Quicken for Mac 2018 v5.5.4 and Other 5.5.x Releases

s2kdriver

Mike OMalley said:

There is a bug in the Mac Quicken Deluxe 2018.  Heres how to replicate;
Enter a transaction and make it an account to account transfer as the category.  
Leave the program, and relaunch.  
Use the same Payee so that it comes up as a remembered transaction, with the transfer as the category.  Now go and change the category to an actual category, and hit enter.
The transaction will be recorded twice, once in that register as a category transaction, and it will also appear in the to: transfer account as a transaction.

I would like to bring up a point regarding how QM links pre-existing transactions together across accounts when they are recognized as being related.  If you have separate downloaded transactions for 2 accounts, and then choose to create a link (using the Transfer column or via Transfer:[] in the Category column), QM can often recognize the 2 transactions are associated and will offer to link them.  However, sometimes there are side effects which are not desirable - e.g. transaction dates and/or payees are forced into alignment, memo/notes are forced into alignment, etc.  What are the rules for this automatic linking function?  In my opinion, it would be best to just leave the individual transaction fields alone and create the linkage without modifying the data on either side.  Can the Quicken Mac team explain what they intend to happen with these automatic links?  And what is allowed regarding modification of these fields (e.g. date, payee, notes, etc) after the transactions are linked?  I would prefer to have these fields remain independent on each side of the transaction as the meaning on each side may be different and thus would benefit from independance.  In addition, any automated modification caused by transaction linking may overwrite data downloaded from an institution. This is not ideal.

smayer97

Mike OMalley said:

There is a bug in the Mac Quicken Deluxe 2018.  Heres how to replicate;
Enter a transaction and make it an account to account transfer as the category.  
Leave the program, and relaunch.  
Use the same Payee so that it comes up as a remembered transaction, with the transfer as the category.  Now go and change the category to an actual category, and hit enter.
The transaction will be recorded twice, once in that register as a category transaction, and it will also appear in the to: transfer account as a transaction.

This is an interesting observation. I can see a case being made for both. Though not always ideal, I am used to the way QM2007 handles it, which is when a linked transfer is FIRST CREATED (new entry), the fields are COPIED to each side of the link BUT after that, the link no longer syncs the two transactions, except for the date...it only maintains the link and nothing more, keeping all fields (except date) on both sides independent. And there are definitely cases where that is necessary, as you point out.

Maybe an in between would be to prompt the user to decide each time whether to sync the data on both sides each time an edit is saved, or manage that via Preference Settings...Of course, I do see the need to keep dates in sync 100% (99.9%?) of the time.

s2kdriver

Mike OMalley said:

There is a bug in the Mac Quicken Deluxe 2018.  Heres how to replicate;
Enter a transaction and make it an account to account transfer as the category.  
Leave the program, and relaunch.  
Use the same Payee so that it comes up as a remembered transaction, with the transfer as the category.  Now go and change the category to an actual category, and hit enter.
The transaction will be recorded twice, once in that register as a category transaction, and it will also appear in the to: transfer account as a transaction.

I agree with smayer97's comments regarding how QM2007 handles things - if the linked transaction is to be newly created on the other side, then a copy of fields is appropriate followed by independence of editing afterwards.  In my comments above, the situation I was describing was for linking pre-existing transactions, where I believe fields should not be overwritten.  Regarding the date - there actually is a case where the dates can be different: if you transfer funds from one institution to another (each with an account in QM), the funds may depart the 1st institution (e.g. a bank) on a given date, and arrive/clear at the 2nd institution (e.g. a brokerage) on a different date.  Whether QM should handle this case is a matter of opinion, and perhaps the logic to handle date differences would become too burdensome.  In cases where this has happened to me I let QM override the date (resulting in a minor inaccuracy vs. institution records) in favour of the higher value (to me) of showing the linkage.

smayer97

Mike OMalley said:

There is a bug in the Mac Quicken Deluxe 2018.  Heres how to replicate;
Enter a transaction and make it an account to account transfer as the category.  
Leave the program, and relaunch.  
Use the same Payee so that it comes up as a remembered transaction, with the transfer as the category.  Now go and change the category to an actual category, and hit enter.
The transaction will be recorded twice, once in that register as a category transaction, and it will also appear in the to: transfer account as a transaction.

