Transfers - Recording Entries

Chris Mead

Using the latest Quicken for MAC - when I record an entry with the category of 'transfer-another account", I expect Quicken to make an opposite entry in the other account.  For example, debit checking account credit VISA account.  Quicken 2007 for MAC worked this way.  This version does not.  Am I doing something wrong?

jacobs

Quicken 2018 does have linked transfers, just like Quicken 2007 did, so I think the answer is that you probably are doing it wrong.

You can use the Category field for transfers, as you did in Quicken 2007. You type a left bracket -- [ -- and then select the name the account you are transferring to. So in the Category field, you should see something like "Transfer: [Chase Visa]" (or whatever your account name is). The bracket is critical; if you're just typing the word transfer and an account name, you're not establishing a linked transfer.

Alternatively, you can make the Transfer column visible (if it's not, click the Columns icon in the bottom toolbar and select Transfer), and in the Transfer field, you can select the account for the transfer.

One difference from Quicken 2007 is that a linked transaction can have both a transfer account and a category. (But typically you don't want an expense category if you're transferring funds between accounts, as the expense has been recorded in the other account already.)

You might want to read this article about Transfers for some additional explanation.

smayer97

jacobs said:

Quicken 2018 does have linked transfers, just like Quicken 2007 did, so I think the answer is that you probably are doing it wrong.

You can use the Category field for transfers, as you did in Quicken 2007. You type a left bracket -- [ -- and then select the name the account you are transferring to. So in the Category field, you should see something like "Transfer: [Chase Visa]" (or whatever your account name is). The bracket is critical; if you're just typing the word transfer and an account name, you're not establishing a linked transfer.

Alternatively, you can make the Transfer column visible (if it's not, click the Columns icon in the bottom toolbar and select Transfer), and in the Transfer field, you can select the account for the transfer.

One difference from Quicken 2007 is that a linked transaction can have both a transfer account and a category. (But typically you don't want an expense category if you're transferring funds between accounts, as the expense has been recorded in the other account already.)

You might want to read this article about Transfers for some additional explanation.

If you want it to work exactly like QM2007 by entering '[', you have to turn on the feature in the preferences:



Be aware that QMac has the unique ability to allow a transaction to be both a Transfer AND be categorized also, something that other versions of Quicken cannot do (QM2007 and earlier or QWin). 
BUT the problem is with the use of the Preference "Allow creation of linked transfers using the category field" AND not having the Transfer field showing:

When this features was introduced in QM2017 v4.3 (just over a year ago), it was so you could use the Category field to enter transfers WITHOUT the need to have the Transfer field visible. 

The problem is that the developers did not correctly handled this very use case correctly, where a transaction that was once a recorded as a transfer is reused but when the user reuses that transactions, the user has no clue that the Transfer field is filled in AND provides no way provides no way to remove the transfer without making the transfer field visible, thereby defeating the very purpose of the new feature.

The work-around is to make the Transfer field visible and remove that info.

HOWEVER: apparently there is a fix coming in QM2018 v5.7 to correct this behaviour.

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

Chris Mead

jacobs said:

Quicken 2018 does have linked transfers, just like Quicken 2007 did, so I think the answer is that you probably are doing it wrong.

You can use the Category field for transfers, as you did in Quicken 2007. You type a left bracket -- [ -- and then select the name the account you are transferring to. So in the Category field, you should see something like "Transfer: [Chase Visa]" (or whatever your account name is). The bracket is critical; if you're just typing the word transfer and an account name, you're not establishing a linked transfer.

Alternatively, you can make the Transfer column visible (if it's not, click the Columns icon in the bottom toolbar and select Transfer), and in the Transfer field, you can select the account for the transfer.

One difference from Quicken 2007 is that a linked transaction can have both a transfer account and a category. (But typically you don't want an expense category if you're transferring funds between accounts, as the expense has been recorded in the other account already.)

You might want to read this article about Transfers for some additional explanation.

While i like the response, the software behavior isn't as you describe...exactly.  My preferences were already correct.  While true: when creating a new transaction as a transfer it is automatically loaded in the other account..

But false: It doesn't work for downloaded transactions.  That is the use case.  Try it.  I downloaded the data and one transaction was a credit card payment.  It was not correctly classified.  I correctly classified it as a transfer and the software had no idea how to classify the other entry.  I had to find it and classify it as a transfer in the other direction.

smayer97

jacobs said:

Quicken 2018 does have linked transfers, just like Quicken 2007 did, so I think the answer is that you probably are doing it wrong.

You can use the Category field for transfers, as you did in Quicken 2007. You type a left bracket -- [ -- and then select the name the account you are transferring to. So in the Category field, you should see something like "Transfer: [Chase Visa]" (or whatever your account name is). The bracket is critical; if you're just typing the word transfer and an account name, you're not establishing a linked transfer.

Alternatively, you can make the Transfer column visible (if it's not, click the Columns icon in the bottom toolbar and select Transfer), and in the Transfer field, you can select the account for the transfer.

One difference from Quicken 2007 is that a linked transaction can have both a transfer account and a category. (But typically you don't want an expense category if you're transferring funds between accounts, as the expense has been recorded in the other account already.)

You might want to read this article about Transfers for some additional explanation.

Now I understand.... Quicken has no way to identify that downloaded transactions are transfers... The only ways to deal with this is to either categorize it after it downloads or to create a manual or scheduled transaction and then Quicken will attempt to match it. If it does not automatically match, you can manually match the transactions by clicking and dragging one over the other. Then, maybe Quicken will learn to perform the matches in the future.

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

Chris Mead

jacobs said:

Quicken 2018 does have linked transfers, just like Quicken 2007 did, so I think the answer is that you probably are doing it wrong.

