Memorized Payee/Category for Mac

feivel

I'm using 2019 for Mac - version 5.8.1.  There seem to be threads going back years about a memorized payee/category for Mac, yet still there is nothing there.  All sorts of features and functions for the PC version that are still not there on Mac... I've read that the categories are automatically memorized from the last transaction, but when I change a category, it doesn't seem to affect the next instance that comes in.  Nothing is being memorized at all!  SUPER inconvenient.  How can we get this fixed???

mshiggins

Can you give an example of a payee/category you are having trouble with?

feivel

mshiggins said:

Can you give an example of a payee/category you are having trouble with?

For example: let's say I buy coffee at a coffee shop.  The bank statement has some weird obscure name for the payee, so quicken pulls the payee as "Van Leeuwen" and the category as "Home Furnishings".  So, I leave the payee name alone since I know what it is, and change the category to "Coffee Shop".  No problem.  

Then, the next day, I go to the same coffee shop, and again "Van Leeuwen" comes through as "Home Furnishings".  So again, I change it to "Coffee Shop".  Then again the next day, and the next, and the next, and the next.

There is no way to make Quicken automatically remember that every time the payee "Van Leeuwen" comes through, it should be categorized as "Coffee Shop".

jacobs

First: try creating a manual transaction with the Payee name you'd like, and the category you'd like, the date of your next visit, and any amount. Then download transactions from your bank. Now drag the downloaded bank transaction over top of the one you entered manually. Quicken should merge the two transactions into one, retaining the amount and date from the bank and everything else from your manual entry. After that, the next time you have a transaction from the same Payee, Quicken should have "learned" how you want it named and categorized, and will automatically change it upon download.

That's the way it's supposed to work. It seems to work in some instances, but not all. Try it and see how it does for you.

Since the system isn't perfect, Quicken obviously needs the ability for users to create and edit renaming rules. This capability, which exists in Quicken Windows, doesn't currently exist in Quicken Mac. This has been a repeated topic on this forum, and earlier this year, there have been a few hints from the Mac product manager that this is something they're working on, so hopefully sometime in the next few months, we'll see a rollout of new functionality in this area.

smayer97

jacobs said:

First: try creating a manual transaction with the Payee name you'd like, and the category you'd like, the date of your next visit, and any amount. Then download transactions from your bank. Now drag the downloaded bank transaction over top of the one you entered manually. Quicken should merge the two transactions into one, retaining the amount and date from the bank and everything else from your manual entry. After that, the next time you have a transaction from the same Payee, Quicken should have "learned" how you want it named and categorized, and will automatically change it upon download.

That's the way it's supposed to work. It seems to work in some instances, but not all. Try it and see how it does for you.

Since the system isn't perfect, Quicken obviously needs the ability for users to create and edit renaming rules. This capability, which exists in Quicken Windows, doesn't currently exist in Quicken Mac. This has been a repeated topic on this forum, and earlier this year, there have been a few hints from the Mac product manager that this is something they're working on, so hopefully sometime in the next few months, we'll see a rollout of new functionality in this area.

Meanwhile, you can add your VOTE to Have Local Rules for Renaming Payees.

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 Downloading Data into Quicken. 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.)

feivel

jacobs said:

First: try creating a manual transaction with the Payee name you'd like, and the category you'd like, the date of your next visit, and any amount. Then download transactions from your bank. Now drag the downloaded bank transaction over top of the one you entered manually. Quicken should merge the two transactions into one, retaining the amount and date from the bank and everything else from your manual entry. After that, the next time you have a transaction from the same Payee, Quicken should have "learned" how you want it named and categorized, and will automatically change it upon download.

That's the way it's supposed to work. It seems to work in some instances, but not all. Try it and see how it does for you.

Since the system isn't perfect, Quicken obviously needs the ability for users to create and edit renaming rules. This capability, which exists in Quicken Windows, doesn't currently exist in Quicken Mac. This has been a repeated topic on this forum, and earlier this year, there have been a few hints from the Mac product manager that this is something they're working on, so hopefully sometime in the next few months, we'll see a rollout of new functionality in this area.

I will try this, and post if it works or not.  Thank you.

feivel

RickO said:

Also, you might want to try unchecking (or checking) the option "Automatically improve the quality of downloaded payee names and categories" in Preferences > Connected Services.

What is this option supposed to do?  i.e. what should I notice if I check or uncheck this option?

jacobs

RickO said:

Also, you might want to try unchecking (or checking) the option "Automatically improve the quality of downloaded payee names and categories" in Preferences > Connected Services.