Yes, that is one valid case, which is when I choose to record in the memo field the actual date processed by the second FI/Bank.

John Morrow

John Morrow said:

Whilst I'm at exported reports, is there any way to just have a list of transactions, without any subtotal ? I would like to be able to post-process in Excel with PivotTable and subtotals get in the way.

Am I missing something obvious?

Yes indeed. With the caveat this will export all (or selected) transactions from the register. Reports allow to fine tune the list of transactions to export, which is what I'm needing currently. And not withstanding the issues that I'm currently encountering with UTF-8/ASCII CSV export.

John Morrow

John Morrow said:

A couple of issues with loans :

• Changing the date of the Loan Opening Balance transaction duplicates the transaction (they have different amounts though).  This is very confusing. This should either not be possible, or simply change the date and not create a new transaction.
• When you edit the LOB to make it a transfer, go to the other side of the transfer and change the date of the other side, the link between the LOB and the other side suddenly breaks. I.e. the LOB no longer shows as a transfer. (But the other side still does - weird !) Again, this should either not be possible or work as expected.

@marcus, I was changing the date in the register. This is a manual loan with a detailed reminder (so linked to an account). But...

... I cannot reproduce this either ! Weird, because I had such an unattached transaction in my register and had to recreate the linked transaction manually. It looks as if something has changed in that part of the code (for the better !).

PS. I was NOT changing the date of the transaction in the Edit Loan Terms wizard, because the loan was paid in full to make a purchase at a date earlier than it started amortizing. Weird I know coming from a bank, but the reality.

John Morrow

John Morrow said:

I just came across the following bug:

1. All transactions, type something in the search box.
2. Preferences, change transactions display from Short to Long.
3. Go back to All transactions. The display has been updated and most transactions show a Long category, but some do not.

Sorry this was unclear. The categories that did not show in full were NOT top-level, but 3-level deep categories. Here is an actual screenshot.

When trying to reproduce this, I could not at first, then had the idea to scroll up and... bingo ! level-3 categories that had been obscured were (still) showing as top-level categories.

John Morrow

John Morrow said:

For a loan already in place, how can I:

1. change the Interest category, and
2. set a category for the Principal (it was set as a Transfer by the loan wizard)

for future transactions?

The obvious place to go is the Scheduled Transaction for the loan, but it is greyed out and cannot be changed.



A backup solution is the Loan/Edit Payment Terms wizard. But it allows to do 1. only, not 2.

I'm surprised no one knows how to do this ! Surely, there must be some magic somewhere...

John Morrow

Reports > New Report, a search bar to filter transactions would be most useful.

John Morrow

Reports > New Report > Customize > Categories, then:

1. Select: None
2. Then, progressively select all top level categories, starting from the top and progressing towards the bottom
3. Each time, selecting a top-level category will automatically select ALL of its children
4. EXCEPT that, at some point, ONLY SOME children will be selected
5. WORSE, some categories somewhere up or down the list will be SELECTED/UNSELECTED as a side effect
6. It looks like QM goes out of sync between the list on screen and list in memory

Example, clicking once on Vacation:


Clicking again on Vacation:


Clicking a third time on Vacation:


(For some reason, QM doesn't like me spending money on vacations. It must prefer that I spend additional money on QM itself.)

Unknown

rrtorrenti said:

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Updated 5.5.5 Q2018 for Mac. What happened to my TABS? Click on "Show All Tabs" ....


What happened to my TABS? Click on "Show All Tabs" and Quicken minimizes!  Seriously?

I sure wasn't seeing crashes, but now I am stuck with a lot of open windows. How about making it an option at least?  This is a real pain in the rear now.

Snoopy FC

John Morrow said:

For a loan already in place, how can I:

1. change the Interest category, and
2. set a category for the Principal (it was set as a Transfer by the loan wizard)

for future transactions?

The obvious place to go is the Scheduled Transaction for the loan, but it is greyed out and cannot be changed.



A backup solution is the Loan/Edit Payment Terms wizard. But it allows to do 1. only, not 2.

The interest category can be changed under the edit loan terms link.  

There is presently and doubt there will be a way in the future to set the principal category for loans to something the user wants.  I've discussed this issue with Marcus and the development team.  

