Search for transaction

Very good question. I have been wondering about this for a while. How I get around it is to search for the amount, and then sort the results /register by amount. At least then, you can focus down to what you are you looking for.

Where are you search from?

If you are using Edit -> Find (Ctrl+F) use "Exact".

If you are using the search box in the upper left of the register that will search all fields that contain any of the text you put in. It is a "generic search" it isn't doing something different in each field like only giving you that amount.

QPW, the problem with using Quicken Find as you suggest, is that then it searches all the registers, not just the one you are in.

Sort the results by clicking on the Acct column.

For that matter on the "general search", type in 25.00 and then sort on the Amount column.

I do that too. Along with sorting by amount. but if you have a large file as I do, with a lot of transactions and accounts it becomes a little more difficult. If the "register" find feature would just return exact amounts that would help a lot. Right now as the OP states, when you search for 25.00 you get all amounts that contain 25.00

From what I understand the Mac version's search allows for filtering it by field, and then as such I would expect it to be more "intelligent", but without an options for "exact" or "contains" and/or restricting to a given field, it is about what I would expect.

It sounds like a suggestion of what is wanted is needed (Post a new thread marking it as an Idea).

I was only stating of how it would be done in the framework of what currently exists.

I don't know if this is specific to the Canadian version, but in the US version I can run a transaction report and customize it to include the Advanced option Amounts Equal to 25.00 to find those transactions.

BBBob

QPW,

I am using the search in the top right of the account in question, not the extreme top right of the entire program. It should be a simple task/execution and it should only include the account that is at hand.

BBBob, would you be able to show a screenshot of what the search results look like?

That is what they make "feature requests" for. When you either want a feature that doesn't exist, or to change the behavior of an existing one.

Quicken Inc takes feature requests by you selecting NEW POST, specifying want you want, and mark it as an Idea so that people can vote on it.

Note hear is SimonSezSo on a similar request:
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/add-account-to-the-quicken-find-feature

mshiggins

From C. D. Bales:

" ... the problem with using Quicken Find as you suggest, is that then it searches all the registers, not just the one you are in".

That's only true if you click "Find All" in the Find (CTRL+f) dialog. The "Find" button only looks in the current register.

mshiggins

From C. D. Bales:

Try using the Banking > Transaction report. On the Customize > Advanced tab is the option to select only transactions with "Amounts" "Equal to" $nn.nn.

BBBob

Thanks everyone for the "work arounds" .

mshiggins, yes I know I can run a report. That is not the point. When I need to find a transactions quickly through search, it doesn't pull up the exact amount that I put in the search box.

mshiggins, that is not true. The Quicken Find function doesn't filter by Account, and if you don't do "Find All" it only finds the next item in your search, not all of the items that meet your criteria.

SimonSezSo: The register search box matches the text you type within any field within the transaction. Even though you may type 25.00, an amount, it just treats this as any other text string, "25.00", which is why it displays any amount ending with that text.

This is exactly what makes this type of search quick and powerful, it finds the text you type anywhere it can find it in the transaction. I would suggest you follow mshiggins suggestion and just run a transaction report to get what you want.

SimonSezSo looking at your answer here and your suggestion in the link I provided above, it looks like you left out an important aspect of your suggestion.

Find does indeed limit the search to the given account, but it doesn't show all the matching transactions, just the next one. Find All on the other hand shows all the matching transactions, but doesn't limit it to one account.

You need to specify that you want a function that shows all the matches, but only for the account you are in.

Ok that makes sense and I know what it was doing. But then as a related item then, they should enhance Quicken Find to be able to filter on Account. Quicken Find allows for a more exact and flexible search, (I.e. using "contains" or "exact). Because of this post, I made a suggestion to add "Account" to the find feature. Not sure if it would ever be considered, but I thought I would give it a try.

Also, sometimes running a report is cumbersome, and not feasible when you need to do a quick search.

Thank you QPW! I will update my suggestion with that piece of information.

For the people concerned, I have posted this suggestion (You can vote on it):
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/it-would-be-nice-if-the-search-box-in-each-account-would-allow-for-filtering-the-search-to-certain-fields

SimonSezSo: To make running a report of this type less cumbersome, you can customize a transaction report for this type of query and save it. Then the next time you need run it, all you have to do is choose an account and specify the amount.

Another thought I had regarding your suggestion about Find is if there were a simple way to limit the scope of the search to the register you are in when you click Find All.

mshiggins

From C. D. Bales:

"mshiggins, that is not true".

If you read the statement again ... carefully: it IS, in fact, true.

"The Quicken Find function doesn't filter by Account ....".

That doesn't address what I said. The "Find function" (CTRL+f) doesn't filter or find anything. Once the Find function has been initiated, the "Find" option (the "Find" button) DOES "filter by [the currently open non-investment] account".

