Add QuickMath functionality to Quicken for Mac (103 Legacy Votes)

jacobs

@Randy Chevrier. First, to use a name which has a space in it, like yours, type the @ sign and then enclose the name in quote marks. 

Second: the normal way to get issue to rise to the top is to add votes for the Idea threads. The ones with higher votes get pushed to the development team for consideration. But recently, there's been a problem with the platform this site is running on, and it's caused some Idea threads to lose their vote capability. Quicken moderators are aware of this issue and have been pursuing it with Vanilla, the company whose software powers this site. 

Finally, to the substance of the issue: yes, it's a pain for anyone who wants to calculate sales tax on splits to have to do so manually rather than having the great shortcut that QuickMath provided! So we need to keep pushing for this feature to be implemented, and hopefully we'll be rewarded one of these days. 

Quicken Victoria

Hello @jacobs, @Randy Chevrier and everyone who commented here.  It sounds like the QuickMath is a very much needed functionality and I would like to learn more about it.  We could get on the phone/zoom and review how it worked in Quicken Mac 2007 (maybe even see a demo?) and brainstorm how we could add this function to the modern Quicken Mac.  Please let me know if you would be interested in such conversation and I'll set some time for us to chat. 

Hope to hear from you soon.  Thank you!  
-Victoria  

smayer97

@Quicken Victoria based on the past description, this feature was supposed to be on the development roadmap, as it was marked as PLANNED. As I recall, there was a reference in the IDEA STATUS description of this thread with the relevant reference #. Is this not the case?

Also, the functionality is quite simple... assign a simple keystroke to perform a math function that gets applied to AMOUNT field in a transaction.

The way it works is the user clicks on the AMOUNT field in question then presses the keystroke and the math function gets applied. See screenshot in OP of what it looks like in QM2007.

jacobs

@Quicken Victoria I think if you read through this thread, you'll get a good sense of how people used this simple feature. The most common usage is for applying one or more sales tax rates when creating splits of a transaction. But people also used it for dividing expenses among 2 or more people, and probably some other creative uses.

I would be happy to get on a phone call or Zoom call to discuss it if that would be helpful. I have a Mac which still runs Quicken 2007, so I can also show it in action, although the screen shot at the beginning of this thread shows the only visible component of the feature. Send me a PM if I can be of help. 

Ruth Hirsch

I used it for currency conversion when paying in euros, shekels, etc while my quicken account was in US dollars.

smayer97

I used for various provincial and federal tax calculations, currency conversion, split charges amount tenants, insurance claim refunds, etc. QM2007 only offers 10 options. I could use a few more on occasion.

CyborgOne

Great info, as always, @jacobs . I haven't run Q2007 in several years, and might be mis-remembering some of the details - so greatly appreciate your willingness to provide more insights to @Quicken Victoria and others.

Can you also confirm:
1) The (only) operations available for such entries are Add, Subtract, Multiply, and Divide. 
  - There are no provisions for other mathematical operators such as exponents … right?
2) The shortcut must be a letter (no special characters, no numbers … obviously), and can only be lower-case

 - Or… is upper-case allowed, to provide for a possibly-confusing alternate shortcut equation?

I can certainly see the need for more than 10 such shortcuts - and so, a new extensible UI which perhaps emulates the ability to define custom text shortcuts on the Mac (just add to the end of the list, if you need an additional one), might make the most sense.

smayer97

Yes, in QM2007, there are only the 4 arithmetic operators.  And yes, it can only be a letter but it DOES differentiate between upper and lower case letters.

Keep in mind that how it is set up in QM2007 does not have to be how it necessarily needs to be set up in the new QMac. There is no obvious reason that other characters could not also be allowed as the trigger in a new implementation, nor to also include additional meaningful mathematical operators.

