Correcting or Changing Downloaded Transactions

imdcareys

Quicken - Home, Business & Rental Property: 2018 v R11.18
Windows 10 v1803


On a new install of Quicken, I set up a connection to my bank.  All accounts and transactions from Day One of opening the accounts were created and downloaded. This is nearly 3 years of transactions. I don't think I need them all, but they do have the benefit of showing the correct current balances in each account. I do want to end up with accurate reports for 2018 and forward.

I discovered the autocorrect feature for Payees, and have made one simple renaming rule. I have also corrected just a few transaction's categories. I'm thinking I could do this for one month of transactions (1/2018) and then somehow re-download the next month or the rest of 2018 and let the renaming rules "fix" all the transactions for the rest of the year. I would hope that it would also "fix" the categories for those I changed in January.

I have seen some posts here that talk about redownloading everything, or downloading and removing duplicates. My bank transactions are downloaded using "Express Web Connect".

My questions around this are: 

(1) Is it possible to just remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts in some way so that a fresh update will start with 2/1/18 and fix the payee names and categories?  

(2) Further, is it possible to just re-download February, make further renaming rules and corrections and then repeat that process for each month?

(3) Just for file size, could I also delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18, prevent them from downloading again, and then modify each account's opening balance?


Thank you

Sherlock

(1) Is it possible to just remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts in some way so that a fresh update will start with 2/1/18 and fix the payee names and categories?  

It is possible to remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts (for example, using a Transaction report).  It should not be possible to import transactions into an account that has already seen the downloaded transactions however sometimes the Express Web Connect connection method does allow previously downloaded transactions to reappear.  The work around to reliably download the transactions again is to move the transactions we wish to preserve to a new account.  Duplicate transactions may be downloaded into the new account but can be subsequently removed (for example, by deleting the appropriate range of new transactions sorted by Order Entered).

(2) Further, is it possible to just re-download February, make further renaming rules and corrections and then repeat that process for each month?

The process may be repeated.

(3) Just for file size, could I also delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18, prevent them from downloading again, and then modify each account's opening balance?

It is possible to delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18 (for example, using a Transaction report) and to modify each account's opening balance.  Again, transactions that have previously been downloaded into an account should not reappear.  

An account's imported transactions are remembered by a Transaction Identifier (TID) that is supposed to be unique to the transaction.  It does not matter weather the imported transaction was accepted into the account or not.  The screen scraping scripts used by some of the Express Web Connect  connection method supported financial institutions generate TIDs for the available transactions and, sometimes, the TIDs generated do not match the TIDs that were previously generated for the same transaction.  This typically occurs when the state maintained for the account in the Express Web Connect servers is reset.

imdcareys

(1) Is it possible to just remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts in some way so that a fresh update will start with 2/1/18 and fix the payee names and categories?  

It is possible to remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts (for example, using a Transaction report).  It should not be possible to import transactions into an account that has already seen the downloaded transactions however sometimes the Express Web Connect connection method does allow previously downloaded transactions to reappear.  The work around to reliably download the transactions again is to move the transactions we wish to preserve to a new account.  Duplicate transactions may be downloaded into the new account but can be subsequently removed (for example, by deleting the appropriate range of new transactions sorted by Order Entered).

(2) Further, is it possible to just re-download February, make further renaming rules and corrections and then repeat that process for each month?

The process may be repeated.

(3) Just for file size, could I also delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18, prevent them from downloading again, and then modify each account's opening balance?

It is possible to delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18 (for example, using a Transaction report) and to modify each account's opening balance.  Again, transactions that have previously been downloaded into an account should not reappear.  

An account's imported transactions are remembered by a Transaction Identifier (TID) that is supposed to be unique to the transaction.  It does not matter weather the imported transaction was accepted into the account or not.  The screen scraping scripts used by some of the Express Web Connect  connection method supported financial institutions generate TIDs for the available transactions and, sometimes, the TIDs generated do not match the TIDs that were previously generated for the same transaction.  This typically occurs when the state maintained for the account in the Express Web Connect servers is reset.

