New Calendar year file (Q Mac)

chikadon

I have confirmed with Quicken 2019 support for Mac it is NOT possible to create a Year-End copy and start a new year file for the calendar year. However, as I was told-this IS possible in Quicken 2019 for Windows.
How can Mac users of Quicken 2019 be shortchanged like this?

jacobs

Some features that are in Quicken Windows (or legacy Quicken Mac 2007 and earlier) don't exist in the modern Quicken Mac because the developers have not yet gotten to it -- there have been hundreds of features users have asked them for, any while they've made significant progress in recent years, there are still many desired features which have yet to be implemented.

But some legacy features don't exist in Quicken Mac because the developers felt they might not be needed. Purging data at year-end is one of those features. The legacy Quicken Mac and Quicken Windows were built decades ago with databases that could become large and slow or corrupt, and year-end data purges were created to try to deal with those problems. The modern Quicken Mac is built in a much more reliable and robust SQL database which con contain a virtually unlimited amount of data without becoming too slow (if program features are built correctly) or prone to corruption. So the developers built in features -- like filters -- to make it easy to only view recent data in transaction registers and reports while keeping all your older data safely in the same data file. In short, they felt they built a program which obviated the need to do year-end data purges.

There is a long-running thread about the possibility of adding this functionality to Quicken Mac which you can find here. In it, the Quicken Mac product manager wrote several years ago: 

We do want to bring lots of the features of Quicken Windows to the Mac that continue to make sense. We don't want to bring over the features that were only there to work around issues from a previous era. I'm hoping this is one of those…

In other words, year-end copies of data files were a work-around which was necessary in the past because the databases could get wonky, but they perceived not to be necessary with a modern database. Some users wanted this feature because it's just what they were used to doing, and the developers were saying users could adopt a new workflow.

I've read some posts in this forum from users who split off old data many years ago, but then can't open their old data files because the file format is too old. Anyone using this approach must remember to periodically open those old data files to upgrade them to the current file format, but not everyone has done that, so old data files haven't always been the security blanket users thought they were.

But if you read that long thread, you'll see some users making their case for why it would still be useful. So far, the idea is still marked as "Not Planned", but you can add your own comment and vote for it if you feel it's something you need.

I personally don't need such a feature. I like having all my historical data in one current file, so the times that I want to search for something from an unknown time in the past, it's all right there for me. And I'm okay with using date filters on my reports and/or screens when I want to look at only data from this year or last year without seeing 20+ years of data. 

jacobs

Some features that are in Quicken Windows (or legacy Quicken Mac 2007 and earlier) don't exist in the modern Quicken Mac because the developers have not yet gotten to it -- there have been hundreds of features users have asked them for, any while they've made significant progress in recent years, there are still many desired features which have yet to be implemented.

But some legacy features don't exist in Quicken Mac because the developers felt they might not be needed. Purging data at year-end is one of those features. The legacy Quicken Mac and Quicken Windows were built decades ago with databases that could become large and slow or corrupt, and year-end data purges were created to try to deal with those problems. The modern Quicken Mac is built in a much more reliable and robust SQL database which con contain a virtually unlimited amount of data without becoming too slow (if program features are built correctly) or prone to corruption. So the developers built in features -- like filters -- to make it easy to only view recent data in transaction registers and reports while keeping all your older data safely in the same data file. In short, they felt they built a program which obviated the need to do year-end data purges.

There is a long-running thread about the possibility of adding this functionality to Quicken Mac which you can find here. In it, the Quicken Mac product manager wrote several years ago: 

We do want to bring lots of the features of Quicken Windows to the Mac that continue to make sense. We don't want to bring over the features that were only there to work around issues from a previous era. I'm hoping this is one of those…

In other words, year-end copies of data files were a work-around which was necessary in the past because the databases could get wonky, but they perceived not to be necessary with a modern database. Some users wanted this feature because it's just what they were used to doing, and the developers were saying users could adopt a new workflow.

I've read some posts in this forum from users who split off old data many years ago, but then can't open their old data files because the file format is too old. Anyone using this approach must remember to periodically open those old data files to upgrade them to the current file format, but not everyone has done that, so old data files haven't always been the security blanket users thought they were.

But if you read that long thread, you'll see some users making their case for why it would still be useful. So far, the idea is still marked as "Not Planned", but you can add your own comment and vote for it if you feel it's something you need.

I personally don't need such a feature. I like having all my historical data in one current file, so the times that I want to search for something from an unknown time in the past, it's all right there for me. And I'm okay with using date filters on my reports and/or screens when I want to look at only data from this year or last year without seeing 20+ years of data. 

chikadon

Thank you for your response and clarification. I insist its peculiar that
Quicken developers would provide a year-end option for Windows but not
the equivalent for Mac users.
Mac users would appreciate the choice, particularly long-term users of Quicken 2007 or earlier. I certainly would.

jacobs

chikadon said:

I insist its peculiar that Quicken developers would provide a year-end option for Windows but not the equivalent for Mac users.

@chikadon It's not a peculiar omission; it's intentional. The quote from the product manager above explains that they felt the year-end files were a work-around created many years ago for limitations and problems with the older generation of databases used by Quicken Windows and Quicken Mac 2007 -- a work-around they didn't think the modern database in Quicken Mac needed.

If you feel there is a good use case for having separate historical files, by all means go ahead and make the case for this feature. (You'd be better to post it in the existing idea thread I referenced above than here.) If users simply say only that it's a feature that Quicken 2007 or Quicken Windows had, they've already answered why they don't see a need to build this feature they think is no longer needed -- but if users can help the developers understand why the absence of this feature poses a bona fide problem for them, they may reverse their position and add the feature in the future.