You can use the Category field for transfers, as you did in Quicken 2007. You type a left bracket -- [ -- and then select the name the account you are transferring to. So in the Category field, you should see something like "Transfer: [Chase Visa]" (or whatever your account name is). The bracket is critical; if you're just typing the word transfer and an account name, you're not establishing a linked transfer.

Alternatively, you can make the Transfer column visible (if it's not, click the Columns icon in the bottom toolbar and select Transfer), and in the Transfer field, you can select the account for the transfer.

One difference from Quicken 2007 is that a linked transaction can have both a transfer account and a category. (But typically you don't want an expense category if you're transferring funds between accounts, as the expense has been recorded in the other account already.)

You might want to read this article about Transfers for some additional explanation.

Your quote, "Quicken has no way to identify that downloaded transactions are transfers":

After the download, I do manually update the record as a transfer.  Quicken 2007 would find the corresponding record in the 'companion' account and categorize it as well.  This version does not do that.

The alternate would be that manually categorizing an already-download transaction as a transfer would create the similar transaction in the companion account in essence duplicating it.  But 2007 figured that out and didn't do that.  It's not really that hard of a software problem to fix.

Chris

smayer97

jacobs said:

Quicken 2018 does have linked transfers, just like Quicken 2007 did, so I think the answer is that you probably are doing it wrong.

You can use the Category field for transfers, as you did in Quicken 2007. You type a left bracket -- [ -- and then select the name the account you are transferring to. So in the Category field, you should see something like "Transfer: [Chase Visa]" (or whatever your account name is). The bracket is critical; if you're just typing the word transfer and an account name, you're not establishing a linked transfer.

Alternatively, you can make the Transfer column visible (if it's not, click the Columns icon in the bottom toolbar and select Transfer), and in the Transfer field, you can select the account for the transfer.

One difference from Quicken 2007 is that a linked transaction can have both a transfer account and a category. (But typically you don't want an expense category if you're transferring funds between accounts, as the expense has been recorded in the other account already.)

You might want to read this article about Transfers for some additional explanation.

Actually, QM2007 has NEVER had that matching feature. QWin has that feature, though I cannot say how far back that feature has been present.

I thought there might already be an IDEA thread created requesting that feature though I cannot track it down so you may want to create an IDEA thread to make that recommendation.

BTW, a lot of software problems are not hard to fix but here are literally hundreds of requests for changes in QMac, since they have been rebuilding the Mac software from scratch over the last few years. So it is a matter of prioritization by the dev group. The number of votes for a feature does help them in that regard.

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

jacobs

jacobs said:

Quicken 2018 does have linked transfers, just like Quicken 2007 did, so I think the answer is that you probably are doing it wrong.

You can use the Category field for transfers, as you did in Quicken 2007. You type a left bracket -- [ -- and then select the name the account you are transferring to. So in the Category field, you should see something like "Transfer: [Chase Visa]" (or whatever your account name is). The bracket is critical; if you're just typing the word transfer and an account name, you're not establishing a linked transfer.

Alternatively, you can make the Transfer column visible (if it's not, click the Columns icon in the bottom toolbar and select Transfer), and in the Transfer field, you can select the account for the transfer.

One difference from Quicken 2007 is that a linked transaction can have both a transfer account and a category. (But typically you don't want an expense category if you're transferring funds between accounts, as the expense has been recorded in the other account already.)

You might want to read this article about Transfers for some additional explanation.

Chris, let's say you're dealing with a payment from your checking account to pay your Amex account. If you download the transactions for your checking account, there will be the payment to Amex. As discussed above, Quicken can't know which account within Quicken this is, but if you change the category to "[Amex]", that will create a linked transaction in your Amex account documenting the payment. Now, if you subsequently download transactions from your Amex account, they will include the receipt of a payment. Just delete it, since the payment already exists as your linked transaction.

In short, no download of generic financial information can tell Quicken which internal Quicken account to sign it to as a transfer. So you need to do two things manually: make one of the downloaded transactions into a transfer, and delete the other. Or... just leave the two independent transactions and don't link them. (Some people prefer this, since the day the transaction hits your checking account may differ from the day it hits your credit card account.)

On thing to be aware of in Quicken 2018: it's really one transaction that shows up in two accounts, while in Quicken 2007, it created two transactions which were linked. If you edit the memo in one account, in Quicken 2018 the same change is visible in the other account; in Quicken 2007 that's not the case.

Chris Mead

jacobs said:

Quicken 2018 does have linked transfers, just like Quicken 2007 did, so I think the answer is that you probably are doing it wrong.

You can use the Category field for transfers, as you did in Quicken 2007. You type a left bracket -- [ -- and then select the name the account you are transferring to. So in the Category field, you should see something like "Transfer: [Chase Visa]" (or whatever your account name is). The bracket is critical; if you're just typing the word transfer and an account name, you're not establishing a linked transfer.

Alternatively, you can make the Transfer column visible (if it's not, click the Columns icon in the bottom toolbar and select Transfer), and in the Transfer field, you can select the account for the transfer.

One difference from Quicken 2007 is that a linked transaction can have both a transfer account and a category. (But typically you don't want an expense category if you're transferring funds between accounts, as the expense has been recorded in the other account already.)

You might want to read this article about Transfers for some additional explanation.

I think this is the key: "it's really one transaction that shows up in two accounts, while in Quicken 2007, it created two transactions which were linked."  

In actuality, the transfers are not created as costs as the costs have already been incurred against the credit card.  This is a great example of income/cost verses cash. I accrue the cost the day the credit card is credited but the cash when the checking account is debited.

I'm sure there are CPAs that work at Quicken and I bet they scratch their heads when the watch how the software actually works.