My workaround is generally as follows in order to track this in my budget: 
1. Don't use the bill reminder through the edit loan terms window (set to no reminder) 
2. Set up a scheduled transaction that distributes the loan payment to the various categories
3. Set up another scheduled transaction that reduces the principal in the loan account.  

Until budgets allows for tracking transfers, this is the only workaround I know of to include mortgage payments in budget tracking.  

I wouldn't call this magic, but it works for me.  

Snoopy FC

Using version 5.5.5 and I'm still wishing that All Transactions would truly allow searching through "all transactions" including those in hidden accounts.  It would allow for faster searching for older information that I need to access occasionally.  

Snoopy FC

Under the Investing:Retirement (or education or brokerage) headings on the left sidebar, I've noticed that the graphs for these aggregated selections only show true historical graphs if all the subordinate accounts are shown (unhidden) in the sidebar at left.  Any subordinate accounts that are hidden are not reflected in the aggregate graph.  Notice the screenshot here with all subordinate accounts unhidden: 

Now, notice the screenshot with a single subordinate account hidden:

If you're not aware of this issue in reviewing your account history, the graphical presentation can be misleading.  Is there a way to allow hiding of the closed accounts and still allowing their data to be incorporated into these graphs?  If not can it be added?  

Seems like this is an option that could be added to the account selection screen here as a column: 
to the right of reports.....

jacobs

rrtorrenti said:

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Updated 5.5.5 Q2018 for Mac. What happened to my TABS? Click on "Show All Tabs" ....


What happened to my TABS? Click on "Show All Tabs" and Quicken minimizes!  Seriously?

@RickO, it can make it easier to hop around if you're doing work in multiple accounts, such as comparing investment performance between accounts. Also, with tabs, you can maintain your place more easily if account hopping. If I want to copy and paste a memo from one transaction to another, for instance, I can have both transactions open for editing if the accounts are opened in separate windows/tabs, which isn't the case switching accounts in the left sidebar. Personally, I'm generally fine with just using the sidebar, but I do understand the appeal of having multiple accounts open at once, and if so, being able to put them in tabs rather than juggling multiple windows. 

jacobs

Mike OMalley said:

There is a bug in the Mac Quicken Deluxe 2018.  Heres how to replicate;
Enter a transaction and make it an account to account transfer as the category.  
Leave the program, and relaunch.  
Use the same Payee so that it comes up as a remembered transaction, with the transfer as the category.  Now go and change the category to an actual category, and hit enter.
The transaction will be recorded twice, once in that register as a category transaction, and it will also appear in the to: transfer account as a transaction.

Isn't keeping the transaction amount the same the most important? (Leaving aside multi-currency, which is a different issue.) I'm not sure I understand the value of transfer  transactions if you could have more money departing one account than shows up in the other account.

s2kdriver

Mike OMalley said:

There is a bug in the Mac Quicken Deluxe 2018.  Heres how to replicate;
Enter a transaction and make it an account to account transfer as the category.  
Leave the program, and relaunch.  
Use the same Payee so that it comes up as a remembered transaction, with the transfer as the category.  Now go and change the category to an actual category, and hit enter.
The transaction will be recorded twice, once in that register as a category transaction, and it will also appear in the to: transfer account as a transaction.

Quick clarification re jacobs comment above.  I was never suggesting that QM support different monetary amounts on a transfer - that needs to be the same, only that it support independence of supplementary fields (e.g. memo, payee, etc), since these can be different on each side of linked transactions.

jacobs

@SnoopyFC's screen shots remind me of another thing I wish the developers would clean up with the investment graphs: choosing better values for the Y axis. Quicken appears to basically be taking the difference of  the maximum and minimum, and dividing by 10 for the values on the Y axis. But who wants a chart with values like 82,000, 123,000, 164,000? You'd prefer to see 75,000, 125,000, 175,000, or perhaps 50,000, 100,000 and 150,000.