When it works as designed and well, it will replace a downloaded payee entry like "HD*23475 Home Depot-Smallville Store 23475" with "Home Depot" or "99230109345DEP-MOB/CITIBK" with "CitiBank". In many cases, it helps "clean up" cryptic downloaded Payee names into what you would enter as the name of the company. But in some cases, its substitutions make things worse or, in the worst cases, incorrect, so that's why you'd want to try it to see how well it works for you.

Peter Sidell

I don't care so much about the payee name for a downloaded credit card transaction - that is usually apparent. However i don't get why Quicken seems the need to abandon the set of categories I have used for 15 years and introduce its own more cumbersome categories so that each one needs to be corrected. With 30 or more transaction a week that is a big time waster.

Shelley@

I don't believe I was having this problem with Quicken Mac 2016 or 2017, but I'm definitely having it now-- since I delete all unused Quicken categories, all my downloaded transactions are downloaded as "uncategorized" since 2018 (I believe). A HUGE time waster.

Dori Kenneally

Having to edit every single transaction to correct the "category" is the biggest time waster. I would never have purchased Quicken for Mac when I went from PC to Mac if I had known how disappointing and inferior it operates here.
On my PC, all the categories auto memorize like they're supposed to. Many of the Quicken functions work much better on a PC. I'm upset because I contacted Quicken and asked all of these questions ahead of my purchase.

Dori Kenneally

jacobs said:

First: try creating a manual transaction with the Payee name you'd like, and the category you'd like, the date of your next visit, and any amount. Then download transactions from your bank. Now drag the downloaded bank transaction over top of the one you entered manually. Quicken should merge the two transactions into one, retaining the amount and date from the bank and everything else from your manual entry. After that, the next time you have a transaction from the same Payee, Quicken should have "learned" how you want it named and categorized, and will automatically change it upon download.

That's the way it's supposed to work. It seems to work in some instances, but not all. Try it and see how it does for you.

Since the system isn't perfect, Quicken obviously needs the ability for users to create and edit renaming rules. This capability, which exists in Quicken Windows, doesn't currently exist in Quicken Mac. This has been a repeated topic on this forum, and earlier this year, there have been a few hints from the Mac product manager that this is something they're working on, so hopefully sometime in the next few months, we'll see a rollout of new functionality in this area.

Interesting idea, but no way I can do this for my family of 5 spread across the country with all of our different credit cards and merchants. That would be incredibly time consuming also.

smayer97

Dori Kenneally said:

Having to edit every single transaction to correct the "category" is the biggest time waster. I would never have purchased Quicken for Mac when I went from PC to Mac if I had known how disappointing and inferior it operates here.
On my PC, all the categories auto memorize like they're supposed to. Many of the Quicken functions work much better on a PC. I'm upset because I contacted Quicken and asked all of these questions ahead of my purchase.

In case you are not aware, there is batch editing available if that can help, as a stop-gap measure. You can select multiple transactions in any register view, then open the Transaction Info window. There you can batch edit transactions:

 

CAVEAT: It does NOT work with SPLIT transactions.


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

feivel

jacobs said:

First: try creating a manual transaction with the Payee name you'd like, and the category you'd like, the date of your next visit, and any amount. Then download transactions from your bank. Now drag the downloaded bank transaction over top of the one you entered manually. Quicken should merge the two transactions into one, retaining the amount and date from the bank and everything else from your manual entry. After that, the next time you have a transaction from the same Payee, Quicken should have "learned" how you want it named and categorized, and will automatically change it upon download.

That's the way it's supposed to work. It seems to work in some instances, but not all. Try it and see how it does for you.

Since the system isn't perfect, Quicken obviously needs the ability for users to create and edit renaming rules. This capability, which exists in Quicken Windows, doesn't currently exist in Quicken Mac. This has been a repeated topic on this forum, and earlier this year, there have been a few hints from the Mac product manager that this is something they're working on, so hopefully sometime in the next few months, we'll see a rollout of new functionality in this area.

It didn’t work anyway...

feivel

Dori Kenneally said:

Having to edit every single transaction to correct the "category" is the biggest time waster. I would never have purchased Quicken for Mac when I went from PC to Mac if I had known how disappointing and inferior it operates here.
On my PC, all the categories auto memorize like they're supposed to. Many of the Quicken functions work much better on a PC. I'm upset because I contacted Quicken and asked all of these questions ahead of my purchase.

That is only helpful if you let your transactions sit unedited until you have a bunch to change all at once. That doesn’t help when you want to keep your accounts updated regularly, or when you have a bunch of transactions you need to be categorized differently. I appreciate the attempt, but I’m not sure you fully understood the problem being presented...

