to mark all transactions displayed in the reconcile list as cleared, you find that the "Difference" is exactly equal to the amount of the discarded transaction.

While having a negative cash balance in "Cash" and "Savings" group accounts may be unusual but I am sure there are others do as I do and keep a $0.00 balance in their checking accounts, manually write checks and record them in the register, and later transfer money from a "Savings" group account for the amount of the checks written.

In "Investment" group accounts, it is fairly common to have a negative cash balance in the account.  In "Brokerage" group accounts, you are allowed to purchase securities in excess of your cash balance in the account up to the limit of your margin.  If you do so, the cash balance will be negative.  Reconcile cannot discard transactions that cause the balance to go negative nor can it constrain the account balance to be a positive value.

A negative cash balance is far more common in "Retirement" group accounts, in particular, when you use an investment advisory service to manage the securities held in the account and what percentage each security be of the account's market value.  When you make an RMD withdrawal, it triggers a number of Sell and Buy transactions to adjust your security holdings to the new market value of your retirement account.  The transactions wil, generally, occur on a single day.  The order in which the Sell and Buy transactions are recorded is random; however, Quicken tends to record all the Buy transactions before the Sell transactions resulting in a negative cash balance.

The apparent "sanity check" in the reconciliation logic that does not allow negative cash balances to be displayed and discards transactions that cause the cash balance to go negative must be removed for reconciliation to work properly.

Mr Crocket not to take away from what you are trying to accomplish here, but when I read your statement  in your second paragraph I checked it out because that seemed strange to enter your register balance where it indicates an online balance, if you do a hover over the "Online Balance" field there is a pop up that says "Enter the balance from your FI you wish to balance too" not your register balance.  Not sure this changes the basic issue at all just thought you would want it brought to your attention. 

Unknown

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

I'm glad I'm not alone here.  I see a big problem with the roll out itself and how it de-stablizes peoples data and or as you mentioned changes settings. Not to say there isn't some issues with the beginning balances due to Quicken past issues that were fixed in this update that need to be resolved (where people having issues balancing previously had been advised to just do an adjustment and everything would be fine) that's a separate issue.  

It's one thing to roll out an application update that is  going to be a blank slate users will enter data into for the first time then you test can test for the basic functions, but it's another when it is rolled out in an update that makes contact with and merges with already existing consumer data, extra caution and testing for those conditions must apply.  I hope Quicken has a dedicated testing team of employees  and not just using their customer base to test as that will never be adequate enough to ensure a smooth roll out. 

M C Crockett

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

Can someone clarify the issue with hidden accounts?

I know of two issues.  The first involves a closed account.  Depositing money in a Certificate of Deposit results in the creation of a new account at my credit union.  If you have the account configured for automatic downloads using Quicken Connect and withdraw the money when the CD matures, the withdrawal will cause the account to be closed.  When you perform an automatic update after the account is closed, the credit union returns a non-existent account error status.  Quicken then deactivates automatic downloads and marks the account as hidden in lists and reports.  The taxable income earned by the now closed account will no longer be included in any reports generated by Quicken.

The second issue with hidden accounts is that they are now included in Preferences > Mobile & Alerts > Accounts.  This not only includes accounts that have been closed as noted above.  It includes any local accounts unrelated to any financial institution that you may have created to track expenditures.  I've created such accounts for my three children to track how much I've given them since graduating from college for cars, home down payments, and financial emergencies.

I presume including the accounts is a part of Quicken's plan to expand the function of Quicken Mobile and to offer an online, cloud-based version of Quicken in the not too distant future.

Unknown

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

That's interesting you created a non FI account to track expenditures.  I too have the need to track certain expenditures, what I do is create a custom category which I select each time I make that type disbursement and I also have a "'Note" column for more detail if needed.  When I what to see or even print out a report,  I just enter the category in the search and it brings up everything from time began or by date range from my register disbursements. Might make your life simpler.

M C Crockett

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

In the version of Quicken Windows I was using at the time, there was little distinction between a category and an account.  An account enclosed in brackets was a category and by using an account there was no need to generate a report for the category because the account's transaction register was the report.

Each child's account was a 'below the line' account in the Quicken Windows sidebar.  The value of the accounts was not included in Quicken's calculation of my Net Worth.

Late in my career I received several substantial raises and decided to give my children allowances.  The goal was to distribute a portion of their inheritance when it would be most useful to them and to eliminate the need to ask for money in a financial emergency.  Their allowance was deducted from my paycheck and directly deposited into their savings account every two weeks by my employer.  The allowances ended when I retired.