Sherlock, thank you for taking time to provide all those details. I will give it a go tonight (after a fresh backup) and see what happens!

Bob_L

You could also run a banking, transactions report and edit the payee names and categories to what You want. Use click and then shift click to select multiple securities in between. Use CTL click to select non-adjacent transactions. Then right click the selection for options to rename the payees or re-categorize the selection.

UKR

Here's yet another way to solve your problem instead of deleting and re-downloading transactions:

Use Edit / Find/Replace to select the transactions that need fixing. Then replace the Category with the correct one. Or change the Payee Name to a common, standardized Payee Name.

For new transactions, manually review and accept downloaded transactions instead of letting Quicken dump everything directly into your account registers. This gives you better control over what's downloaded and what the new register transaction will look like, as far as Payee Names and Categories are concerned.

Where are the "Auto-accept downloaded
transaction" settings?

There are two places
where this is controlled in Quicken for Windows:

 - Globally, for all accounts, in Edit /
Preferences / Downloaded Transactions

 - For each account individually, the
global setting can be overridden from the Edit Account Details screen, Online
Services Tab. Look for blue text "Automatic Entry is: ON / OFF".
Click the text to change the setting.

imdcareys

(1) Is it possible to just remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts in some way so that a fresh update will start with 2/1/18 and fix the payee names and categories?  

It is possible to remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts (for example, using a Transaction report).  It should not be possible to import transactions into an account that has already seen the downloaded transactions however sometimes the Express Web Connect connection method does allow previously downloaded transactions to reappear.  The work around to reliably download the transactions again is to move the transactions we wish to preserve to a new account.  Duplicate transactions may be downloaded into the new account but can be subsequently removed (for example, by deleting the appropriate range of new transactions sorted by Order Entered).

(2) Further, is it possible to just re-download February, make further renaming rules and corrections and then repeat that process for each month?

The process may be repeated.

(3) Just for file size, could I also delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18, prevent them from downloading again, and then modify each account's opening balance?

It is possible to delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18 (for example, using a Transaction report) and to modify each account's opening balance.  Again, transactions that have previously been downloaded into an account should not reappear.  

An account's imported transactions are remembered by a Transaction Identifier (TID) that is supposed to be unique to the transaction.  It does not matter weather the imported transaction was accepted into the account or not.  The screen scraping scripts used by some of the Express Web Connect  connection method supported financial institutions generate TIDs for the available transactions and, sometimes, the TIDs generated do not match the TIDs that were previously generated for the same transaction.  This typically occurs when the state maintained for the account in the Express Web Connect servers is reset.

I was wrong about the Connection Method. Quicken setup used Direct Connect. Yesterday, I went to the Change connection method screen and there was only an option to use Express Web Connect, so while I thought that's what was being used - the screen was providing me the option to change from Direct Connect to Express Web Connect. Since I have a backup, I am going to try the method you suggested anyway. 

imdcareys

You could also run a banking, transactions report and edit the payee names and categories to what You want. Use click and then shift click to select multiple securities in between. Use CTL click to select non-adjacent transactions. Then right click the selection for options to rename the payees or re-categorize the selection.

Bob, I don't see the option to set up the automatic renaming rule there upon renaming a Payee. I do see that I can just sort the entire list by Payee and do them each in bulk. That may also be the case while directly viewing an account. That may be an option if the redownload doesn't work for me.

Thanks for the idea!

imdcareys

Here's yet another way to solve your problem instead of deleting and re-downloading transactions:

Use Edit / Find/Replace to select the transactions that need fixing. Then replace the Category with the correct one. Or change the Payee Name to a common, standardized Payee Name.

