Improve Batch Editing to include changing Split transactions (143 Legacy Votes)

smayer97

Currently when you do batch editing, all transactions are included except split transactions. Please expand this functionality to include splits.

(EDIT: and include batch editing any field, including the memo field)

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smayer97

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Unknown

Also can't edit many of the fields in bulk, like Action. Why not? Should be able to bulk edit more columns.

smayer97

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Quicken Sarah

Hello All,

Thank you for taking the time to add your votes to this idea request.

We have forwarded this Idea to the Development Teams who would like to better understand why or when Users would need to edit multiple split transactions, or in other words, a "Use Case" scenario for why the implementation of this request would improve your experience in Quicken.

Please take a moment and add a comment to this thread explaining how and why this feature would be useful to you.

Thank you,

Sarah

jacobs

Currently, a user can batch edit transactions -- except it doesn't work on split transactions, which creates both an unexpected experience for users who don't realize this is what will happen and a dismal and daunting project for those who want to persist with making a change. So my first comment to the development team is: if you don't think batch editing changes within splits is desirable, why does Quicken offer batch-editing via the Transaction Info screen at all? It just doesn't make sense to be able to batch edit some transactions but have Quicken ignore other transactions because they are split. 

The simplest use case is someone who wants to make a change in the way they use categories or tags in Quicken. Let's say I started out using one category for all my lunch expenses, and now that I understand Quicken more and want to better plan for my retirement, I want to change to use a separate category (and/or tag) to separate my work-related expenses from my personal expenses. I can do a search for the convenience store near work where I often pick up my lunch, and I'd like to bulk change all my Food & Dining:Fast Food expenses at this store to Food & Dining:Work Meals. But many of those transactions are split between my lunch expense and groceries or other expenses for home, so I have to open and edit every split transaction manually to make such a change.

Here's another. My wife and I use the same Auto:Fuel category when we buy gas. But now we're trying to implement tags to better keep track of our respective expenses. She mostly gets gas at a Sunoco station near her work which has great prices. I mostly use Exxon and BP stations on my route to/from work. I'd like to search for all the Sunoco transactions and add a tag for my wife to those; then I'd search for all Auto:Fuel transactions, sort by Payee, and select the ones which are not Sunoco to batch edit them with a tag for me. But I can't, because some of these transactions include purchases from the convenience store at the station, and so the food and the gas are separated in splits -- and I can't batch edit the splits currently.

I could list a number of other use cases, but I don't want to dominate the conversation so I'll stop there and let others contribute.  

jacobs

Oh, I should also provide links to some of the many threads on this site where other users have asked for batch editing to work on splits. Here are a few I could quickly locate, and I know there are more…

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7855324/how-can-i-change-the-category-on-multiple-split-transactions-at-once
"Just realized that a couple hundred split transactions are showing uncategorized for my dental insurance. The transactions have 4 & 5 splits. This would take forever to manually edit. Is there a way to edit/replace this one part of the split 'automatically'?"

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7353432/how-to-bulk-change-the-category-for-a-group-of-transactions-quicken-mac-2017
"I have a bunch of incoming transfers from Square, and I want to change [the category] to "Transfer: [Square]" which is a drop-down category option I have. If I try to do it to multiple transactions, it simply gives it the name "Transfer". If I do one at a time, it will change just fine. I have HUNDREDS of these transactions and I should not have to do them by hand. I have been able to change other categories in bulk, so why not this?"

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7242880/performing-a-batch-change-of-a-category-that-is-part-of-trsnsaction-with-a-split
"I am using Quicken 15 for Mac. I have ~600 transactions that each have splits. I would like to change one of the category assignments that is used in the splits. I know I can do this when there are no splits in the registers. I have not been able to figure out how to do this when there are splits. Making this many changes manually is not very practical... Unfortunately the category I would need to rename is "Uncategorized" because  somehow 500 split transactions got set to that category and Quicken will not let me rename that category. I'm very frustrated!"

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7867139/add-tags-to-multiple-transactions-all-at-once
"Because Q2020 Mac is so far behind the other versions in terms of reporting, many kinds of data can only be extracted with Tags. But if I want to tag a whole series of transactions so I can see a total of them (for example), then I have to tag each one separately. That's a whole lot of mouse clicks for something very simple. How about allowing us to select a series of transactions and tag all of them at once, either by dragging from the tag window, or via some other shortcut. Or allow us to tag items with a right click in the tag column, but without opening & editing the whole transaction. Any simplification of this process, anything that would make adding the same tag to dozens or hundreds of transactions would be very helpful." [It was noted in the thread that this is possible with bulk editing -- but does not work on transactions with contain splits.]"

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7151511/how-to-open-edit-multiple-splits
"I just upgraded [and] I am going in and updating categories and adding tags all toward more accurate reports and then new budgeting. Included in my old transactions that have now been imported into essentials are many, many, many split transactions and they sit there, closed, hiding all info for those transactions. I want to edit the info in those splits, change categories & add tags. Currently I am having to open EACH transaction and MANUALLY change the categories & add tags and it is taking FOREVER."

