Blue Dots Should Remain Until Transactions Reviewed (12 merged/legacy votes)

R Strax

I really appreciate all the work that has gone into QMac. I particularly like the "Blue Dots" next to account names - notifications that there are unreviewed transactions in that account. 

Right now, the dot beside the account name disappears after you view the account - even if there are still transactions that have not been marked "reviewed". To me, this would have added value if the blue dot next to the account name remained until all transactions in that account have been marked reviewed. That way, I will not overlook transactions if I move from one account to another before reviewing all new downloads.

A small thing maybe, but one that will make my financial life a little more secure.

Thanks!

Crashmeister

The blue dot that appears next to an account after a download needs fixing.

It currently appears whenever a new transaction has been downloaded, and disappears as soon as you view the account, even if you don't review the transactions.

This is how it should work:

1. If there are any unreviewed transactions under the 'date line' (not future dated) then a blue dot should appear next to the account. Its purpose is to indicate the presence of blue dots/pencils in the account i.e. you have transactions to review.

2. If no dot from #1, then if there are any scheduled transactions below the 'date line' (not future dated) then a clock should appear next to the account. Its purpose is to warn that there are late scheduled transactions that may require attention.

3. This one is debatable: If no dot or clock from #1 or #2, then if there are any orange pencils below the 'date line' then show an orange pencil next to the account.

Precedence should be: Blue dot then Clock then Orange Pencil.

#1 could be refined to show a blue pencil if NO blue dots are present but blue pencils are.

The above would give a clear, unambiguous indication of the state of the account.

Thanks.

John_M

You can keep the blue dots IF you are careful. Here’s how:



If you still have transactions to review and you want to be reminded of them, do NOT go directly to another account. Instead, click on one of the tabs (Home, Bills, etc) and then go to another account. This will keep the blue dots visible.



You’re right, it would be better that they not go away until totally accepted, but this method accomplishes the same goal.

RickO

I would like to see this implemented with a user preference to enable it or leave it as is, preferably on an account-by-account basis.

DHClem

RIckO--love your opinions, so I can't figure out why anyone would want the present system--what am I missing?  If unreviewed exist--they blue dot should stay. right now, if I accept all investment transactions--the blue dot stays e en if there ARE NO unreviewed--I have to click on each one separately. That makes no sense...to me.  (Preference would be fine, but don't understand really how useful the present way would be.)

RickO

DHC said:

RIckO--love your opinions, so I can't figure out why anyone would want the present system--what am I missing?  If unreviewed exist--they blue dot should stay. right now, if I accept all investment transactions--the blue dot stays e en if there ARE NO unreviewed--I have to click on each one separately. That makes no sense...to me.  (Preference would be fine, but don't understand really how useful the present way would be.)

Some people leave transactions as unreviewed for a period of time to remind them of certain transactions that are waiting for some external event to happen before marking reviewed. I have one account in which I do that frequently. I don't necessarily want the blue dot sticking around in that account at the global level, making my sidebar "less clean". 

Ideally, this would be implemented by a checkbox preference item in each account's settings: "Clear account level blue dot only when all transactions have been reviewed." It could be checked by default. This would be the best of all worlds, giving full flexibility to the user.

DHClem

DHC said:

RIckO--love your opinions, so I can't figure out why anyone would want the present system--what am I missing?  If unreviewed exist--they blue dot should stay. right now, if I accept all investment transactions--the blue dot stays e en if there ARE NO unreviewed--I have to click on each one separately. That makes no sense...to me.  (Preference would be fine, but don't understand really how useful the present way would be.)

Makes sense.

I am a big supporter of preferences--I want to control how splits work too, for sure!

DHClem

DHC said:

RIckO--love your opinions, so I can't figure out why anyone would want the present system--what am I missing?  If unreviewed exist--they blue dot should stay. right now, if I accept all investment transactions--the blue dot stays e en if there ARE NO unreviewed--I have to click on each one separately. That makes no sense...to me.  (Preference would be fine, but don't understand really how useful the present way would be.)

