Editing monthly bill amount without changing all future amounts - On MAC

routerman_ks

Hi.

I have various Scheduled Bills configured, like Utilities, that have varying amounts each month based on cost by usage. How can I change the bill posting date, or the amount of a specific bill in the list of Scheduled Payees before it gets added to the register without affecting the reoccurring future bills? The "Mark As Paid" feature, in Bill & Income, only posts the existing Bill (Amount, Date, info, etc) to the register. I then have to go back into the register and manually correct each register item to reflect the correct Post date and the amount paid to the bill with varying amounts. Frustrating and time consuming.

routerman_ks

I have updated to the latest version of Quicken. That was what prompted me to post my question. I did not have the registered configured to show the next instance in a series, or all instances. I just enabled it based on your feedback. Thank You. I have to say that the new display of future postings in the register makes the register appear more confusing. I'm typically concerned about current balances, and not future, or possible balances. A lot of things can change between now and then that shouldn't be reflected as projections in a register. People do not typically view a register with future instances posted, regardless of them being greyed out. As other credits and debits happen around the future instances, the register will become confusing by reflecting positive and negative future balances depending on future postings. It seems to me that it would have been less complex just to provide a pop-up menu to under "Bills & Income" allowing an item to be updated with change, like dates, amounts or additional comments prior to posting the item into the proper fields in the register. Something similar to previous MS Windows versions of Quicken. I really don't like having to view and maniputlate future credits and debits directly in the register. ..that's just my personal preference regarding the new enhancement.... I would also say that it would be nice to add another feature enhancement in a future version of Quicken for MAC that would allow customers to click on a Menu option under "Help" and be able to provide Customer Feedback regarding new and future changes, feature requests, or suggestions for new feature enhancements. Thank you again for explaining how to use the new feature.

jacobs

Quicken has long allowed users to view future scheduled payments; if they took it away, many users would be unhappy. That's why they allow you to configure it as you wish -- not\ future transactions, a limited number, or a year's worth. (I don't see any value in seeing a year's worth, but I understand people who might want to see a few months into the future.)

I don't find it really makes the register complicated; even if you ignore which transactions are gray, you always have the thick line which divides past transactions from future ones. If you don't want to be distracted by balances in the future -- which I agree could be misleading since they are incomplete, simply don't look past the dividing line into the future. I find that easy to do. Additionally, you can set the upper right corner of the register to show Today's Balance, which excludes any future-date transactions. 

That all said, I can understand why you'd want to be able to edit a transaction directly in the Bills & Income window. That seems doable, but would likely require a bit of coding to introduce all the register elements to Bills & Income.

jacobs

This was one of the big changes in the latest update. Are you running version 5.12? You can now edit a transaction amount in the register without it affecting future instances of the scheduled transaction.

So first, you want to make sure your register is set to show one (or more) instances of scheduled transactions: click Settings in the register's bottom toolbar, and set Scheduled Transactions to "Show next instance of each series" or "Show all instances in the next xx days". After doing that, you will see one or more instances of scheduled transactions in your register; they're gray and have a clock icon in the status column, to clearly show they are scheduled transactions.

So when you receive your utility bill, simply double-click the next scheduled transaction in the register and it will let you change the amount and/or the date. Click Return to save the edited transaction. If you have it set to see multiple instances of the schedule transaction, you'll see that the change(s) you made only affected the one you edited, and not future transactions. (You can optionally click Paid at the same time, or make it paid at a later date.)

routerman_ks

I have updated to the latest version of Quicken. That was what prompted me to post my question. I did not have the registered configured to show the next instance in a series, or all instances. I just enabled it based on your feedback. Thank You. I have to say that the new display of future postings in the register makes the register appear more confusing. I'm typically concerned about current balances, and not future, or possible balances. A lot of things can change between now and then that shouldn't be reflected as projections in a register. People do not typically view a register with future instances posted, regardless of them being greyed out. As other credits and debits happen around the future instances, the register will become confusing by reflecting positive and negative future balances depending on future postings. It seems to me that it would have been less complex just to provide a pop-up menu to under "Bills & Income" allowing an item to be updated with change, like dates, amounts or additional comments prior to posting the item into the proper fields in the register. Something similar to previous MS Windows versions of Quicken. I really don't like having to view and maniputlate future credits and debits directly in the register. ..that's just my personal preference regarding the new enhancement.... I would also say that it would be nice to add another feature enhancement in a future version of Quicken for MAC that would allow customers to click on a Menu option under "Help" and be able to provide Customer Feedback regarding new and future changes, feature requests, or suggestions for new feature enhancements. Thank you again for explaining how to use the new feature.

jacobs

Quicken has long allowed users to view future scheduled payments; if they took it away, many users would be unhappy. That's why they allow you to configure it as you wish -- not\ future transactions, a limited number, or a year's worth. (I don't see any value in seeing a year's worth, but I understand people who might want to see a few months into the future.)

I don't find it really makes the register complicated; even if you ignore which transactions are gray, you always have the thick line which divides past transactions from future ones. If you don't want to be distracted by balances in the future -- which I agree could be misleading since they are incomplete, simply don't look past the dividing line into the future. I find that easy to do. Additionally, you can set the upper right corner of the register to show Today's Balance, which excludes any future-date transactions. 

That all said, I can understand why you'd want to be able to edit a transaction directly in the Bills & Income window. That seems doable, but would likely require a bit of coding to introduce all the register elements to Bills & Income.

Matthew Caswell

I was spoiled by how easy it was to look at my scheduled transactions in Q2007 and then just select to pay it, edit the date and amount and bang.. it's in my register. This new version is no where near as user friendly. I upgraded to 5.12 and it broke my quicken. is the update version that is out there now fixed?

jacobs

You can do exactly what you're used to in Quicken 2019. If you review your scheduled transactions in the register, click the scheduled instance, mark Paid, edit the amount and date, and bang you're done. If you review your scheduled transactions in Bills & Income, it's one extra click: mark the transaction paid, click on the account in the left sidebar, edit the date/amount, and bang you're done.

I guess I'm not understanding how this is significantly less user-friendly.