Changing Incorrect Auto-Categorized transfer deletes the other associated transaction

rscott16

I have a certain amount from my paycheck deposited to a savings account each payday. This normally auto-categorizes as income. However, this time I had a credit card charge for the same amount, so Quicken thought I had transferred this money from my credit card to my savings account and linked the two transactions as a transfer in the Category column.

But when I went to change the category to say it was income, it just deleted the credit card transaction as if it didn't exist. How do I disassociate an auto-categorization without it just deleting the other end? Thanks in advance!

Bob_L

I'm guessing that you are set up to automacially enter downloaded transactions into your register?  If so it is a good idea to change that preferences so that you will be able to control what is being accepted into your register.  Also check that transfers are not being automatically categorized.


Then you could either restore a backup and download again, or manually enter the correct credit card transaction.

Edit:  I should have also suggested checking this preference:

Tom Young

I think you're saying that a deposit to the Savings Account - let's say it's $100 - was downloaded on the same day that charge against your credit card of $100 was downloaded and Quicken connected them as a transfer?

Debit (increase) Savings Account $100         (an asset)

Credit (increase) Credit Card Account $100  (a liability)

If that's the case then you can't delete one side of a transfer without deleting the other side of the transfer - that's simply the way the "double entry" accounting works.  So you're going to have to change the entry in the Savings Account to reflect an income Category, and then you're going to have to re-key that entry in the credit card Account, using whatever Category is appropriate for that charge.

That's the danger with allowing downloads to automatically enter your Registers without review and having Quicken select the "Category" to use; it can only make guesses and sometimes it guesses wrong.

UKR

IMHO, for best results, you should manually record paychecks and all transfer transactions (use scheduled reminders where possible) BEFORE you download transactions from the bank containing the confirmations for these types of transactions.

Quicken should "see" these existing transactions and match them to the downloaded data, without creating a mess based on incorrect assumptions.

BJN

I have had no end of frustration with Quicken's Transfer Detection. ALL of the settings mentioned above have been set to NOT auto-categorize, NOT detect transfers, and yet today (after a recent sync to the cloud) all my transactions are being entered as transfers to bogus transactions in other accounts. Quicken is not just matching transactions as transfers between accounts but adding transactions to accounts that have had no activity for months. I will have hours of work now to go in and fix this mess. I will also switch to manually enter all transactions but doesn't that defeat a significant purpose of an electronic check registry? I keep the financial records for elderly and disabled family members so I have quite a few accounts. To manually enter transactions just so I can fix all the Quicken mistakes seems a fools errand.

Chris_QPW

@BJN I hate to say it but I think the heart of your problems is in this statement

BJN said:

 and yet today (after a recent sync to the cloud) all my transactions are being entered as transfers to bogus transactions in other accounts. 

Quicken Mobile/Web syncing is the source of tons of these kinds of problems.