why does quicken report miss key words in the memo section?

craig

This had been a recurring problem.  Today I spent an hour looking for a receipt where I had recorded the following in the memo section, "pvc air hose sku= 2073825".  I tried to make a report using "reports / spending / itemized categories / customize;  date set was 2015-current.  I was very certain that I had the correct payee so I entered the payee name.  I searched on "air" and got no result.   I searched on "hose" and got no result.  Then I dropped the payee name.   I got no result.  I went to the payee account then went to Edit / find / entered "memo contains air" and went through all the transactions containing "air" manually until I came to the correct transaction.   Quicken is supposed to save me time.  I invest time entering the data for every purchase and quicken cannot find it to make a report.  Frustrated...again.   

Snowman

What version of Quicken are you using.  I have Quicken 2019 Premier R18.16.  I was not aware that you could search the memo field so I tried searching for Acct which I use in the memo field on checks etc to put the account number in.  Note there are no quotes around Acct.  All of the transactions came up.  If however I tried to search for "Acct" with the quotes the search failed.  I suspect this is what is happening to you.  Try the search without using quotes.

craig

Craig says:  Thank you for your consideration and suggestions.   I am using Quicken deluxe 2016 Ver:R19.5 Build:25.1.19.5.  

Snowman says:  Try the search without using quotes.  

Craig says:  That is what I did.  I am looking forward to any and all suggestions.  Quicken has not worked well for me for years.  Every time I update to a new 
Quicken version, I do so in the hope that Quicken performance will improve.  That has not been the case. This winter I erased many reports that I had accumulated over the years.  I hoped that action would improve quicken performance.  Performance did not improve.  If I had a Quicken  alternative that would handle my years of historical data, I would switch to a new software package.  

Snowman

It would seem that since 2016 this has been fixed so it is up to you if you should update or not.  As I mentioned I am using the latest version.  As for performance if you have at least 8Gb RAM this should not be an issue.  Most performance issues I have seen with windows are not Quicken but Window related.  Usually some process is running that is slowing Quicken down.  Sometimes this is spyware or malware.  The number of reports are not really an issue that would slow Quicken down.

At this time there is no other software package you can switch too that will do what Quicken does.  It does have warts but I think an earnest effort is being made by the new owners to start fixing some of these issues.  Also the cost of a subscription vs what it would cost to have an accountant do the same thing makes it the best deal going.  If you decide to try the new version there is a "free" money back guarantee time period in which you can return it if you do not like it.

q_lurker

You might also try the "Search" box upper right of an account transaction list (including the "All Transactions" list.  That box does an all fields search and is very quick.  Not sure when it was introduced, but it is in QW2017.

mshiggins

From C. D. Bales:
I added your memo field text (pvc air hose sku= 2073825) to the memo field in a transaction in a test Quicken file. I then went to Reports > Spending > Itemized Categories and customized the report by keying "air" (no quotes) in the Matching "Memo contains" field on the Customize > Categories tab. 

When I clicked OK, the report displayed the transaction that contained "pvc air hose sku= 2073825" in its memo field.

I tested in Q2016 and Q2019. Neither version exhibited the problem you describe as I understand it.

I suggest you try providing some better detail about what you did.

craig

This is a continuation of my MAY 2019 question.