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7617598/quicken-for-mac-2018-v5-2-released/p13
"I need to bulk edit multiple entries, changing the transfer entry. Is this possible in mac '18"

It's worth noting that some users want to clean up their data converted from Quicken 2007, which was messed up by converting Classes and Sub-Classes to a single layer of Tags. Some users have a lot of Uncategorized transactions they want to clean up. Some have Payee and Category inconsistencies which pre-date the addition of Renaming Rules and AutoFill Rules in the past year. 

smayer97

Effectively, I believe there are essentially 2 scenarios:

The simplest form of this is like a Find and Replace feature....Find transactions with [field name] =  A and replace with B and apply this change to all transactions with [field name] = A including matching split lines.

But this should include the ability to batch edit transactions including those with splits that match the criteria, like find all transactions with [field name1] = A and add data to or change [field name2] from A to B and apply this change to all transactions with [field name1] = A including matching split lines.
NOTE: Memo field has separate memo field for "parent" AND separate memo field for split lines; likewise with Amount field.

So, ANY field that exists in a transaction should allow batch editing, even if it is in a split line but ONLY if it matches the selection criteria.

And of course, the batch editor allows changing more than one field at the same time.

Hope that makes sense.

dennismd

One need for editing multiple split transactions was using my new tax software. It requires data to be entered separately for my wife and I. When I setup the original categories for the the split transactions, I used the same category for both of us. Now I have to manually update each split transaction.

zolee1

Another one: I'm using PayPal and all PayPal transactions are Split transactions. I need to update the categories and add tags in bulk. It's very easy to do with normal transactions, but cannot be done with splits. I have over 700 records. It would take forever to clear splits on all or update them one by one...

prbsparx

I have a 401k account where I want to be able to quickly filter down to "contributions", but to do that I need to add "Employee Contribution" to one of the portions of a split transaction for the past 96+ paystubs.
Doing that one by one takes forever.

TheBaladons

Another aspect of splits that would be hugely helpful for other reasons ( in my case transitioning a much more general Payee name assigned to transactions entered into a split into more specific ones ) but also would assist with the mentioned examples would be to be able to have a button ( similar to clear all splits ) that would instead split all transactions into individual transactions. In my case this would be enormously helpful and time saving. There have been many instances where I thought that using a general payee name and including multiple transactions as a split transaction was the right way to go only for things to evolve over time into the need for these transactions to all be unique and have their own individual payee names. Being able to reverse the split transactions into individual ones would allow me to then group them by the tag assigned to them and then batch change the payees turning an impossible situation into an easily achievable one. It seems this reversal of split transactions would be easier to achieve programmatically than a full search and replace on every field so could be implemented in the interim?

Theosis

So many of us now have home offices, side hustles and other businesses that not being able to split transactions among them via batch editing makes each transaction (LITERALLY) take 11 times as long to enter.

Another answer to this might be to add the capability of applying rules to past transactions. Once I import things in from another record, I need to apply things either via batch or retro or I'm left endlessly inputting the same data over and over and over and over and… you get the picture.

Thanks for your consideration.

Quicken Anja

Hello @Theosis,

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

Thank you!

Jaleo101

For me this is a deal breaker. Spent the money for the software and spent days setting things up to encounter this obstacle which render using Quicken impractical. I'm back to Excel Spreadsheets. I left Quicken 25 years ago due to limitations and until I encountered this one I thought it had become something I use. Still not there though. Is this really so hard to program?

Jaleo101

Seems impossible to even split transactions into Excel and to use a conversion tool which can handle splits like ProperConvert to get them into Excel for Mac.

NathanNathan

Some great news. This is now possible from the Global Search (in the upper right toolbar)

1. Use the Global search in the upper right to filter to a unique string.
   1. It will open a new Search Results window
   2. Notice how it shows "Split #" in the Payee column. This is isolating the spcific split where there was a match.
2. Filter your results further by sorting and using range select to select/deselect your target transactions.
3. Click "Edit Transaction" button in the lower right.
   1. It will open a new window again. This time Find and Replace
   2. Whats different here is it still has each split line isolated
   3. You can filter the range further here if necessary
4. Now you can replace as if these were individual transactions.

Enjoy!

jacobs

@NathanNathan Are you talking about Quicken Windows? Because Quicken Mac doesn't work that way. And this is a feature request for Quicken Mac.

Alexy

This has been previously mentioned but closed. Please make batch editing using the "Get Info" as functional like the Find/Replace tool in Windows specially with Splits. If it cannot be done within "Get info" then please build a Find/Replace Tool like Quicken Windows. This is fundamental.

Quicken Kristina

Hello @Alexy,

I merged your Idea with the existing Idea post requesting the ability to bulk edit split transactions. You may also find this related Idea interesting:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7940761/allow-mass-editing-of-date-amount-action-and-check-fields-q-mac

If you'd like to see it added in the future, then please add your vote! Ideas that get enough votes may be implemented in the future!

Thank you!

Alexy

Thank you for your response, the one by Jacobs does not explicitly mention SPLITS. If you merged it with another Idea post for splits, then great. This is fundamental function which Quicken for Windows has.

jacobs

@Alexy The original request here, at the top of the page is: “Currently when you do batch editing, all transactions are included except split transactions. Please expand this functionality to include splits.” Isn’t this what you’re wanting? I think we’re all on the same page about this need for Quicken Mac.