They'll have to wait until I die and they are in their seventies to receive whatever is left of their inheritances.

Unknown

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

Fantastic! I am also a retired but not as old as your children LOL. Thanks for the lesson.

smayer97

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

I presume including the accounts is a part of Quicken's plan to expand the function of Quicken Mobile and to offer an online, cloud-based version of Quicken in the not too distant future.

Actually, the pilot to provide a hosted cloud-based version of Quicken was terminated with no further plans for this particular approach.

jacobs

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

Well, that recent project which was killed was a hosted Windows version -- like screen-sharing a Windows version of Quicken. That's a pretty distant cousin to a genuine cloud-based version of Quicken (which would be more like Mint). Quicken had tested a cloud version which flopped and led to Intuit's purchase of Mint instead. But doing much more in the cloud has changed a lot in the intervening years, so it remains an open question whether they will ever go down that road again. The Quicken user community seems very mixed on the concept: some would love it for mobility and simplicity, while others vow they never want all their financial information in a cloud service. Unless Quicken management thinks they can attract a vastly bigger user base with a cloud-based service, it's hard to imagine it being worth the considerable development effort it would take to simply serve existing Quicken users. 

Unknown

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

More is not always better, we have enough issues as it stands.

Unknown

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

FYI, If you would like to run win on Mac but don't want to have both on your MAC machine  they have a new concept on the market now called win for mac.  It's on a small external hard drive that is plug and play attached by USB.  You may want to see how long it's been out, reviews etc too. Not an endorsement here just thought it was interesting. I have some MS for Mac apps so I'll stick with OS X.
 

jacobs

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

Running Windows on a Mac is nothing new. The most widely-used such program, Parallels, is now a decade old. It doesn't require an external drive. There are many Quicken users who have a Mac and use Parallels (or the similar VMWare Fusion), preferring to stick with Quicken for Windows for now because of its more robust features.

Unknown

The updated "reconcile" feature is an absolute disaster.  For years -- YEARS -- I was able to reconcile my Quicken against my bank statement with 100% accuracy and ease. For the last two months now I've had huge discrepancies. Last month I had to add a giant "balance adjustment." This month I had to take it back out -- and STILL the amounts are wrong.  

I am FURIOUS.  

I have been using Quicken for my books since 1997.  I am ready to jump ship.  This needs to get fixed YESTERDAY.

I literally now have NO IDEA how much money I have.  After almost 20 YEARS of using this software. 

Unknown

AMEN !

I'm ready to jump ship with you.

From what I read on this forum is that they have no intention of putting the previous reconcile function back.  

Unknown

i completely agree.  i had no problem with the reconcile feature until this "update."  i had to take a massive "adjustment," as steve did, but the following month is still goofed up.  hate it.  

intuit, please listen to your loyal customers.  this change was a huge mistake.

Tom11

Jonathan said:

AMEN !

I'm ready to jump ship with you.

From what I read on this forum is that they have no intention of putting the previous reconcile function back.  

I have used Quicken for 20 years +. I shouldn't  be here supporting them , since I have made so many posts about the Mobile App, and linking accounts, that screw with Desktop App. However, I recently moved from 3.4.1 to 3.5.2. Fixed hidden accounts. Found one account that didn't have same online balance as paper version, and found 3 duplicates that had downloaded during transfer. Cleared all during reconcile, and now my Online Balance always matches my Register balance in Quicken. All accounts. Even ones that I never balanced in over 10 years. I just marked all as cleared, and came out with same online balance, and "0" difference.

I swear if a person had a stack of paper statements for the last year, they could find the duplicates that Quicken had downloaded. In my case it probably because I went from Quicken Connect to Direct Connect, and some confusion on downing happened.

But the Mobile App, needs some revamping, as it totally screws with my Desktop App register. In one o these responses, someone told me "Not to do anything" and to "Wait for someone from quicken to contact you"..... 

If I had to wait for Quicken I would still be waiting, and I am, no one ever contacted me.