Unknown

RickO said:

Also, you might want to try unchecking (or checking) the option "Automatically improve the quality of downloaded payee names and categories" in Preferences > Connected Services.

That only changes the Payee, it doesn’t memorize the category

Unknown

I have just upgraded from Quicken for MAC 2017 to 2019.  The 2017 version worked fine.  My categories were automatically populated correctly.  Now every downloaded transaction comes in as uncategorized and I have to manually change it.

Unknown

Any update on this? In Quicken Windows, you can actually access the "Memorized Payee List". Is it possible to do so on the MAC?

feivel

Jan said:

Any update on this? In Quicken Windows, you can actually access the "Memorized Payee List". Is it possible to do so on the MAC?

No update as of yet... The "Memorized Payee List" is not available on the Mac, which exactly what this thread is requesting.  In another thread, there is talk that this is on the radar of the Quicken Mac team, but I have not seen anything official from Quicken to indicate if or when this feature will be available.

Unknown

What I don’t understand is my categories were correctly populated in Quicken for MAC 2017 (both quicken categories and my custom categories). This stopped working in Quicken for MAC 2019. Why? Unfortunately I waited two days after my 30 day money back guarantee to get a refund. Even though this does not work Quicken would not refund my money.

smayer97

Jan said:

Any update on this? In Quicken Windows, you can actually access the "Memorized Payee List". Is it possible to do so on the MAC?

Keep in mind that Renaming Rules and Categorization are actually 2 different features though they appear to work in tandem. There is a hint from Marcus that this is being worked on but true, no ETA...

Meanwhile, you can add your VOTE to Have Local Rules for Renaming Payees.

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 Downloading Data into Quicken. 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.)

posey

This seems like such a basic function and one that should be addressed. It is sad that Quicken does not provide more information to its users. If it won't be done til 2020 or 2021 at least just tell us so that we know. 

I used Quicken (on a Windows machine) from the 90's and then switched to Mint. I went back to Quicken because I didn't want all my data in the cloud. But really Mint works so well. I will never go back to Windows so that is not an option for me.

feivel

posey said:

This seems like such a basic function and one that should be addressed. It is sad that Quicken does not provide more information to its users. If it won't be done til 2020 or 2021 at least just tell us so that we know. 

I used Quicken (on a Windows machine) from the 90's and then switched to Mint. I went back to Quicken because I didn't want all my data in the cloud. But really Mint works so well. I will never go back to Windows so that is not an option for me.

That's also why I left Mint for Quicken

Unknown

Pat K said:

What I don’t understand is my categories were correctly populated in Quicken for MAC 2017 (both quicken categories and my custom categories). This stopped working in Quicken for MAC 2019. Why? Unfortunately I waited two days after my 30 day money back guarantee to get a refund. Even though this does not work Quicken would not refund my money.

I also have this problem. My most recently entered categories were remembered correctly in QM2017, but I hate the way QM2019 works. If I check "Automatically improve the quality of downloaded payee names and categories" in Preferences/Connected services, then Quicken does a halfway decent job in renaming the payees, but it assigns new categories that have nothing to do with the way I have been managing my finances. If I uncheck the preference, then all transactions come in with a category of "Uncategorized". 

Just restoring the QM 2017 behavior should be an easy fix; much simpler than adding a full memorized transaction list or manual matching flow.

Is there an Idea for this feature (remember last-used category for each payee) that I can vote on?

smayer97

Pat K said:

What I don’t understand is my categories were correctly populated in Quicken for MAC 2017 (both quicken categories and my custom categories). This stopped working in Quicken for MAC 2019. Why? Unfortunately I waited two days after my 30 day money back guarantee to get a refund. Even though this does not work Quicken would not refund my money.

This is a problem, not an IDEA so you are on the right thread ;-)

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

jacobs

posey said:

This seems like such a basic function and one that should be addressed. It is sad that Quicken does not provide more information to its users. If it won't be done til 2020 or 2021 at least just tell us so that we know. 

I used Quicken (on a Windows machine) from the 90's and then switched to Mint. I went back to Quicken because I didn't want all my data in the cloud. But really Mint works so well. I will never go back to Windows so that is not an option for me.

Posey, there are a lot of features different users consider to be "basic functions that should be addressed." Ask the people clamoring for budgets that allow transfers for loans or savings. Or the users pleading for reports by categories versus tags.  Or Payee renaming rules... memorized transactions... more flexible scheduled transactions... improved investment tracking... more types of loans... you get the idea.