For new transactions, manually review and accept downloaded transactions instead of letting Quicken dump everything directly into your account registers. This gives you better control over what's downloaded and what the new register transaction will look like, as far as Payee Names and Categories are concerned.

Where are the "Auto-accept downloaded
transaction" settings?

There are two places
where this is controlled in Quicken for Windows:

 - Globally, for all accounts, in Edit /
Preferences / Downloaded Transactions

 - For each account individually, the
global setting can be overridden from the Edit Account Details screen, Online
Services Tab. Look for blue text "Automatic Entry is: ON / OFF".
Click the text to change the setting.

UKR, I like the idea of being able to manually review - especially along with redownloading. I can see what is coming before it gets into the accounts. For now, I have set it on the account I'm working on first. I may try the Find/Replace on the account after I try the redownload.

Thanks for this information. I know it will be helpful as I move forward

Unknown

Here's yet another way to solve your problem instead of deleting and re-downloading transactions:

Use Edit / Find/Replace to select the transactions that need fixing. Then replace the Category with the correct one. Or change the Payee Name to a common, standardized Payee Name.

For new transactions, manually review and accept downloaded transactions instead of letting Quicken dump everything directly into your account registers. This gives you better control over what's downloaded and what the new register transaction will look like, as far as Payee Names and Categories are concerned.

Where are the "Auto-accept downloaded
transaction" settings?

There are two places
where this is controlled in Quicken for Windows:

 - Globally, for all accounts, in Edit /
Preferences / Downloaded Transactions

 - For each account individually, the
global setting can be overridden from the Edit Account Details screen, Online
Services Tab. Look for blue text "Automatic Entry is: ON / OFF".
Click the text to change the setting.

along with redownloading
.

In general you can't redownload.

Each transaction is given an unique Id, Quicken stores that unique Id in the account register.  If you try to download the transaction again Quicken will ignore it as being a duplicate (even if you have deleted it in the register).

To redownload transactions you would have to unlink the account from downloading and create a new account and download into that one.

Sherlock

(1) Is it possible to just remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts in some way so that a fresh update will start with 2/1/18 and fix the payee names and categories?  

It is possible to remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts (for example, using a Transaction report).  It should not be possible to import transactions into an account that has already seen the downloaded transactions however sometimes the Express Web Connect connection method does allow previously downloaded transactions to reappear.  The work around to reliably download the transactions again is to move the transactions we wish to preserve to a new account.  Duplicate transactions may be downloaded into the new account but can be subsequently removed (for example, by deleting the appropriate range of new transactions sorted by Order Entered).

(2) Further, is it possible to just re-download February, make further renaming rules and corrections and then repeat that process for each month?

The process may be repeated.

(3) Just for file size, could I also delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18, prevent them from downloading again, and then modify each account's opening balance?

It is possible to delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18 (for example, using a Transaction report) and to modify each account's opening balance.  Again, transactions that have previously been downloaded into an account should not reappear.  

An account's imported transactions are remembered by a Transaction Identifier (TID) that is supposed to be unique to the transaction.  It does not matter weather the imported transaction was accepted into the account or not.  The screen scraping scripts used by some of the Express Web Connect  connection method supported financial institutions generate TIDs for the available transactions and, sometimes, the TIDs generated do not match the TIDs that were previously generated for the same transaction.  This typically occurs when the state maintained for the account in the Express Web Connect servers is reset.

The Direct Connect connection method is more reliable than the Express Web Connect connection method and, as the TID is produced by the financial institution, it is very much less likely a transaction previously downloaded into an account will ever reappear in the same account.

imdcareys

(1) Is it possible to just remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts in some way so that a fresh update will start with 2/1/18 and fix the payee names and categories?  

It is possible to remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts (for example, using a Transaction report).  It should not be possible to import transactions into an account that has already seen the downloaded transactions however sometimes the Express Web Connect connection method does allow previously downloaded transactions to reappear.  The work around to reliably download the transactions again is to move the transactions we wish to preserve to a new account.  Duplicate transactions may be downloaded into the new account but can be subsequently removed (for example, by deleting the appropriate range of new transactions sorted by Order Entered).

