reinsert deleted month's data

Unknown

Quicken for Mac 2018 on Mac OS 10.12.6.  New credit card account in March 2017.  Monthly QFX data files were manually downloaded and successfully imported.  Then in early Dec I had to reinstall the OS.  Quicken, curiously, showed the old data for my savings accounts, but did not carry over the Master Card data.  I manually reimported them, month by month for five months.  Then noticed the balance was wrong.  I found missing transactions in June.  So I deleted all the June and July transactions, and successfully reimported the full June data with correct final balance.  But I've been unable to reimport that July monthly data. I click on the QFX and the import begins, but does not complete, and no July transactions are imported.  What can I do to fix this? 

John_in_NC

If you deleted imported transactions, then you won't be able to import them again. (Quicken keeps track of imported transactions so that you do not get duplicates.)

The easiest solution would be to simply manually enter the missing gap. Or, you could enter a balance adjustment if you don't even want to do that.

Or, you could deactivate the account, import that July QFX into a new account, and drag the missing transactions over to your old account. Then deactivate again and setup the original account for download. But, manually entering July would likely be far easier.

Unknown

Problem solved.  Deleted the entire account and began from square 1, reimporting all the files.  This time it showed the correct total at the end of every month. 

But I still don't understand why Quicken won't allow a deleted month's transactions to be reimported.

John_in_NC

Thomas Bartlett said:

Problem solved.  Deleted the entire account and began from square 1, reimporting all the files.  This time it showed the correct total at the end of every month. 

But I still don't understand why Quicken won't allow a deleted month's transactions to be reimported.

No, it makes sense if you understand how Quicken batch imports transactions. Each transaction has a unique ID (usually assigned by the bank). If the program has never seen the ID before, the transaction gets imported. If the program has seen the ID before, it ignores it. This prevents duplicates every time you update.

In general, you are getting roughly 90 days of transactions each update session, and Quicken filters out what it has seen before. If you delete the transaction, that ID remains so a fresh import will continue to reject the transaction(s). There are valid reasons why this behavior occurs.

I am glad it worked out for you. You are lucky as some banks don't provide that much historical data.

Unknown

John in NC said:

If you deleted imported transactions, then you won't be able to import them again. (Quicken keeps track of imported transactions so that you do not get duplicates.)

The easiest solution would be to simply manually enter the missing gap. Or, you could enter a balance adjustment if you don't even want to do that.

Or, you could deactivate the account, import that July QFX into a new account, and drag the missing transactions over to your old account. Then deactivate again and setup the original account for download. But, manually entering July would likely be far easier.

Thanks.  As you can see below, I just did it the hard way, but it's ok now.  I'll try to digest your comments for future reference, as needed.  

Unknown

Thomas Bartlett said:

Problem solved.  Deleted the entire account and began from square 1, reimporting all the files.  This time it showed the correct total at the end of every month. 

But I still don't understand why Quicken won't allow a deleted month's transactions to be reimported.

Thanks for the clarification about the unique ID; it's good to know that my program isn't corrupt in that regard. 

You also write, "you are getting roughly 90 days of transactions each update session".  Not sure what this refers to, because I updater every month, manually.  Every 30 days, once a month, I manually download that latest month's QFX file to my drive then open Quicken and import the QFX file into the relevant account in Quicken.  I also download the corresponding CVS file to have as an easily legible reference of transaction entries.

Actually, I found the bank's QFX apparently defective in June, when it seems to have omitted one transaction that was shown in the corresponding CVS file and in the printout from the online banking display.  I trashed the QFX on my drive and downloaded it again today, but with same result.  So I had to enter that transaction manually in Quicken to make the numbers right at month's end.  

John_in_NC

Thomas Bartlett said:

Problem solved.  Deleted the entire account and began from square 1, reimporting all the files.  This time it showed the correct total at the end of every month. 

But I still don't understand why Quicken won't allow a deleted month's transactions to be reimported.

Don't think too much about this. :-)

In general, when you download transactions (either manually via QFX of directly), you get a "batch" of recent transactions. Quicken simply filters out the old ones versus the new ones. (The 90 day comment is because that timeframe is most common. Some banks provide more, others less.)

I update daily. Each time, all those old transactions get presented. But Quicken simply filters out what is old versus new using the transaction ID. That's all. 