To be fair, it's far better in Quicken 2018 than Quicken 2017 and earlier, where you'd see Y axis values like 104.95k, 108.84k, 112.73k. But it would be great to go a step further and have the software understand that humans are going to want grid line units in multiples of round numbers (like 5, 10, 25, 100 of hundreds or thousands or or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands).

s2kdriver

Snoopy FC said:

Under the Investing:Retirement (or education or brokerage) headings on the left sidebar, I've noticed that the graphs for these aggregated selections only show true historical graphs if all the subordinate accounts are shown (unhidden) in the sidebar at left.  Any subordinate accounts that are hidden are not reflected in the aggregate graph.  Notice the screenshot here with all subordinate accounts unhidden: 

Now, notice the screenshot with a single subordinate account hidden:

If you're not aware of this issue in reviewing your account history, the graphical presentation can be misleading.  Is there a way to allow hiding of the closed accounts and still allowing their data to be incorporated into these graphs?  If not can it be added?  

Seems like this is an option that could be added to the account selection screen here as a column: 
to the right of reports.....

Note that the included accounts in the summary page for the aggregated investment headings (Investing, Brokerage, Retirement, Education) are controlled by the filter drop-down list just below the graph area.  If you want to show all accounts, or only a subset of accounts in the graph & portfolio tables, the functionality is already there in the filter settings.  Adding a second way of selecting this may be confusing and could conflict with the filter's existing functionality.

Snoopy FC

Snoopy FC said:

Under the Investing:Retirement (or education or brokerage) headings on the left sidebar, I've noticed that the graphs for these aggregated selections only show true historical graphs if all the subordinate accounts are shown (unhidden) in the sidebar at left.  Any subordinate accounts that are hidden are not reflected in the aggregate graph.  Notice the screenshot here with all subordinate accounts unhidden: 

Now, notice the screenshot with a single subordinate account hidden:

If you're not aware of this issue in reviewing your account history, the graphical presentation can be misleading.  Is there a way to allow hiding of the closed accounts and still allowing their data to be incorporated into these graphs?  If not can it be added?  

Seems like this is an option that could be added to the account selection screen here as a column: 
to the right of reports.....

So if I were to filter out closed accounts, would the value of those still be shown on the graph? I’d like to be able to hide closed accounts on the sidebar, but still have their historic value represented graphically.

s2kdriver

Snoopy FC said:

Under the Investing:Retirement (or education or brokerage) headings on the left sidebar, I've noticed that the graphs for these aggregated selections only show true historical graphs if all the subordinate accounts are shown (unhidden) in the sidebar at left.  Any subordinate accounts that are hidden are not reflected in the aggregate graph.  Notice the screenshot here with all subordinate accounts unhidden: 

Now, notice the screenshot with a single subordinate account hidden:

If you're not aware of this issue in reviewing your account history, the graphical presentation can be misleading.  Is there a way to allow hiding of the closed accounts and still allowing their data to be incorporated into these graphs?  If not can it be added?  

Seems like this is an option that could be added to the account selection screen here as a column: 
to the right of reports.....

I understand your desire to hide the now-empty accounts from the sidebar, but keep history in graphs and other performance reporting - especially for investments.  I have this issue myself, but currently just live with any important but empty accounts in the sidebar to ensure they are included in calculations.  My point above was meant to highlight that QM has scope assumptions designed around sidebar visibility, as well as filtering techniques below that.  Changes around these assumptions may cause other side-effects which would have to be carefully thought through (e.g. how to let the user know the scope is greater than the visible sidebar accounts, what to include in the transaction list, what accounts are visible in the drop down filters, etc).  Not an impossible issue to solve, but not obvious from a usability perspective.  Perhaps others may have interesting ideas or opinions on how best to address this.

smayer97

John Morrow said:

For a loan already in place, how can I:

1. change the Interest category, and
2. set a category for the Principal (it was set as a Transfer by the loan wizard)

for future transactions?

The obvious place to go is the Scheduled Transaction for the loan, but it is greyed out and cannot be changed.



A backup solution is the Loan/Edit Payment Terms wizard. But it allows to do 1. only, not 2.

I do not know enough about this but not being able to set your own principal account does not make a lot of sense. You can in QM2007...

smayer97

rrtorrenti said:

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Updated 5.5.5 Q2018 for Mac. What happened to my TABS? Click on "Show All Tabs" ....


What happened to my TABS? Click on "Show All Tabs" and Quicken minimizes!  Seriously?