What IS essential is the ability to apply a mathematical calculation to any transaction amount with an assigned keyboard shortcut. And yes, I would advocate for a more flexible list that allows more than 10 shortcuts.

jacobs

@CyborgOne Here is the description from the old Quicken 2007 manual:

Calculating transaction amounts with QuickMath

Sometimes you may want to make simple calculations to determine the correct dollar amount to enter in a transaction. For example, you may want to total the amount due on several bills before you transfer money from your savings account to your checking account to pay them. QuickMath can do these calculations for you right in the amount field. Just press any operator key (+, –, *, /, or to pop up a “paper tape” where you can see numbers as you enter them, just as if you were using an adding machine.

You can also assign special QuickMath keys to add, subtract, multiply, or divide dollar amounts with a single keystroke. For example, the percent key ( % ) is preassigned to multiply amounts by 0.01 so you can easily calculate percentages.

So no, no exponentials, square roots or other mathematical operators (although I have no idea why you'd need them).

Interestingly, the manual doesn't even mention set-up of the keyboard shortcuts. But I just tested it on my computer which can still run Quicken 2007, and it accepts upper case letters and special characters. And upper and lower case characters are different, so you could use 't' and 'T' as two separate keys, perhaps for tax in two different states. I also tried '$' as a key, and it also worked.  

For modern Quicken Mac, I hope the developers won't get too caught up in the exact way it used to work, and just give us some reasonable facsimile. So if they can implement more easily it only using lower case letters, that would be fine. Interestingly, I think most people would be happy with just a few shortcuts, but some people (as noted above) would welcome even more than 10 shortcuts. Considering Quicken's modern database, if they just add a table for the shortcuts and the operations they perform, it seems it could be a virtually unlimited list, just like categories, tags, rules, etc. 

qmac_scott

It looks like this was moved to "planned"... exciting! Thanks @Quicken Victoria and everyone else for voting and commenting.

CyborgOne

w00t! That's great news - thanks @qmac_scott (and others)!

@jacobs - thanks for the details from the manual! It's interesting that in the documentation, BOTH the shortcut feature we're talking about, as well as the "inline calculator" functionality (simple math operations within a cell) are referred to as "QuickMath". But, if the "real" QuickMath (macro) functionality will soon be re-implemented, hopefully we'll all be in good shape…

Blastphemy

Every time I receive an update for this thread, all it shows in my e-mail is:

The status has changed for .

Voting for the idea is closed.

<Check It Out>

When I view my "Notifications" list on this forum, I see the same thing except there's no link for any of those posts.

Randy Chevrier

Blastphemy said:

Every time I receive an update for this thread, all it shows in my e-mail is:

The status has changed for .

Voting for the idea is closed.

<Check It Out>

When I view my "Notifications" list on this forum, I see the same thing except there's no link for any of those posts.

Not sure why that would be. Possibly check some settings in your profile. My emails say...

Blastphemy just added a comment in Manage Accounts and Transactions (Mac): Add QuickMath functionality to Quicken for Mac (103 Legacy Votes)

Every time I receive an update for this thread, all it shows in my e-mail is: The status has changed for .Voting for the idea is closed.<Check It Out> When I v…

Check it out

Loganb68

Anyone know the status of adding Quick Math back into Quicken?

barisax

It would be great if Quicken had a "quick tax" feature like in version 2007. This would enable a user to automatically compute and add sales tax to a register amount entry with a single keystroke (T). The income tax rate percentage would be set in preferences.

jacobs

@barisax A moderator merged you Idea request into this existing one for the same feature. If you go to Page 1 of this thread, you will see that it is marked as "Planned", so this is officially on the development roadmap — we just don't know when it will be completed and released. 

Quicken Anja

Hello @barisax,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community with your request.

Your idea has been merged into this already active Idea thread regarding the same request.

Thank you!

wiedemag

With reference to Quicken Victoria's post in Jul 22 in response (see above) to our request to add QuickMath (from QM2007), I wonder if her suggestion to “get on the phone/zoom and review how it worked in Quicken Mac 2007 (maybe even see a demo?) and brainstorm how we could add this function to the modern Quicken Mac” ever transpired. I continue to sorely miss this function. As we have already mentioned, it doesn't seem as if adding this function would require a major effort (??). Does anyone have any news or information about it?

jacobs

This thread has (fortunately) been marked as “Planned”. But when it will appear… it's anyone's guess.