As for sharing more about the development roadmap, I think we'd all appreciate that -- but it's not likely for several reasons. First, Quicken doesn't exist in a vacuum, so telegraphing future development plans to their competitors is counterproductive. Second, many Quicken users would react negatively to learning that their most-desired feature is a year or two away. Third, time estimates and priorities change. (A project they think will take three months might prove more complex than expected and require more time. Or beta testers might give feedback saying a feature needs more work. Or some external issue might cause them to have to move developers off work on a new feature to fix a security problem or a connectivity problem with a large financial institution.) So as much as we'd like to know what's coming next, and whether certain features are going to be addressed this year or next year, it's just not too likely to happen.

feivel

posey said:

This seems like such a basic function and one that should be addressed. It is sad that Quicken does not provide more information to its users. If it won't be done til 2020 or 2021 at least just tell us so that we know. 

I used Quicken (on a Windows machine) from the 90's and then switched to Mint. I went back to Quicken because I didn't want all my data in the cloud. But really Mint works so well. I will never go back to Windows so that is not an option for me.

@jacobs, let me start by saying that I absolutely agree that nothing is more basic than anything other feature request, and that transparency is not likely to happen. However, I do not think transparency unreasonable, and I take some issue with the reasons you gave. 

While is it absolutely true that deadlines change, priorities shift, unseen complications arise, etc., transparency doesn't mean accuracy.  They could also be transparent about those things... "today we hit a snag, added 2 months to our expected finish time", "our beta testers gave us poor feedback", etc.  Even transparency about a lack of transparency would be a step in the right direction: "we're not going to tell you because of ...".

As for "competition"... I'm going to assume that's not the reason, since Quicken is a strong company, and only weak companies worry about that.  If the difference between a customer staying or leaving was a future feature, they're screwed anyway... their users would just leave a few months after the feature arrives when the competitors inevitably copy it regardless.  Moreover, reveals happen all the time.  Car companies display prototypes and concept cars, tech companies reveal product launch dates months in advance...  This is nothing new.

The real truth is that we simply don't live in a world where transparency is seen as connected to customer service.  I think that Quicken is busy working on what they're working on, and are happy enough with their satisfaction ratings that they simply don't need to change how transparent they are with their customers.  While that is completely valid and justifiable, it's a sad reality and it lowers the morale of at least a few, if not many, customers like myself.  I'm not mad at Quicken for it, but it doesn't leave me with much faith either.

posey

posey said:

This seems like such a basic function and one that should be addressed. It is sad that Quicken does not provide more information to its users. If it won't be done til 2020 or 2021 at least just tell us so that we know. 

I used Quicken (on a Windows machine) from the 90's and then switched to Mint. I went back to Quicken because I didn't want all my data in the cloud. But really Mint works so well. I will never go back to Windows so that is not an option for me.

@Jacobs
The reason I say this is basic is that budgets cannot work without accurate payees/categories. Virtually all the data that are useful in quicken (and reports made from the data such as budgets) are useful ONLY if this is accurate. if the data are not properly tagged Quicken is not very much use.

There will always be super-users who are exploiting the 5% features that no one else cares about. It is a mistake for any retail software co to focus on them at the expense of the core functionality. 

To broadcast to competitors that you are going fix a download problem so that user-assigned payees and categories are remembered is no big risk....unless of course you cannot make the fix. 

I have worked in software (not in engineering) so I do know a bit about how things work. If Quicken told me that they are not going to fix this or will fix it in 2020, it would demonstrate that they have done their research and have set their priorities based on their research. I would stay or leave same as if they keep me in the dark. Reality is Mint is the strongest competitor and I just may reconsider them.

I have no desire to argue with other users about how or whether Q should communicate to their users. We will all have our own opinions and I was just expressing mine.

jacobs

posey said:

This seems like such a basic function and one that should be addressed. It is sad that Quicken does not provide more information to its users. If it won't be done til 2020 or 2021 at least just tell us so that we know. 

I used Quicken (on a Windows machine) from the 90's and then switched to Mint. I went back to Quicken because I didn't want all my data in the cloud. But really Mint works so well. I will never go back to Windows so that is not an option for me.

@feivel, you can choose to believe what you want, but I can tell you that Quicken representatives have cited both competitive pressures and shifting priorities/development schedules as reasons they don’t pre-announce more about what they’re working on.


I didn’t say I agree with it, and in fact in many, many cases I have urged Quicken to be more transparent with users, but what I wrote above is based on what I’ve read from Quicken officials, not my own speculation.

Unknown

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