(2) Further, is it possible to just re-download February, make further renaming rules and corrections and then repeat that process for each month?

The process may be repeated.

(3) Just for file size, could I also delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18, prevent them from downloading again, and then modify each account's opening balance?

It is possible to delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18 (for example, using a Transaction report) and to modify each account's opening balance.  Again, transactions that have previously been downloaded into an account should not reappear.  

An account's imported transactions are remembered by a Transaction Identifier (TID) that is supposed to be unique to the transaction.  It does not matter weather the imported transaction was accepted into the account or not.  The screen scraping scripts used by some of the Express Web Connect  connection method supported financial institutions generate TIDs for the available transactions and, sometimes, the TIDs generated do not match the TIDs that were previously generated for the same transaction.  This typically occurs when the state maintained for the account in the Express Web Connect servers is reset.

I was able to move the transactions from the existing account to the new account, but the autocorrect rules did not move with them.  I could not connect the new account with the bank and simultaneously stop it from downloading all transactions at that point in time. At that point, I gave up. It is just too cumbersome.  I appreciate your suggestion and I probably misunderstood parts of it, but I am going to move on.

Thank you

Unknown

(1) Is it possible to just remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts in some way so that a fresh update will start with 2/1/18 and fix the payee names and categories?  

It is possible to remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts (for example, using a Transaction report).  It should not be possible to import transactions into an account that has already seen the downloaded transactions however sometimes the Express Web Connect connection method does allow previously downloaded transactions to reappear.  The work around to reliably download the transactions again is to move the transactions we wish to preserve to a new account.  Duplicate transactions may be downloaded into the new account but can be subsequently removed (for example, by deleting the appropriate range of new transactions sorted by Order Entered).

(2) Further, is it possible to just re-download February, make further renaming rules and corrections and then repeat that process for each month?

The process may be repeated.

(3) Just for file size, could I also delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18, prevent them from downloading again, and then modify each account's opening balance?

It is possible to delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18 (for example, using a Transaction report) and to modify each account's opening balance.  Again, transactions that have previously been downloaded into an account should not reappear.  

An account's imported transactions are remembered by a Transaction Identifier (TID) that is supposed to be unique to the transaction.  It does not matter weather the imported transaction was accepted into the account or not.  The screen scraping scripts used by some of the Express Web Connect  connection method supported financial institutions generate TIDs for the available transactions and, sometimes, the TIDs generated do not match the TIDs that were previously generated for the same transaction.  This typically occurs when the state maintained for the account in the Express Web Connect servers is reset.

imdcareys  Just so you know, the renaming rules and the memorized payees are not associated with any given account.  They apply to all accounts.

imdcareys

Here's yet another way to solve your problem instead of deleting and re-downloading transactions:

Use Edit / Find/Replace to select the transactions that need fixing. Then replace the Category with the correct one. Or change the Payee Name to a common, standardized Payee Name.

For new transactions, manually review and accept downloaded transactions instead of letting Quicken dump everything directly into your account registers. This gives you better control over what's downloaded and what the new register transaction will look like, as far as Payee Names and Categories are concerned.

Where are the "Auto-accept downloaded
transaction" settings?

There are two places
where this is controlled in Quicken for Windows:

 - Globally, for all accounts, in Edit /
Preferences / Downloaded Transactions

 - For each account individually, the
global setting can be overridden from the Edit Account Details screen, Online
Services Tab. Look for blue text "Automatic Entry is: ON / OFF".
Click the text to change the setting.

Yep, too cumbersome to try to workaround it...

imdcareys

(1) Is it possible to just remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts in some way so that a fresh update will start with 2/1/18 and fix the payee names and categories?  

