Add "Save a Copy" feature (similar to "Year End Copy") (21 Legacy Votes)

smayer97

In QM2007, there is a feature that allows splitting up your data file to only save data within a specific period. 

It can be used in many ways. Some examples:

• To be able to exclude an old period of time that is no longer needed
• To create a Year-End Copy of data files (though not truly needed in most cases)
• Start fresh with no or very little data, preserving memorized transactions, reports, categories, etc.

This is a similar feature to the requested IDEA for a Year End Copy feature, but is more versatile. 

• If you find this feature helpful, please be sure to add your "VOTE" by clicking the little triangle in the yellow box at the bottom of this post  to increase the count of this post and therefore its visibility to other users and to the developers.

• If you post a comment but do not click the arrow on Idea threads, your vote will NOT be counted!

[Edited URL for link and current voting instructions, @jacobs 7/21]

Unknown

 Year End archiving of data - Quicken for Mac.

Unknown

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Start a New Year Option in Quicken Mac.


We need a start a new year option in Quicken for Mac. The PC version has this and I have become used to it. So why not have it in the PC version? Yes, I understand the database now is robust and can handle large amounts of data. But my issue is I don't want to see my 401(k) account any more for 4 jobs ago in my account list even though it's hidden. I want that gone in the current year since it has had a zero balance for so many years. It's nice just to have a clean year with only the account that you are currently using. 

Dave Smits

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Year-end archive function in Mac version.


I would like the Mac version of Quicken to have a year-end archIve function like the Windows version had.

Unknown

Too late for me. I already switched back to the Windows version for this features and a lot more.

Quicken_Tyka

Hello All,

The Community Support team regularly reviews long-standing posts and Ideas for relevancy and current interest

This Idea seems to have stalled and we would like to gauge the current interest in this request. If you would like to see this idea implemented, please add your vote and a comment explaining how this idea would be beneficial for you.

More information, including steps to vote and how to submit your own Ideas for future product features/improvements, is also available here.

Thank you,

Quicken Community Support Team

jacobs

[EDIT of previous comment]

There are two different Idea threads on this forum for similar/related features in the legacy Quicken Mac 2007 and Quicken windows: this one for capabilities similar to Save A Copy, and another one for a Year-End Copy feature.

The latter Idea was previously marked as Not Planned by the developers, but if they might be open to taking a new look at this issue, anyone who has wanted Save a Copy or Year-End Copy functionality in Quicken Mac should take a moment to (a) vote for this topic above, and (b) add a comment below about why such functionality would be helpful.

In the early years of the modern Quicken Mac, the developers indicated they thought this request was basically a knee jerk response from users accustomed to breaking up their files -- a vestige of the old and less robust databases used in the legacy Quicken Mac and Windows programs, and something that wasn't needed for the SQL database which powers modern Quicken Mac. But over the years, some users have laid out why such functionality would still be helpful to them, such as managing a large file that's slow to open or search. This is an opportunity for users who would like this functionality to push this door back open.

300 Guy

I want this option first because my account does not want to sort through years of info to get what he needs!!!!! Second I don't need or do I want 5 to 10 years of stuff to look at and decide what I want. I want only ONE year of information to look At for my business!!!!!! And third I was told years ago by a senior programmer this was an item they were planning to add but it still is not an option. Pleas makje it. one SOON.

300 Guy

I have seen in several threads like this almost 200 people who would like this option. All these ideas need to be gathered into one thread and not divided up.

BillRedd

I've got a data file that has existed even through the "quicken Mac dark days." I'd like to get rid of old info, but maintain as many of the accounts, settings, etc., that I use now. I understand that such is not currently possible now with Quicken Mac. I know I can hide accounts, but I'd rather have all of the old accounts that I haven't used in years just be GONE! Help!!

jacobs

@BillRedd You can choose to simply delete any old accounts you no longer want. (To do so, Control-click on the account name in the left sidebar, and select Delete from the pop-up menu.) This isn't quite starting fresh, but it does allow you to jettison old baggage if you wish to.

smayer97

That will break transfers as the opposite side will get deleted too.

jacobs

smayer97 said:

That will break transfers as the opposite side will get deleted too.

No, that's incorrect. I wouldn't have suggested deleting an account if it would mess up other accounts.

When you delete an account which has transfers, transfer transactions to/from other accounts are preserved in those other accounts.  Such transactions are changed to a category of "Transfer" rather than a transfer to/from a specific account.

smayer97

That's odd and counter-intuitive but good to know. Thanks for clarifying.

jacobs

smayer97 said:

That's odd and counter-intuitive but good to know. Thanks for clarifying.

Actually, I don't find it odd or counter-intuitive at all; to the contrary, it's exactly what I think one would want to happen. You can delete an account without messing up other accounts due to linked transfers; Quicken intelligently makes any linked transfers into unlinked transfer transactions, so no other accounts are affected by the deletion.

smayer97

What you want it to do and intuitiveness are not the same thing....

intuition often stems from experience... past experience with other versions of Quicken dictates otherwise.

Glad they built more intelligence to deal with this.

siouxbarrett

This would be a wonderful thing to have. I have data back to the 1990s (yes, I am old) when I was using Quicken for Windows. It was very helpful to archive older data (keeping the last year). I finally gave up and just started a new file this year. It was tedious.

