Changing US to Can version

JFreele
JFreele Member ✭
edited July 2019 in All Things Canadian (Windows)
I am Canadian and was living overseas for a number of years and currently am using a US Deluxe version of the subscription service to access my US brokerage (which expires next April). Now that Ive moved back to Canada since the end of February, it is my understanding that I have to buy the Canadian version, which during installation, will remove my US version and convert all my files accordingly (i.e. I cannot convert my US version to a Canadian version and I can't run both simultaneously in the same Laptop). Can members of this community confirm that these understandings are correct? Thanks.
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  • jr7107
    jr7107 SuperUser ✭✭✭✭
    Are you looking for the CAD version long term, or you still want support for your USD brokerage downloads?

    I would try a conversion from US to CAD file and see, no harm is done when the file is backed up. And I think you can "return" the software if it doesn't work as you like. I did the opposite of that in 2002 once QWin US supported multicurrency. Worked well.
    Quicken user since 1994.
    Quicken Forum/Community Contributor since 2005.
  • mfreele
    mfreele Member ✭✭
    I chatted to a Quicken rep today who confirmed that the backed up data in my US version is a different format then would be used in a Canadian version I need to buy now that I have repatriated to Canada, which means I cannot convert my data from a US version to a Can version if I subscribe to it, resulting in the loss of many years of backed up financial data. This seems illogical. I can go ahead and buy the Canadian version and try it and see what happens but wondered if anyone here has already tried this?
  • mfreele
    mfreele Member ✭✭
    An additional problem is that my historical data has multiple currencies, most of which are now "hidden" accounts as they are not active, but they do comprise part of my financial history. Quicken Support has just confirmed via the Chat that the Canadian version is not Multi-Currency, so I guess this means if I was to still have access to that historical data, I'll have to stay with the US version of Quicken?
  • Quicken_Tyka
    Quicken_Tyka Alumni ✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2019
    Hello @mfreele
    Thank you for the response.

    As far as I know, the Canadian version only supports Canadian financial institutions for automatic download but accounts can still be tracked in a different currency.
    There are steps for setting up foreign currencies.

     https://www.quicken.com/support/how-do-i-set-foreign-currency-account

    I was also able to change the currency of an account in the Canadian version.

    This was touched on above, but the best way to know what the result of the conversion will be is to move forward with attempting the conversion. If the conversion doesn't go as desired you may return to the previous version and pick up where you left off.

    Hope this helps clarify.

    -Quicken Tyka
    ~~~***~~~
  • jr7107
    jr7107 SuperUser ✭✭✭✭
    Quicken Canadian version was actually multi-currency before the US version as some historical background.
    Quicken user since 1994.
    Quicken Forum/Community Contributor since 2005.
  • mfreele
    mfreele Member ✭✭
    Thank everyone, I will move forward and buy the Canadian version and see how it converts my data. All I really need today is to download transactions from my Canadian bank, within which I have both $Can and $US accounts (i.e. I don't need to access my old US based brokerage service). In the worse case my really old accounts that I had while overseas, that had currencies in Europe (before it was EU), UK and Middle East, won't convert properly, but they are all 15-20 years old so not really necessary legally anymore.
  • mfreele
    mfreele Member ✭✭
    edited December 2019
    Ok, so I went ahead and bought the Can version and the process went great; ...mostly. It imported my US version and upon checking, all my old foreign accounts where still there and displayed in their varied multi-currencies. The main problem I experienced was went I set up and completed my initial download from my TD bank accounts ($Can and $US, savings and chequing).

    1. In all 4 accounts it inserted a new Reconciled Opening Balance with a "payment" which started all 4 accounts in the red and threw off all years of reconciled balances by that amount. I changed all of these entries back to 0.00 with a note to myself in the memo field, and all old reconciled balances where back in line with my historical statement balances.

    2. It inserted duplicate non-reconciled entries on MANY(100+) of my already reconciled transactions going back about one Quarter with different Payee names (i.e. my memorized Payee called "Home Hardware Grand Bend" was duplicated to "Home Hardware Building" with an identical amount. I assumed the program would continue to do this going forward with future downloads and didn't like my personalized approach to memorized Payee names, so for all affected transactions, I changed my payee name to the new downloaded payee name and am hoping it won't reduplicate it again the next time I do a download). It was the same with all utility companies (gas, electric, phone, etc.) as all were re-entered with a "Bpy" entry (i.e. my memorized payee called "Hydro One-GB-38Morenz" was changed to "Hydro One Bpy".

    3. It picked up certain memorized memo's from previous Reconciled entries and inserted them into some of the duplicate entries noted above in #2 (i.e. Costco entries for groceries might actually say "Dinner w/TV" instead of the correct memo I would have used of "Groceries".

    4. Most of the new duplicated entries and new downloaded transactions only have the "new" Payee name (i.e. "Tdw Eft"), deposit amount and no memo, no tag and no category filled in, which I presume I am supposed to do after the download in complete to my knowledge or based on kept receipts? Also these are always shown with a note in a new unnamed column to the far left in either blue text "new" or red text "uncleared".