Hmmm...I still wonder if I'm communicating clearly on this.
1. For sure--let the user decide!
2. But what I am complaining about is--I clear every single transaction in an account (indeed, for investments, I clear ALL accounts' transactions in one fell swoop)--but then I have to still clear the blue dots from each account (even though there are no unreviewed transactions in any of them) separately. To me, that makes no sense.
 

R Strax

John M said:

You can keep the blue dots IF you are careful. Here’s how:



If you still have transactions to review and you want to be reminded of them, do NOT go directly to another account. Instead, click on one of the tabs (Home, Bills, etc) and then go to another account. This will keep the blue dots visible.



You’re right, it would be better that they not go away until totally accepted, but this method accomplishes the same goal.

Yes, this does work. Thanks! (Still not ideal - I must make the blue dot disappear manually by going to another account after reviewing all transactions - but does accomplish what I need)

RickO

DHC said:

RIckO--love your opinions, so I can't figure out why anyone would want the present system--what am I missing?  If unreviewed exist--they blue dot should stay. right now, if I accept all investment transactions--the blue dot stays e en if there ARE NO unreviewed--I have to click on each one separately. That makes no sense...to me.  (Preference would be fine, but don't understand really how useful the present way would be.)

Got it.

btiberi

I just updated to the 2019 subscription version.  Now even after I have reviewed a new transaction, the blue dot remains on the left of the register.  It used to disappear after reviewing a transaction.  How do I get it to go away after reviewing transactions?

lhossus

To make the blue dot in the left sidebar go away:

1. In the sidebar, click on the account name next to the blue dot.
2. In the sidebar, click on any other account name or account type header.

fenwickflora

There is one last feature which would make my Quicken for Mac experience perfect. When I download my transactions, the accounts with unreviewed transactions show a blue dot status notification but as soon as I click the account, the blue dot goes away. Sometimes I have a lot of downloaded transactions that I need to review, and I need to move between different screens to research. When I do that, I lose the knowledge of which accounts still have downloaded transactions that have not been reviewed. This means I have to manually go through all my accounts and see if there are any transactions that still need to be reviewed. This is a big pain, and could lead to me not evaluating an unexpected transaction that would need my immediate attention.

Request: By default, keep the blue dot notification active until all the downloaded transactions have been reviewed. Or, allow a settings change to let me turn on this notification and still allow people who want the blue dot to go away as soon as they click the account (the current state) can keep that setting as well.

Gary Cernosek

I second fenwickflora’s post above and want to provide my own view of this issue.

TL;DR
For users like myself who have many accounts and many new transactions that get downloaded everyday, I need a way to see which accounts have unreviewed transactions, and I need the indicator showing that unreviewed transactions still exist even after I visit the account or change to viewing a different account.

Background
* I am a very long-time user of Quicken across both Windows and Mac platforms.
* I’m open to exploring new or different ways to manage my download and transaction workflow

Current Workflow
* Launch Quicken and immediately initiate “Update All Online Accounts”.
* Enter Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) information as needed by accounts that require it.
* Wait until the error report appears (it always has errors—separate issue).
* Re-run the update until all accounts have been updated.
* For each account that has a blue dot indicating “New Transactions,”
* Visit the account
* Review transactions that have a blue dot for accuracy in how Quicken has automatically assigned Payee & Category
* Mark transaction as Reviewed (Quicken: Thanks for providing the Alt-R keyboard shortcut!)

Issues
* Before the July 2020 upgrade to Version 5.17.2 (Build 517.34845.100), the blue dot next to the account name remained visible until visiting a different account
* If I didn’t finish my review, for whatever reason, and visited another account, the blue dot next to the account disappeared.
* As a work-around before the upgrade, I could visit the Bills or other tab and then go to another account and the blue dot would remain visible
* After the upgrade, the blue dot disappears immediately upon visiting the account

Bottom line
* Need some way to know that unreviewed transactions remain in an account, even after visiting the account, and after visiting other accounts.