Quicken Alyssa

I think I should be able to tell my Quicken to archive previous years of data. So that I can take out history and store it separate from the file that i am in. This way I don't have to carry too many years of history in my file.

Quicken Anja

Hello @LaPajara,

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

I went ahead and merged your Idea to this active Idea thread regarding this topic.

Ideas are reviewed by our Development and Product teams to see what features people would like to have available in the future. Please, be sure to add your own vote as well by clicking the up arrow (see example below).

Thank you!

jacobs

LaPajara said:

I think I should be able to tell my Quicken to archive previous years of data. So that I can take out history and store it separate from the file that i am in. This way I don't have to carry too many years of history in my file.

It would help to add a comment about why you want to clear out old data. In the old versions of Quicken for Mac (2007 and earlier) and Quicken Windows, limitations of the older-generation databases those products used made this a needed feature. The Quicken Mac developers clearly felt that this was not an issue with the modern Quicken Mac. The database is capable of storing unlimited transactions, and many years of transactions shouldn't make the program operate significantly slower or become unstable. They clearly feel that "because I always did it this way" is not a good enough reason to add this functionality -- but I think some users in this thread have described some compelling reasons why purging old data would be desirable. If you add your reasons for wanting this functionality, it will help the developers understand why users say they want this. 

And be sure to add your vote if you haven't already. Scroll to the top of this thread, find thee yellow box under the first post, and click the little black arrow under the vote counter. 

jahags90

I vote for a year end process for Mac version

Gordon S

I would like a new year option. I don't want to delete all my old Quicken year data. I just want to have a "clean start" to every year. It makes my searches and entries for each year discreet and easier to go to. IF I want to see what something was in 1998 I can go to that file marked "QUICKEN DATA 1998" not scroll down until I find 1998 in my files. I want every years file to be discreet and easy to navigate. I think I should be able to tell my Quicken to archive previous years of data. That way my financial history and is separate from the file that i am in. I do not find it useful to have many years of data in one file.

Gordon S

the black arrow is not responding. I am casting my vote for the change to a new year option.

JVH600

I think this idea, including the basic and specific "create a new file for year xxxx" should exist because we have the right to determine for ourselves what is most useful to us. I have been retired for a while now, and I realize that even though my needs are now relatively simple I have realized that due to habit I'm letting technology assign me work. I am now on the poorly-named "Starter Edition" (for me it's more like the "Finisher Edition") having worked down from the original Quicken to Cash Manager to SE. I would like to simplify how I use the product, but it would have been useful to be able to bring over the Accounts and Categories over. Now I'm left to find a way to do this which doesn't require me to create the accounts all over again... perhaps make a backup, then take the current file and delete all transactions before 2022, then review and prune the categories as required?

Kentucky Kay

I would just like to "clean up" my files. Like starting with a new fresh copy. I used to use this before I had the mac version and loved it. Please help us!

shorton

It would be very helpful for me to have a way to "downsize" my very old data file, continuous since 1993. Windows version has this feature, but not Mac. Save a copy of the file with dates delimited and then work with the smaller file while the old file serves as an archive. For instance, I could use a file with all but the last 5 years deleted, etc.

jacobs

@shorton Out of curiosity, what is the size of your data file, and how many transactions do you have. Many of us have data files dating back to the 1990s, and the file size is not an issue. There are reasons why Quicken Windows had this feature due to limitations of its much older database which aren't present with the Quicken Mac database. In any case, this idea, and many comments about it, exist in this thread. You should consider going to the first page of that thread and adding your vote there. Then add a comment if you want, explaining why such a feature would impact your usage of Quicken Mac. 

shorton

File is currently at 330+ MB. Thousands of transactions. Many accounts, many closed and many open.

jacobs

@shorton  The number of accounts shouldn't really matter. The total number of transactions should theoretically not matter much , but it might when it gets very large. If you click on All Transactions, on the right side under the Search box, you can see your total transaction count. I have about 70,000, and I've heard from some other users who are up around 90,000. If you're way beyond that, perhaps it is impacting you. But the 330 MB file size is definitely larger than most. Do you save any attachments in your Quicken file, or is that all just from the volume of transactions?

On the hope that the developers might some day read the comments in this thread, you should share why you feel it would help to pare down your file; e.g. what is impacting you with your large file size? Is it slow to launch and save a backup when you quit? Are reports or other work in Quicken slow? Or would you like to simply leave behind many of your old accounts which you find clutter up your work in Quicken? Anything other than "just make it like Windows" will hopefully help the developers understand why users keep asking for this feature. 

shorton

Indeed I agree. It would help a lot. Slow to open, slow to backup, slow performance vs. a different Quicken file that I use for another purpose that is snappy and quick, and much smaller. Parity with windows is not the goal, performance is and my file size prevents good performance. Just opening the file on a snappy 2020 iMac brings on the beach ball of lagging disk performance. I do not save attachments as I figured that would bloat the size of the file quickly and significantly.

Blastphemy

My 16-year-old Quicken Mac file is enormous, opens and operates like sludge (on a top-of-the-line 2020 Mac fully loaded), and is bogged down with information for which I no longer have any use (like what I bought with my Visa in 2008).

I would like nothing more than to delete all transactions prior to 2020; maintain the current share balances of all investment accounts (but willing to lose the cost basis); retain all Scheduled Payments/Income; and keep all memorized transactions, Payees, and QuickFill rules intact.