It is possible to remove the transactions after 1/31/18 in all accounts (for example, using a Transaction report).  It should not be possible to import transactions into an account that has already seen the downloaded transactions however sometimes the Express Web Connect connection method does allow previously downloaded transactions to reappear.  The work around to reliably download the transactions again is to move the transactions we wish to preserve to a new account.  Duplicate transactions may be downloaded into the new account but can be subsequently removed (for example, by deleting the appropriate range of new transactions sorted by Order Entered).

(2) Further, is it possible to just re-download February, make further renaming rules and corrections and then repeat that process for each month?

The process may be repeated.

(3) Just for file size, could I also delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18, prevent them from downloading again, and then modify each account's opening balance?

It is possible to delete all transactions prior to 1/1/18 (for example, using a Transaction report) and to modify each account's opening balance.  Again, transactions that have previously been downloaded into an account should not reappear.  

An account's imported transactions are remembered by a Transaction Identifier (TID) that is supposed to be unique to the transaction.  It does not matter weather the imported transaction was accepted into the account or not.  The screen scraping scripts used by some of the Express Web Connect  connection method supported financial institutions generate TIDs for the available transactions and, sometimes, the TIDs generated do not match the TIDs that were previously generated for the same transaction.  This typically occurs when the state maintained for the account in the Express Web Connect servers is reset.

I did not realize that. I have now gone the way of (1) Changing a Payee name and saving. That offers to create the renaming rule so I do that. Then (2) following the suggestion by UKR, I do Edit Find/Replace on that Payee to change all transactions in all accounts to the same name used in the rule. I actually think this is going to be quicker than trying to download again into a new account, just to get the renaming rule to do it automatically. I made good progress on it yesterday, and will continue along this path.


I really appreciate all of the suggestions and tips all of you have provided. 


Thank you!

imdcareys

Here's yet another way to solve your problem instead of deleting and re-downloading transactions:

Use Edit / Find/Replace to select the transactions that need fixing. Then replace the Category with the correct one. Or change the Payee Name to a common, standardized Payee Name.

For new transactions, manually review and accept downloaded transactions instead of letting Quicken dump everything directly into your account registers. This gives you better control over what's downloaded and what the new register transaction will look like, as far as Payee Names and Categories are concerned.

Where are the "Auto-accept downloaded
transaction" settings?

There are two places
where this is controlled in Quicken for Windows:

 - Globally, for all accounts, in Edit /
Preferences / Downloaded Transactions

 - For each account individually, the
global setting can be overridden from the Edit Account Details screen, Online
Services Tab. Look for blue text "Automatic Entry is: ON / OFF".
Click the text to change the setting.

UKR, I have pretty much adopted the Find/Replace method AND manually reviewing new downloaded transactions as I transition to Quicken. It is working fine for me!


Again, I really appreciate all of the suggestions and tips all of you have provided. 


Thanks again!

UKR

Here's yet another way to solve your problem instead of deleting and re-downloading transactions:

Use Edit / Find/Replace to select the transactions that need fixing. Then replace the Category with the correct one. Or change the Payee Name to a common, standardized Payee Name.

For new transactions, manually review and accept downloaded transactions instead of letting Quicken dump everything directly into your account registers. This gives you better control over what's downloaded and what the new register transaction will look like, as far as Payee Names and Categories are concerned.

Where are the "Auto-accept downloaded
transaction" settings?

There are two places
where this is controlled in Quicken for Windows:

 - Globally, for all accounts, in Edit /
Preferences / Downloaded Transactions

 - For each account individually, the
global setting can be overridden from the Edit Account Details screen, Online
Services Tab. Look for blue text "Automatic Entry is: ON / OFF".
Click the text to change the setting.

You're welcome.
While making changes that may update several transactions at a time, be sure to frequently create backups of your Quicken data file.
Nothing worse than making a bad change that you can't figure out how to undo or fix and not having a recent backup of your data file to fall back to.
Good luck with your cleanup.