Quicken for Mac: keyboard shortcut to switch accounts? (22 Legacy +7 Merged Votes)

Quicken Community

I have multiple accounts that I frequently have to switch between.  Whenever possible I prefer to use keyboard shortcuts instead of using the trackpad, is there a keyboard shortcut that will let me switch from one account to another? Thanks!Be sure to add your VOTE, click the little grey triangle under the VOTE count in the banner below, so your vote will count (it may take a moment for your vote to register). (If the triangle is black, your vote has already been counted). Your VOTES matter!

John_in_NC

There isn't a keyboard shortcut at this time. You haven't overlooked anything.

Unknown

Rats!  It would be a nice feature to have...

smayer97

You may also want to add your VOTE for other features related to Data Entry and Usability Options and Features

First, click on the underlined link, then be sure to scroll down the page, as it contains a list of related features. Click on the link to EACH IDEA separately that you are interested in, then click the VOTE button at the top of EACH page that opens up respectively to increase the count and therefore its visibility to the developers.

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

smayer97

I also highly recommend that you browse through the IDEAS section of this forum and VOTE for the request of each of the missing features to be added back into Quicken for Mac....to help direct the priorities of the developers.

To do that, I suggest you read this FAQ on how to filter the IDEAS to just show the ones for the Mac version, then VOTE to your heart's content:
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/quicken-getsat-faq-how-to-filter-conversations-d...

The following are some of the many feature requests you will find:

• List of Requests for Report Types
• List of Requests for Report Related Features
  
• Restore Transactions Downloading Acceptance and Matching workflow 
• List of Requests for Reconciliation Process
• List of Requests for Bill Reminders (aka Scheduled Transactions) and Graph Features (aka Cash Flow Forecast or Projected Balance)
  
• Add QuickMath functionality
  
• Loan Amortization
  
• List of Requests Related to Investments
• True multi-currency conversion support
• List of Requests Related to Budgets
  
• List of Requests for User Interface Options and Features
  

and many others.

Click on each link above, then be sure to scroll down each page, as some contain lists of related features. Then VOTE on EACH IDEA separately that you are interested in.

If you do not click VOTE at the top of the page of each feature, your vote will NOT be counted for THAT specific feature!


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

RickO

One nice way for Quicken to implement this would be to add a hierarchical Account menu to the Accounts menu (yes, I realize that's redundant sounding). This menu could contain items Banking, Investing, Property & Debt. The Banking submenu would contain items Cash, Credit Card, Savings. Each of these sub-sub menus would contain a list of the (non-hidden) accounts of that type. Making it hierarchical like this would keep the flat account list from getting too long. 

The advantage of this approach is that the user could then use the macOS built-in keyboard preferences to assign shortcuts to accounts using whatever scheme they wish, without any constraints imposed by Quicken. It would also eliminate the need for Quicken to develop a whole separate interface for assigning shortcuts.

Unknown

One nice way for Quicken to implement this would be to add a hierarchical Account menu to the Accounts menu (yes, I realize that's redundant sounding). This menu could contain items Banking, Investing, Property & Debt. The Banking submenu would contain items Cash, Credit Card, Savings. Each of these sub-sub menus would contain a list of the (non-hidden) accounts of that type. Making it hierarchical like this would keep the flat account list from getting too long. 

The advantage of this approach is that the user could then use the macOS built-in keyboard preferences to assign shortcuts to accounts using whatever scheme they wish, without any constraints imposed by Quicken. It would also eliminate the need for Quicken to develop a whole separate interface for assigning shortcuts.

I agree completely - great suggestion!

RickO

One nice way for Quicken to implement this would be to add a hierarchical Account menu to the Accounts menu (yes, I realize that's redundant sounding). This menu could contain items Banking, Investing, Property & Debt. The Banking submenu would contain items Cash, Credit Card, Savings. Each of these sub-sub menus would contain a list of the (non-hidden) accounts of that type. Making it hierarchical like this would keep the flat account list from getting too long. 

The advantage of this approach is that the user could then use the macOS built-in keyboard preferences to assign shortcuts to accounts using whatever scheme they wish, without any constraints imposed by Quicken. It would also eliminate the need for Quicken to develop a whole separate interface for assigning shortcuts.

Thanks. I will add that if they do it this way, they should add a user preference for whether the account is opened in a new window or just switched to in the main window.

