Memorized investment transactions

Steve308@

The help file says to turn on Classic Menus in order to memorize an investment transaction. But Q itself recommends using Standard Menus. Is there really no way to accomplish this without switching to Classic Menus? Thanks!

Sherlock

Why do you want to memorize an investment transaction?

If you really do want to create a memorized an investment transaction, you may view the Classic Menus to do so but you may switch back to view the Standard Menus afterward.

mshiggins

Classic menus are for power users. Standard menus are for users who are confused by too many choices. Which type of user are you?

Steve308@

Same reason I'd want to memorize a checking acct transaction, because it's repeated. Am I missing something here? Not sure why Q requires that I switch back and forth between menus in order to accomplish this...

Steve308@

Ok thx, I'll switch over to Classic. It'd be helpful if Q explained that in the View menu, instead of simply putting "recommended" next to Standard. They could indicate something like "advanced" next to Classic.

markus1957

In Standard menu mode, you can right click on a transaction in an investment register to get access to that outdated feature of questionable current usefulness. 

Sherlock

Steve said:

Same reason I'd want to memorize a checking acct transaction, because it's repeated. Am I missing something here? Not sure why Q requires that I switch back and forth between menus in order to accomplish this...

Perhaps.  Have you considered using an income reminder instead?

mshiggins

markus1957 said:

In Standard menu mode, you can right click on a transaction in an investment register to get access to that outdated feature of questionable current usefulness. 

Don't diss what you haven't figured out a use for. Just because you don't have a use case doesn't mean others don't. 

Those outdated features were coded under very different circumstances than new features coded today. Those outdated features work reliably through every use case. Recently coded features work for a specific use case and typically break down with anything but the specific use case. 

Dan Glynhampton

Steve said:

Is there really no way to accomplish this without switching to Classic Menus?

Yes, there is a way, if you use the Toolbar.

Select

• View > Classic Menus

then

• View > Customise Toolbar

In the window that opens, check the box for "Show all toolbar choices", then you'll find you can add a button for Memorised Investment Transactions to the toolbar:



After you've set that up, you can set the menus back to Standard if you prefer that.  Make sure View > Show Toolbar is checked and you'll have one-click access to the memorised investment transaction list.

markus1957

mshiggins said:

Don't diss what you haven't figured out a use for. Just because you don't have a use case doesn't mean others don't. 

Those outdated features were coded under very different circumstances than new features coded today. Those outdated features work reliably through every use case. Recently coded features work for a specific use case and typically break down with anything but the specific use case. 

That feature is the ultimate single use case and has since been replaced by the more versatile multi-account type/use across features,  Bill & Income Reminders. There is a reason it's hidden, it's not needed anymore. Old coding doesn't make it good or powerful, it just makes it old.

Steve308@

Thanks everyone. Not sure I understand why memorizing an investment transaction would be outdated and not useful, any more than memorizing a banking transaction, but the responses have been helpful.

markus1957

Steve said:

Thanks everyone. Not sure I understand why memorizing an investment transaction would be outdated and not useful, any more than memorizing a banking transaction, but the responses have been helpful.

Memorizing investment transactions has not been needed for several years now, since Bill & Income Reminders were changed to make them work for investment accounts as well as spending accounts.

cranky_user

Really?  I record my biweekly 401k mutual fund buys with a memorized investment transaction for a regular dollar amount corresponding to the transfer from my paycheck.  When I enter the investment transaction I just update the quantity that I get from my 401k website and quicken prompts to update the price.

Can I do that with a Bill/Income reminder?

mshiggins

markus1957 said:

mshiggins said:

Don't diss what you haven't figured out a use for. Just because you don't have a use case doesn't mean others don't. 

Those outdated features were coded under very different circumstances than new features coded today. Those outdated features work reliably through every use case. Recently coded features work for a specific use case and typically break down with anything but the specific use case. 

That feature is the ultimate single use case and has since been replaced by the more versatile multi-account type/use across features,  Bill & Income Reminders. There is a reason it's hidden, it's not needed anymore. Old coding doesn't make it good or powerful, it just makes it old.

We will have to disagree. I find it useful. 

Bill and Income Reminders can't be used to schedule Buys, Sells, and other investment transactions. 

cranky_user

Yea, sometimes old coding is there for a reason.  Just because its old doesn't make it any less useful.

David15

I think I may have figured out where a memorized transaction might be more usefull- when bill reminders don't work.  I have monthly transfers from my retirement accounts to my checking account, which include withholding of a certain percentage for taxes.  This worked fine as split bill reminders from the retirement account while they were consistent.  However, I decided to change my withdrawals to be a percentage of the balance, which means each transaction varies by total amount, though the percentage in each split item remains the same.  Unfortunately, Quicken does not allow changing the amount of a bill reminder from an investment account.  Nor does it allow editing a split transaction amount in an investment account, or even to copy and paste a split transaction.  I am stumped to understand why they limit investment account transactions like this.

I thought this morning that I had found a solution - record the transaction as a deposit in the checking account.  These transactions allow changing the total and then allocating the difference across the splits.  However, for some reason when trying to record the result into a bill reminder it reverses the sign of the total, doubles it, and then blows away the splits entirely.  However, using the memorized transaction works fine.

David15

One big disadvantage of memorized transactions is in the inability to project into the future - really you want those bill reminders to enable Quicken to estimate what your future income and expenses will be.  Really they need to remove the artificial limitations on investment transactions.

mshiggins

David said:

One big disadvantage of memorized transactions is in the inability to project into the future - really you want those bill reminders to enable Quicken to estimate what your future income and expenses will be.  Really they need to remove the artificial limitations on investment transactions.

Have you tried combining your memorized investment transaction with another old school feature - scheduled transaction groups?

markus1957

David said:

I thought this morning that I had found a solution - record the transaction as a deposit in the checking account.  These transactions allow changing the total and then allocating the difference across the splits.  However, for some reason when trying to record the result into a bill reminder it reverses the sign of the total, doubles it, and then blows away the splits entirely.  However, using the memorized transaction works fine.

On the checking account side it would be an income reminder which does work with cash flow projections.

David15

Right, it really is an income reminder but it is found in the Bill Reminders Tab so I thought it would be called that. 

Thought I figured out a work-around!  I put the transaction into my checking account, but substituted the category Salary for the source.  Then, after creating a reminder, I changed the category in the reminder to the investment account.  However, it then turned off the ability to edit the total amount, so back to the drawing board.

Garry Blamble

One use is scheduled IRA withdrawals.