" ... and if you don't do "Find All" it only finds the next item in your search, not all of the items that meet your criteria".

I did not say that the Find worked any other way - you are reading something into my comment which I did not write and which I did not mean.

Quoting (again) the statement you made to QPW ("the problem with using Quicken Find as you suggest, is that then it searches all the registers, not just the one you are in"): that statement is what I commented on, and the only thing I commented on.

In his post that you commented on, QPW did not address which button to click in the CTRL+f dialog, but you replied as if he did (or, as if, it did not matter which button was clicked). I pointed out that it does matter which button is clicked.

When you initiate the Find process (Edit > Find, or CTRL+f) you get two choices: "Find All" or "Find". If you select "Find" Quicken will - as I said - only look in the account that is open. That is all I said: I made no claim about that find not finding all qualifying transactions at one time. If you you want to find $25.00 transactions only in the current (non-investment) account register, the plain Find (button) can do that, albeit one transaction at a time.

Further: try a CTRL+f; select "Any field" in the first dropdown; select "Contains" in the second dropdown; key your amount in the third dropdown. Click the "Find All" button. You have just done a global "Search". Try it again, only click the "Find" button. You have now done a register "Search" (though the results are presented one transaction at a time, rather than only displaying all found transactions). Without the ability to specify the field to be searched and the relationship between your search value and the examined data, the only way to get what you want would be to restrict the Search feature, preventing it from locating transactions with text that contains searched-for numeric values. Why should users who want that capability, lose it?

And, as noted twice now in this discussion, the Banking > Transaction report WILL find exact amounts in all transactions in a specific account (and you can place an icon on the Quicken Toolbar to run such a report). When the desired transactions are displayed in the Banking > Transactions report: you can open any of those transactions individually from the report, or you can delete any/all the displayed transactions from the report, or you can modify the payee, category, tag, or memo of selected transactions in the report (as long as they are not split transactions).

Quicken already contains the ability to provide what you and the original poster want.

While I would not mind having the ability to locate all transactions in the currently open non-investment account with a specified amount using a "Search" type function (locating all such transactions at once): contrary to the original post, there is no "glitch". And the remaining negative comments here overstate the degree of difficulty of using the existing Quicken capabilities to accomplish the goal; while ignoring the cost, and the burden to be placed on users who do not want/need the change you favor but who will have to do more work and/or lose capability.

Rich M, I have done so in the past, but I still maintain that a good search feature is more efficient than having to create reports to search. When I have had to use the search feature, I am looking for a specific transaction and need an answer quickly. I also have a large file with many accounts and transactions. For me to stop everything, search for the report I may have created months ago, customize it again to find what I want, is cumbersome. Why not have an accurate search function that can search by "exact", "contains", "less than", etc. Right now if you search using the register's search function, it seems to only be able to do "contains", so it returns a lot of numbers that are not needed. As I mentioned, I have a large file with a lot of accounts and data, so it would be nice to be able to search for exactly what I am looking for.

If I use the Quicken Find feature, It also doesn't work well because, if I do a search and select the "Show All" option, it gives me results from all accounts. If I don't select "Show All" then, it just returns the next match in the account. It does not give me a list of all transactions that meet my search criteria for just that account.

Rich M. If my idea is considered then good. If not, that's ok, life goes on. I have gotten really good with workarounds, so for me, I can workaround anything in Quicken.

mshiggins, Please read my response to Rich M. I use the search functions, as well as "search and replace" a lot. I just wanted to share my experiences with the search functions, submitted an Idea, and now ready to move on. I appreciate your response, but it was not pertinent to my or the OP initial concern regarding the register search function. Yes, there are workarounds, as you and other super users have pointed out, but that does not make the feature work better. That is why I and other users here have posted ideas to make the search functions work better in Quicken.

SimonSezSo: The only additional filters I would be looking for with Find All is limiting the scope to the register I'm currently in along with its respective filter settings.

In other words, if I'm in my checking register which is filtered by Last 30 Days, I want to be able to click Find All searching only those transactions.

Limiting the time frame is more valuable than the account for me because I have over two decades of data. Using Find All often brings up too many results, so I end up running a report instead to narrow it down.

Also, when searching for a transaction I may not remember which credit card I used, so searching across accounts makes sense.

I like the simplicity of the Find dialog and would hate to see it become too cumbersome by adding too many additional filters of its own.

Given the current dialog:

I don't see why they can't add a Find All In Account button.

I know that in fact I have run into the same thing that SimonSezSo has in that I want all the matching transactions, but just in that account.

BTW my preference would really be an enhanced search in the register itself.

But the truth is I seldom do much searching, so neither is a big deal to me.