Quicken Reconcile : Good
Quicken Mobile App: Bad

Unknown

John Parker said:

I am on 3.4.1 & am, for now, "refusing" the 3.5.2 update..  Am just checking back here periodically waiting for an update with better news - think that's a sound idea? (I have 2 dozen accounts including bank, credit cards & investments & all seems well for now & - frankly - am not eager to update hearing all these horror stories)  

This is not a parallel application where you actually install windows operating system on the mac hard drive, this keeps Windows operating files on an external hard drive so you do not have to partition your MAC hard drive and use up your MAC storage.  You just boot into it with a simple "Command" function. Pretty cool I think. Now I would not use it to go online as I don't feel Windows is as secure as a MAC is. An additional perk is if you want to use it on another MAC computer it's mobil just unplug it via the USB and plug it into the other that could have many advantages an installed version doesn't.

Quicken Kathryn

Quicken Kathryn said:

Hi All,
First, thank you for continuing to give us feedback on your experience with the 3.5.2 release--though they're unable to reply to everyone (due to the huge response!) they are reading and reviewing all of the posts in this thread so they can resolve any emerging issues as quickly as possible.

We know that the 3.5.2 release has created confusion around reconciling in Quicken Mac - while this feature won't be reverted, we do want to help users correct any issues that 3.5.2 caused with existing data.  Marcus and his team are working on a more comprehensive guide to using and troubleshooting the new reconcile feature. which we'll post here early next week.  If you'd like to be notified when this guide is posted, please "Follow" this post.

If you're experiencing an issue with online banking after updating, this could have a few different root causes related to account setup or the data file, so we recommend you contact our support channel to troubleshoot the specific issue.  You can also review our Announcements section of the community to make sure there aren't any current issues with your bank that are already being worked on by our development teams.


Thank you, all, for your help and patience!
Quicken Kathryn

Hi 102_dar_70,
Apologies for the confusion--data issues I'm referring to are related to online banking issues that some users experienced after upgrading to 3.5.2 - these are likely related to individual data files.  Other reconcile issues that users are experiencing are not data file related.

Quicken Kathryn

Unknown

I have been using Quicken for nearly 20 years on Windows.  I just bought Quicken for Mac 2016 and cannot even get my check register to agree with my online balance.  Where can I re-learn Quicken so I don't waste $75.

smayer97

Paul Newcomb said:

I have been using Quicken for nearly 20 years on Windows.  I just bought Quicken for Mac 2016 and cannot even get my check register to agree with my online balance.  Where can I re-learn Quicken so I don't waste $75.

take a look at the follow: https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/quicken-for-mac-faq-where-to-find-a-help-guide-f...


(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

Unknown

Paul Newcomb said:

I have been using Quicken for nearly 20 years on Windows.  I just bought Quicken for Mac 2016 and cannot even get my check register to agree with my online balance.  Where can I re-learn Quicken so I don't waste $75.

Return it and get your money back !  You'll be glad you did, unless you want to spend hours reconciling your accounts !
Quicken was great - now they suck!

RCinNJ

Paul Newcomb said:

I have been using Quicken for nearly 20 years on Windows.  I just bought Quicken for Mac 2016 and cannot even get my check register to agree with my online balance.  Where can I re-learn Quicken so I don't waste $75.

I share the frustration, but not this sentiment. Compared to QM2007, I find a lot to like about QM2016. I have no desire to go back. I am hopeful that the next update will fix many issues. I am not looking to kill QM before the developers get the chance to fix it and add in functionality that is still missing from QM2007. On the other hand, if they prove unable to do this I will look for a replacement.

JOHN M MALONEY

Paul Newcomb said:

I have been using Quicken for nearly 20 years on Windows.  I just bought Quicken for Mac 2016 and cannot even get my check register to agree with my online balance.  Where can I re-learn Quicken so I don't waste $75.

What other replacements are out there?

Unknown

Paul Newcomb said:

I have been using Quicken for nearly 20 years on Windows.  I just bought Quicken for Mac 2016 and cannot even get my check register to agree with my online balance.  Where can I re-learn Quicken so I don't waste $75.

They have a long ways to go to bring it up to the quality of Qm2007.  It doesn't even have a simple "void transaction" I just discovered, history of reconciliation reports and so on.  They stripped it to a bare bones application and didn't even look back.  I wish the programmers would listen to us and  look at the most popular Quicken for MAC 2007 and resurrect it as the modern updated version in 2016 would make it awesome.  We can wish can't we!

Unknown

Paul Newcomb said:

I have been using Quicken for nearly 20 years on Windows.  I just bought Quicken for Mac 2016 and cannot even get my check register to agree with my online balance.  Where can I re-learn Quicken so I don't waste $75.

You can do an inquiry in google, good luck!