DHClem

Agree yet again that the present way doesn't "work for" (or even "make sense to"!) me and love to see a change here.

jacobs

Everyone who has commented that they want better control over the dots and reviewing transactions should go to the first post in this thread and add your vote (by clicking the little gray triangle in the blue box under the first post). Unfortunately, the developers don't look at these threads directly; the ones which get more votes are passed by the forum moderators to the developers for consideration. Without more votes, the comments here are basically just talking in an echo chamber.

DHClem

Done, thanks jacobs for that reminder.

Brian148

It aught to work exactly like your email program with a small number instead of a blue dot and it should stay there until the number of unreviewed transactions is zero!

JayBugs

I agree with keeping the blue dot (and then other symbols as stated) until you deal with the transactions. I lose track of which have transactions and have to go through my whole list of accounts each time I download many times.

R Strax

I appreciate your work on the account dots in the register in v. 6.3.1. However you still have not addressed the obvious oversight of the Blue Dots.

The purpose of Blue Dots is to alert the user to the presence of unviewed transactions in an account, so that the transactions are not overlooked. Currently, however, if I open one account then move to another, the Blue Dot of the first account disappears even if unviewed transactions are still present. If i get busy I may easily forget to go back to the first account to review all the transactions because the Blue Dot is gone.

This has happened to me many times. Unviewed transactions, some with errors, may wait days or weeks until I return to Quicken just because the Blue Dot on the account disappeared prematurely.

My suggestion is to offer at least the option for a persistent account Blue Dot until all transactions in that account are marked "reviewed". Thanks!

Chris_QPW

I wish it would work like this on Quicken Windows too.  There are all kinds things that make you jump to another account and you might forget what accounts have been fully reviewed or not.

R Strax

Sadly, I see this issue still has not been addressed.

photojon

:'( Come on Quicken folk. 4 years and this still isn't fixed. Help your users out!!

jacobs

photojon said:

Come on Quicken folk. 4 years and this still isn't fixed. Help your users out!!

@photojon @R Strax Unfortunately, after those 4 years, this topic currently has only garnered 19+12=31 votes. That doesn't; mean it's not a worthy enhancement, but it does mean the the developers are likely to have this lower on their priority list than other ideas which have received significantly more votes. So if you want to see this change made, make sure you have voted for it! (To vote: scroll to the top of this thread and in the yellow box, click the black arrow under the counter. If the arrow is gray, it means you've already voted for it, and clicking it again would remove your vote.)

R Strax

Thank you Thank you Thank you Quicken! The latest update finally makes the persistent blue dot choice reality. Works exactly as I imagined it might. Certainly not important to everyone but really makes my day! I much appreciate your hard work.

DHClem

Yes, we vey much appreciate this...perfect.

IBMikey

This was fixed but then I bought a new Mac and did a fresh install of Quicken; now my blue dots are disappearing like in the bad old days. Is there a setting to make the blue dots persist until all transactions in an account are reviewed? I've looked everywhere and can't find such a setting. :-|

lhossus

IBMikey said:

This was fixed but then I bought a new Mac and did a fresh install of Quicken; now my blue dots are disappearing like in the bad old days. Is there a setting to make the blue dots persist until all transactions in an account are reviewed? I've looked everywhere and can't find such a setting. :-|

Well, you obviously have not looked EVERYWHERE! 

At the top of the sidebar, to the right of the Add Accounts plus sign, there is the Sidebar Options menu button (three dots: ...). Choose Sidebar Activity Options > Highlight accounts with unreviewed transactions.

Happy Days are Here Again!

IBMikey

> @lhossus said:
> Well, you obviously have not looked EVERYWHERE!  ;)
>
> At the top of the sidebar, to the right of the Add Accounts plus sign, there is the Sidebar Options menu button (three dots: ...). Choose Sidebar Activity Options > Highlight accounts with unreviewed transactions.
>
> Happy Days are Here Again!

Thank you!! OMG, settings are hiding all over the place! :smiley: