When I add a bill reminder it matches with the wrong company. Why can't I do this manually as I hav

Michelle Trayers

When I try to add a bill reminder it matches me with the wrong company. Why can't I do this manually like I have in the past.? I'm using Quicken for Mac.

I want to add a new bill that I only pay one time per year. I have not added a bill in sometime and the process seems to have changed. There are only two options, pay or track, neither which seem to be what I want. I don't pay my bills through quicken, I only use it for accounting. And when I choose track it matches me with a company that is not correct and give me no other options. How do I set up reminders now?

Quicken Harold

Hello Michelle, appreciate your question.

Which version of Quicken for Mac are you using? Is it Starter, Deluxe or Premier?

Please let us know so that we can best help you.

Respectfully,
~ Quicken Harold.

John_in_NC

Quicken Harold said:

Hello Michelle, appreciate your question.

Which version of Quicken for Mac are you using? Is it Starter, Deluxe or Premier?

Please let us know so that we can best help you.

Respectfully,
~ Quicken Harold.

This has to be 2018 as that is the only version with the ability to track bills.

You will want to click on Bills & Income at the top, and the click on Projected Balances.

There, you will see the more traditional register view where you can manually add in scheduled transactions. These do not have to be payed electronically or tracked. They are simply reminders like Quicken has had for years. And yes, you can set it to occur annually.

RCinNJ

I want to echo the OP's frustration "Why can't I do this manually as I have in the past?" I track upcoming payments, but I do not pay through QM2018.

As an example of how it has become both more complex and confusing, try setting up payments when they recur but not in the presets (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc). The Federal and NJ estimated tax payments this year are due on 6/15/18, 9/17/18 and 1/15/19. It seems the only way to set these up is one at a time. I wouldn't mind if everything was set for the 15th, but as far as I can see there is no way to account for the 4 month skip at the end. I tried just setting to every 3 months and then going to the last payment and changing that, but QM only allows me to change the entire series. If I try to edit it, the choices I get are 1). Mark as paid and skip all 2 earlier, unpaid instances. 2). Skip this instance and all 2 earlier, unpaid instances. Or 3). Edit this series of scheduled transactions. If I choose #3 I am taken back to the original instance where the presets don't fit so there is no way for me to fix it.

John_in_NC

RCinNJ said:

I want to echo the OP's frustration "Why can't I do this manually as I have in the past?" I track upcoming payments, but I do not pay through QM2018.

As an example of how it has become both more complex and confusing, try setting up payments when they recur but not in the presets (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc). The Federal and NJ estimated tax payments this year are due on 6/15/18, 9/17/18 and 1/15/19. It seems the only way to set these up is one at a time. I wouldn't mind if everything was set for the 15th, but as far as I can see there is no way to account for the 4 month skip at the end. I tried just setting to every 3 months and then going to the last payment and changing that, but QM only allows me to change the entire series. If I try to edit it, the choices I get are 1). Mark as paid and skip all 2 earlier, unpaid instances. 2). Skip this instance and all 2 earlier, unpaid instances. Or 3). Edit this series of scheduled transactions. If I choose #3 I am taken back to the original instance where the presets don't fit so there is no way for me to fix it.

RCinNJ: Follow my advice above regarding the manual process of tracking things. You don't have to worry about setting things up to track or pay electronically.

Regarding your estimated tax payments (or any other scheduled transaction that varies): double click the reminder. Choose the "mark as paid" (first) option. This will take you to the transaction that will post. Make any changes (such as the date, amount, etc.) to this, and hit return to save. This only affects that one transaction, and the rest of the series is not altered.

RCinNJ

RCinNJ said:

I want to echo the OP's frustration "Why can't I do this manually as I have in the past?" I track upcoming payments, but I do not pay through QM2018.

As an example of how it has become both more complex and confusing, try setting up payments when they recur but not in the presets (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc). The Federal and NJ estimated tax payments this year are due on 6/15/18, 9/17/18 and 1/15/19. It seems the only way to set these up is one at a time. I wouldn't mind if everything was set for the 15th, but as far as I can see there is no way to account for the 4 month skip at the end. I tried just setting to every 3 months and then going to the last payment and changing that, but QM only allows me to change the entire series. If I try to edit it, the choices I get are 1). Mark as paid and skip all 2 earlier, unpaid instances. 2). Skip this instance and all 2 earlier, unpaid instances. Or 3). Edit this series of scheduled transactions. If I choose #3 I am taken back to the original instance where the presets don't fit so there is no way for me to fix it.

John in NC, It may be that the description of what QM is going to do is wrong, but as I said, the first option says "1). Mark as paid and skip all 2 earlier, unpaid instances." I want to make changes to the 3rd transaction and keep the first two as-is.

As far as following your advice, I am working from the Projected Balances tab as you suggested and setting it to "Next 12 Months" to show all my upcoming tax payments.

John_in_NC

RCinNJ said:

I want to echo the OP's frustration "Why can't I do this manually as I have in the past?" I track upcoming payments, but I do not pay through QM2018.