    5. The function "CTRL+B" no longer performs a forced backup after doing a lot of changes before closing the program and I have to wait for the system to do it's own automated backup after a set and predetermined number of cycles (i.e. 3 to 5?). Does the Can version not do this as I recall all versions I ever used over 20+ years had this feature, and I can't seem to find anywhere in the preferences to "turn it on"?

    Any feedback to help me understand what I can do to both understand this process and fix it so it doesn't happen going forward would be appreciated (i.e. do I have to do a major overhaul on all my old "memorized" transactions and if I do delete any of those to stop duplicated transactions in the future, will it delete that entry from old reconciled transactions?
    Thanks everyone!
  • jr7107
    jr7107 SuperUser ✭✭✭✭
    This is the most detailed explanation I have heard since I did this CAD to US version in 2002. (where it broke stock options functionality for a while). I think you are in uncharted territory, and any information you can provide will help the community. I will try to offer where I can:

    1. On an "not new" account starting at 0.00 and with manual historical data just added as a download to Quicken I have in the past had to adjust the initial download in order to reconcile it to actual. I had no problem moving forward with the download once they were in sync.

    2. On initial download where a manual account exists, I have seen this behavior. I deleted entries, but did not see the behavior on the payee.

    3. I have not seen this behavior.

    4. I have not see this behavior.

    5. In the File/Backup section does it list a hotkey?

    Good luck, interesting case study on conversion between versions here.
    Quicken user since 1994.
    Quicken Forum/Community Contributor since 2005.
  • axelbest
    axelbest Member ✭
    "Canadian version only supports Canadian financial institutions"
    This isn't right. I setup Express web setup for Tangerine in the US version and ironically express web is not available in Canada version. This doesn't make any sense.!
  • JustMeHere
    JustMeHere Member ✭✭✭✭
    #1 It behaves this way because on the initial download Quicken wants to update the opening balance based on what it received from the financial institution. Since the you have older transactions in your register than what the financial institution provided, the calculated opening balance is going to be wrong.

    #2a The old transactions you have in your account have unique Id from when they downloaded. Depending on the connection method and other factors the new transaction can get new unique Ids and as such Quicken will not match them and as such you get duplicates.

    #2b The behavior of what will happen on using your renaming rules and memorized payees largely depends on what settings you have. Basically, the more "automatic" the more likely Quicken will add/change payees and such based on the new information. I personally turn off automatic memorized payee creation and as such don't get such "surprises". Note also based on some of your observations is seems that the connect method has changed. And as such some of the payee/memo information probably changed switched fields like before you might have it separate in the payee and memo fields, and now it is all in the payee field.

    #2c My general approach to deal with all this kind of duplication and such for this kind of conversion is first in the old version/data file make sure everything is up to date and reconciled. Second turn of automatic creation of memorized payees and renaming rules. Now once the accounts are connected in the new version of Quicken you know all the new data is "throwaway". So, you can just sort it and select it all in one go and delete it. Note this doesn't apply to investment accounts since they don't have a way to delete multiple transactions. From then on, the "new unique Ids" will work as expected.

    #4a What you see is the fact that the financial institution is in fact "giving you different information" and it sounds less complete. Note basically all the financial institution provides is the payee, memo, check number, and amount. Tags and categories are based on what your renaming rules/memorized payees are setup for. And the "Tdw Eft" problem is the same one people have when the payee is "Check ####". For checks the financial institution doesn't read the payee off of the checks and as such doesn't provide it. "Tdw Eft" is clearly their processing name for "transfer" and it is "generic" instead of giving an actual payee. This is their doing, not Quicken's. And this leads into the fact that the only way categories and tags can be assign is by Quicken looking at the payee/memo information. If it isn't unique there isn't anything Quicken can do. Note for when it is unique and it is "new" and the automatic categorize is on, Quicken is just guessing the category based on the payee. You will probably also find that the Canadian version of Quicken added some more "built-in" categories.

    #4b "Also these are always shown with a note in a new unnamed column to the far left in either blue text "new" or red text "uncleared". "

    That is the "status" column. "new" -> downloaded and not matched to an existing transaction. "uncleared" manually entered (or by reminder) transaction not matched to a downloaded transaction. "new match" new downloaded transaction matched/merged with an existing one in the register. You can turn the status column on or off as you wish if you don't have your transactions going automatically into the register (Account Details -> Online Services -> Automatic entry: Off ), but if you use automatic entry you need that column to do the manual matching between existing transactions to download ones (by clicking on "uncleared").

    #5 Even if the shortcut doesn't work the File -> Backup menu should, not to mention that in the backup options you can set the reminder to 1 and it will remind you every time you go to close Quicken.


    #6 Check the tax line assignments. I think you will find them all messed up, and in some cases no way to fix them.
    Using Quicken Subscription Premier (and have a copy of Starter to test things on)
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