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batch edit security-based transactions

unknown

I would like to add a tag to a number of security-based transactions to facilitate reporting. It appears that adding tags to these transactions must be done individually rather than using the search function and selecting the desired transactions for a common edit. Is my experience correct? If so, is there a work-around?

Thanks for your help

Lex

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mshiggins

Can you explain what a security-based transaction is?

unknown

Sorry. I think its actually called an "investement transaction" -- a transaction in an investment account. Buy, sell, cash in, cash out, etc. transactions in an investment account.

unknown

This is one transaction in a search list of many transactions. The click boxes of the ones I want to batch edit are all greyed out and show this message when I try to click the box.

NotACPA

Lex,
Where in Q are you when you take that snapshot? Because the boxes to the left are curious. Here's what a transaction in one of my investment accounts looks like.

NOTE, no box to the left.

Also, I don't believe that it's possible to add Tags to Investment transactions ... because except for the "Miscellaneous Expense" transaction, you can't specify the Category ... and Tags are extensions of the Category field

unknown

I performed a general search to identify all transactions, in investment and non-investment accounts that I wish to tag identically to permit creation of a specific report. The image I uploaded is from the search results box with the mouse hovered over a grayed out check box to provide the help message. I realize I can edit relevant transactions individually to add a specific tag. But the sheer volume of such transactions led me to find a simpler approach which I have used many times before over the years. I don’t recall encountering this difficulty in earlier Q versions. I can’t believe I haven’t used this approach on investment transactions before. But it’s possible.

Thanks for your help.

NotACPA

I performed a general search to identify all transactions, in investment and non-investment accounts that I wish to tag identically to permit creation of a specific report. The image I uploaded is from the search results box with the mouse hovered over a grayed out check box to provide the help message. I realize I can edit relevant transactions individually to add a specific tag. But the sheer volume of such transactions led me to find a simpler approach which I have used many times before over the years. I don’t recall encountering this difficulty in earlier Q versions. I can’t believe I haven’t used this approach on investment transactions before. But it’s possible.

Thanks for your help.

What the error message is telling you, accurately I believe, is that you can only edit investment transactions using the dialogs in the investment accounts.

And, in those investment accounts, the "category" of the transaction is determined and locked down by the type of transaction. Meaning you can't, for example, use an Expense category with a Dividend transaction.

And, since you can't specify the category, you can't specify a Tag for the transaction since Tags are extensions of the Category field.

mshiggins

What tag are you trying to apply and for what purpose?

unknown

I performed a general search to identify all transactions, in investment and non-investment accounts that I wish to tag identically to permit creation of a specific report. The image I uploaded is from the search results box with the mouse hovered over a grayed out check box to provide the help message. I realize I can edit relevant transactions individually to add a specific tag. But the sheer volume of such transactions led me to find a simpler approach which I have used many times before over the years. I don’t recall encountering this difficulty in earlier Q versions. I can’t believe I haven’t used this approach on investment transactions before. But it’s possible.

Thanks for your help.

Hmmm. That does make sense, I guess. I haven’t used the Tags feature very much. It didn’t occur to me that they would somehow be extensions of Category.

Thanks again for your help on this.

q_lurker

It appears that adding tags to these transactions must be done individually rather than using the search function and selecting the desired transactions for a common edit. Is my experience correct? If so, is there a work-around?

a) I believe your experience is accurate; you can only add tags individually.
b) I do not know of a workaround.
c) The ability to add tags to investment transactions is very limited. I believe it would only apply to 1) MiscExp and MiscInc type-transactions where the category is specified, and 2) BuyX, SellX and similar 'transfer-inclusive' transactions where you could add the /tag modifier after the transfer account in the transaction list. I have not tested all those permutations..

mshiggins

From C. D. Bales:

Many (most?) investment transactions cannot be tagged.

As a general guideline, I think the only investment transactions that can be tagged are those where the user has access to (can modify) the transaction Category. Mostly, I believe, this means investment transactions that appear in the "Cash Transactions" group in the "Enter transaction" dropdown when entering transactions using the "Enter Transactions" button in an investment account.

There is only one way to make mass changes to any investment transaction:

via a non-investment report that displays individual transactions. The most commonly referenced such report for this purpose is the Banking > Transaction report.

To modify multiple transactions at one time in a report:

- select the transactions in the report as you would select multiple files in Windows Explorer

- click the "Edit" button in the report

- choose the desired Edit from the dropdown - in this case, "Retag transaction(s)"

Note: there are restrictions on which transaction types are eligible for which report Edit options. If even one selected report transaction is not eligible for a particular report Edit option ... no selected report transactions will be eligible for that report Edit option. So, for example, if you are trying to make a mass change to the Tag for selected transactions, and even one of the transactions you select is ineligible to be Retagged (such as a split transaction or a Bought/Sold/Div transaction), the option to "Retag transaction(s)" will be grayed out.

unknown

Thanks to everyone that offered help on this issue. Seems like even tho I’ve been using Q for many years, there’s always new stuff to learn.