Unknown

Thomas Bartlett said:

Problem solved.  Deleted the entire account and began from square 1, reimporting all the files.  This time it showed the correct total at the end of every month. 

But I still don't understand why Quicken won't allow a deleted month's transactions to be reimported.

I find that often think more than other people like to do, about things that particularly Interest me. I’m used to it and don’t mind the effort.

In the past I have used automatic daily download in Quicken but found it sometimes confusing, probably because I didn’t understand how to use it properly. Maybe I can take another look at it.

In recent years I’ve manually typed daily records of two check accounts’ activity, keeping the data in two MS Excel files. These files begin the year as my estimated budget for the whole year, set out month by month. Through the course of the year, day by day, they become my confirmed record of the year’s activity. I can easily balance each day’s transactions.

Each day, I begin by converting the online banking description of each transaction, as shown in the bank’s webpage, to show my own description there. Then retype that description and the amount into the Excel file.

Of course, that’s the kind of labor intensive bookkeeping that Q is meant to do for me automatically. But this way I’m as sure as I can be that, if I review the transactions a year later, I’ll be able to recognize it and its purpose. That gives me a confidence in my record keeping that I value. The raw automated record doesn’t satisfy my demand for clarity. I’m especially bothered by automated services, like All Paint, that just confirm the amount and don’t even name the vendor.

smayer97

Thomas Bartlett said:

Problem solved.  Deleted the entire account and began from square 1, reimporting all the files.  This time it showed the correct total at the end of every month. 

But I still don't understand why Quicken won't allow a deleted month's transactions to be reimported.

There is another way to force Quicken to reload data that has been deleted...simply open the QFX data file with a text editor like TextEdit and alter ALL the unique Transaction IDs (simply add a letter or two at the end of each one)...then save the file. Now it should load the data file.

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

Unknown

Thomas Bartlett said:

Problem solved.  Deleted the entire account and began from square 1, reimporting all the files.  This time it showed the correct total at the end of every month. 

But I still don't understand why Quicken won't allow a deleted month's transactions to be reimported.

Thank you for that tip. It could be useful in future.

smayer97

Thomas Bartlett said:

Problem solved.  Deleted the entire account and began from square 1, reimporting all the files.  This time it showed the correct total at the end of every month. 

But I still don't understand why Quicken won't allow a deleted month's transactions to be reimported.

ywc

Unknown

Thomas Bartlett said:

Problem solved.  Deleted the entire account and began from square 1, reimporting all the files.  This time it showed the correct total at the end of every month. 

But I still don't understand why Quicken won't allow a deleted month's transactions to be reimported.

???

Unknown

Thomas Bartlett said:

Problem solved.  Deleted the entire account and began from square 1, reimporting all the files.  This time it showed the correct total at the end of every month. 

But I still don't understand why Quicken won't allow a deleted month's transactions to be reimported.

Reply to smayer97:  Thank you for the tip.  Here's a sample selection (with blank lines inserted between apparent sections, for clarity) from a QFX file opened in Text Editor.  What are the lines to which I should add one or two letters so that Quicken will reimport the file?  I suppose it is the line that begins with "FITD", right?  What should I add there?  (I trust there's no compromising data in there that, having been publicized, could haunt me later!)


<STMTTRN>
<TRNTYPE>DEBIT
<DTPOSTED>20101123120000
<DTUSER>20101123120000
<TRNAMT>-279.59
<FITID>20101123ODBN279D59957331225510
<NAME>Xfer BoA MC 0193
</STMTTRN>

<STMTTRN>
<TRNTYPE>DEBIT
<DTPOSTED>20101126120000
<DTUSER>20101126120000
<TRNAMT>-40.37
<FITID>20101126ODBN40D37906200042630
<NAME>SU Campus Bookstore
</STMTTRN>

<STMTTRN>
<TRNTYPE>ATM
<DTPOSTED>20101126120000
<DTUSER>20101126120000
<TRNAMT>-500.00
<FITID>20101126ODBN500D00906200033850
<NAME>BoA withdrawal
</STMTTRN>

smayer97

Thomas Bartlett said:

Problem solved.  Deleted the entire account and began from square 1, reimporting all the files.  This time it showed the correct total at the end of every month. 

But I still don't understand why Quicken won't allow a deleted month's transactions to be reimported.

Yes, that is correct...any character you want, it does not matter...whatever makes the FITID unique and unlikely to repeat now or in the future.

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