As an example of how it has become both more complex and confusing, try setting up payments when they recur but not in the presets (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc). The Federal and NJ estimated tax payments this year are due on 6/15/18, 9/17/18 and 1/15/19. It seems the only way to set these up is one at a time. I wouldn't mind if everything was set for the 15th, but as far as I can see there is no way to account for the 4 month skip at the end. I tried just setting to every 3 months and then going to the last payment and changing that, but QM only allows me to change the entire series. If I try to edit it, the choices I get are 1). Mark as paid and skip all 2 earlier, unpaid instances. 2). Skip this instance and all 2 earlier, unpaid instances. Or 3). Edit this series of scheduled transactions. If I choose #3 I am taken back to the original instance where the presets don't fit so there is no way for me to fix it.

You won't be able to "mark as paid" scheduled transactions out of order-so that is why you are getting that warning. If you do, the program thinks you missed/want to skip the prior, and hence that warning.

With this skip at the last four months, it probably is just easiest to do what you have done: create separate reminders for each payment and have them end after one instance.

Michelle Trayers

Quicken Harold said:

Hello Michelle, appreciate your question.

Which version of Quicken for Mac are you using? Is it Starter, Deluxe or Premier?

Please let us know so that we can best help you.

Respectfully,
~ Quicken Harold.

Thank you. I have not set up new bill reminders in a while. I am in the process of getting ready to go back to the PC version. I really don't like the MAC addition, although I love my MacBook.

Michelle Trayers

Quicken Harold said:

Hello Michelle, appreciate your question.

Which version of Quicken for Mac are you using? Is it Starter, Deluxe or Premier?

Please let us know so that we can best help you.

Respectfully,
~ Quicken Harold.

Hey Harold,

I believe I have found the answer for my issue.

I am using Premier. I have been using the Mac version for a couple of years and I am not happy with it. I'm in the process of getting an old PC running just so I can run Quicken and transferring back to the PC version. I love my MacBook but the Quicken software is missing key features that were important to me. A couple are savings goals and the ability to change bill amounts without having to change every one in the future. 

smayer97

Quicken Harold said:

Hello Michelle, appreciate your question.

Which version of Quicken for Mac are you using? Is it Starter, Deluxe or Premier?

Please let us know so that we can best help you.

Respectfully,
~ Quicken Harold.

Be aware that it may be very difficult, if not impossible to migrate back from QM2018 to QW2018 because the import process in QW2018 is very broken and typically scrambles categorization of transactions. So YMMV.

Meanwhile, you can add your VOTE to 
Add Ability to Edit First Transaction in Bill Reminder (Schedule Transactions) Series Without Changing the Rest.

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 Bill Reminders (aka Scheduled Transactions) and Graph Features (aka Cash Flow Forecast or Projected Balance). Click on the underlined link, then follow the instructions to add your vote to more related ideas.

You can also add your VOTE to Add savings goals to Quicken for Mac. This idea will eventually be added to the List of Requests for New Capabilities. Click on the underlined link, then click FOLLOW at the top of the page so you can be notified of any new related IDEAS to which you could add your vote when they are added. Your VOTES matter!

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

RCinNJ

RCinNJ said:

I want to echo the OP's frustration "Why can't I do this manually as I have in the past?" I track upcoming payments, but I do not pay through QM2018.

As an example of how it has become both more complex and confusing, try setting up payments when they recur but not in the presets (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc). The Federal and NJ estimated tax payments this year are due on 6/15/18, 9/17/18 and 1/15/19. It seems the only way to set these up is one at a time. I wouldn't mind if everything was set for the 15th, but as far as I can see there is no way to account for the 4 month skip at the end. I tried just setting to every 3 months and then going to the last payment and changing that, but QM only allows me to change the entire series. If I try to edit it, the choices I get are 1). Mark as paid and skip all 2 earlier, unpaid instances. 2). Skip this instance and all 2 earlier, unpaid instances. Or 3). Edit this series of scheduled transactions. If I choose #3 I am taken back to the original instance where the presets don't fit so there is no way for me to fix it.

"it probably is just easiest to do what you have done: create separate reminders for each payment and have them end after one instance."

Yes, it seems entering transactions one by one is the "solution". The new Bills & Income was poorly thought out before release: breaking a number of things that in my experience worked fine. It may be better for some users (I wouldn't know since I'm not one of them), but improving for some and breaking for others is not my idea of good program changes.

Adding to the difficulty of creating manual reminders based on prior transactions is that, if it is for a CHECK, choosing "duplicate" does not duplicate the setting for PRINT and does not keep the address for the check. 

Michelle Trayers

Quicken Harold said:

Hello Michelle, appreciate your question.

Which version of Quicken for Mac are you using? Is it Starter, Deluxe or Premier?

Please let us know so that we can best help you.

Respectfully,
~ Quicken Harold.

It is very disconcerting to think I can't go back to a PC version of Quicken. I called Quicken support and they assured me I would be able to do that. Have you tried to make this change yourself? What kinds of issues have you had? I have voted for the changes I would like to see in Quicken for Mac but in the past two years they have not made any of them. The missing features are simply things I don't want to do without.