I too am a BIG user of multiple windows...I work with multiple accounts all the time (I have over 100 active accounts) for lots of different comparison work, and then there are times I leave account windows open open simply to remind me that I have unfinished business in that account, rather than constantly having to make notes somewhere...

This in and out kind of approach, so common on cell phones, just does not work for me, as I often have so many things on the go at the same time.

smayer97

Snoopy FC said:

Using version 5.5.5 and I'm still wishing that All Transactions would truly allow searching through "all transactions" including those in hidden accounts.  It would allow for faster searching for older information that I need to access occasionally.  

You can add your VOTE to Add Option to Search in Hidden Account Registers.

First, click on the underlined link above to go there, then click VOTE at the top of THAT page, so your will vote count for THIS feature and increase its visibility to the developers by seeking to have the features you need or desire end up in the latest version.

While you are at it, you may want to add your VOTE to related IDEAS found on the List of Requests for Data Entry and Usability Options and Features. Click on the underlined link, then follow the instructions to add your vote to more related ideas. Your VOTES matter!

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

Unknown

lenigandave4 said:

Marcus and the Mac guys-- I am not able to enter passwords to my Schwab accounts supposedly to the keychain and update any transactions or prices.  I reenter the passwords and transactions and prices still do not update.  I have done 2 reboots with the same result.

Is it a problem that Line of Credit accounts are listed under "Credit Card" and Checking Accounts are listed under "Cash" in the sidebar?  (Quicken for Mac 2018)

Unknown

lenigandave4 said:

Marcus and the Mac guys-- I am not able to enter passwords to my Schwab accounts supposedly to the keychain and update any transactions or prices.  I reenter the passwords and transactions and prices still do not update.  I have done 2 reboots with the same result.

Am I correct that the Action column servers no operational purpose?  Unrelated: Could the developers add a pop-up, "Are you sure you want to delete that transaction?" since it's done with a simple delete key press.

Unknown

lenigandave4 said:

Marcus and the Mac guys-- I am not able to enter passwords to my Schwab accounts supposedly to the keychain and update any transactions or prices.  I reenter the passwords and transactions and prices still do not update.  I have done 2 reboots with the same result.

Very helpful. Thanks!  In an earlier comment I inquired about the categorization of accounts in the side bar.  I don't think this a functionality issue but more one of interface logic.  Correct?

jacobs

lenigandave4 said:

Marcus and the Mac guys-- I am not able to enter passwords to my Schwab accounts supposedly to the keychain and update any transactions or prices.  I reenter the passwords and transactions and prices still do not update.  I have done 2 reboots with the same result.

Yes, Quicken handles a line of credit like a credit card, and all checking accounts, savings accounts and cash accounts are all grouped under a heading of Cash. You might prefer to group them differently or use different nomenclature, but there's no option to re-name or re-group accounts.  (This is an often-requested change for the future; you can go to this page and click Vote at the top right to vote for this feature, and/or browse this page for other topics related to user interface improvements which you can click on and vote on. the developers look at votes on this site as one of their areas of guidance on what features and enhancements to tackle.)

You can vote for the idea to have an optional warning to confirm a transaction deletion on this page. That's one I'd like, too. Although unlimited undo is a great feature of Quicken Mac, it assumes you (a) know you inadvertently or incorrectly deleted a transaction, and (b) that you did it in the current session and (c) not too many steps before. I've found I've sometimes deleted something without realizing it, and only discovered it much later when Undo would not be useful. I'd love to be able to turn on a preference to get an "Are you sure?"-type warning for deleting transactions.

Unknown

Thank you, thank you, thank you for 5.5.5.  The investment area performance has been significantly improved.

Unknown

lenigandave4 said:

Marcus and the Mac guys-- I am not able to enter passwords to my Schwab accounts supposedly to the keychain and update any transactions or prices.  I reenter the passwords and transactions and prices still do not update.  I have done 2 reboots with the same result.

Exactly!  The other disappointment for me, after literally 25 years of Quicken use, was that my fairly elaborate custom reports didn't carry over.  I have dozens of them.

The new report generator will take some getting used to.  Maybe it's just me but seeing sums on the top of a long list of numbers is just counterintuitive.  I learned to add from top to bottom with the sum at the bottom. 

Change is hard when you're old(er).