Brian Frank

Quicken for Mac keeps getting better, and you can do a lot without touching the mouse. But like the last mile problem with public transit, you can't quite get everywhere you need without going back to mouse or trackpad. One feature that would really be a game-changer would be the ability to JUMP to any area of the app with a quick shortcut. Evernote uses this. So does the Postbox email client. So does Airtable. A lot of products are starting to include this ability to get anywhere in a couple keystrokes. This JUMP feature might give you a list of your accounts so you can quickly pop over to the desired account register. 

If not this approach, then bare minimum a simple COMMAND-# would be nice to allow you to go to up to 10 different account registers. The bottom line is, the faster it is to use Quicken, the more committed I am to sticking with it. I've been looking for alternatives for months and I was very close to abandoning Quicken altogether for spreadsheets, or Airtable. But Quicken keeps improving. Robust keyboard shortcuts, to this productivity and efficiency nerd, would take Quicken from good to great.

UKR

Correct me, if I'm wrong, but I always thought that's what the Account Bar was there for ... a quick method to jump from one account register to the other. Not a keyboard shortcut, as you would like to have, but you're one mouse click away from your destination.

Brian Frank

That's true, and it's helpful. But when you get into a rhythm while reviewing account transactions, and you're going through dozens of them, cross-checking, flipping between accounts, etc., it's just faster if you can keep your hands on the keyboard. My philosophy is that the less time you can spend on a rote task, the better.

smayer97

+1    

Scott Rose

One little hidden gem/feature of Quicken Mac 2007 that we really loved was the ability to assign keyboard shortcuts to different accounts, so we could quickly jump to different accounts with keyboard shortcuts. It would be great if we could have that feature in the new Quicken for Mac!

jacobs

Yes! While it's not too hard to click on an account in the left sidebar, I always liked jumping between accounts via keyboard shortcuts. I'd love to see this in modern Quicken.

smayer97

Yup...this has been raised before. Meanwhile, you can add your VOTE, click the little dark grey triangle under the VOTE count at the top of page 1 in the yellow box, so your vote will count (it may take a moment for your vote to register). 

(If the triangle is light gray, your vote has already been counted).

Your VOTES matter!

[edited to remove self-referencing link][edited to update voting procedure for current forum platform — @jacobs]

RickO

I used the macro maker Keyboard Maestro to click the sidebar accounts triggered by keyboard combinations. It takes a bit of work to set it up, but it's an adequate workaround for the time being.

jacobs

RickO said:

I used the macro maker Keyboard Maestro to click the sidebar accounts triggered by keyboard combinations. It takes a bit of work to set it up, but it's an adequate workaround for the time being.

But it shouldn't require outside, paid software to do something pretty basic and simple like this. As you wrote higher up in this thread, even if Quicken merely listed the accounts in a menu, it would then be feasible for any user to create keyboard shortcuts built into macOS.

Scott Rose

Great point, @jacobs! If Quicken simply listed the Accounts in a standard Mac menu, we could use macOS to assign keyboard shortcuts (for free!) to those Account Names!

mybank2002

> @RickO said:
Each of these sub-sub menus would contain a list of the (non-hidden) accounts of that type. Making it hierarchical like this would keep the flat account list from getting too long. 

By non-hidden I am sure you mean in Quicken. If they do add menus hopefully it isn't hidden to the OS like the account views are in the View Menu. That is dynamic depending on what account you click on or ever-changing which I would imagen it would have to be. Those kinds of menus don't work with the OS keyboard shortcuts assigned or for Keyboard Maestro and UI Browser.

I use Keyboard Maestro click on the image as well for jumping to a specific account but have no simple way to just go to the next account when I have 40 accounts and want to quickly reconcile and not have to use the mouse so much.

Something like scrivener does where you can focus on the accounts (binder or page) or the register and then use the arrow keys would also work.

Sorry I am not sure what forum software this is and selecting text and quoting someone doesn't seem to work. Not sure you guys properly quoted someone.

AAAA

I’d like to see a new submenu under the Accounts menu that would simply list the existing accounts and open them when selected.

Rationale: I’m a long-time user of QuicKeys (RIP) and now Keyboard Maestro. In old Quicken, there was a menu item to open existing account windows that I could assign to a keystroke, which greatly increases my efficiency. New Quicken doesn’t have such a menu, only the sidebar list, which has no simple way to make such assignments (one has to create a sequence that clicks at exactly the right position, the name of the account — which can change when new accounts are created).