[Bills & Income>Bills>Actions] Needs Improvement (Q Mac)

ConsiderThis

I am using Quicken Premier 2020 for Mac, following four years of Quicken 2016 Home & Business for Windows 10. So far, Quicken for Mac is better in so many ways; but one area it falls short on is the Bills feature. In 2016 for Windows, my available actions for any given bill reminder is "Enter, Edit, Skip." In 2020 for Mac, my available options are "MARK AS PAID, Edit, Skip." Herein lies the problem and disappointing difference. In Quicken for Mac, my only option to enter a bill is to Mark As Paid. This automatically enters the bill (without any adjustments) into the ledgers. So if, say, I pay a bill a week late, hitting Mark as Paid still enters it in the ledger on the date it was supposed to be paid - a false date. You also can't edit the $ amount, memo or anything else, without first Marking as Paid and then finding it in the ledger (if it is on the wrong date) and editing the actual entry. This is in contrast to 2016 for Windows which opens a pop-up "Enter Expense Transaction" window when you hit "Enter" for any bill. This then gives you the chance to make any edits to the payment (including date, amount, memo, accounts, etc.) before hitting "Enter Transaction".

Furthermore, 2016 for Windows comes with Remind Me in X days, and Estimate Amount For Me options which are not found in 2020 for Mac. These are obviously important features, as it is handy to be reminded in advance of a due payment and it is handy to have a stream of payments estimated based on a past stream of payments, particularly when payments vary month by month, such as with utilities.

In conclusion, my "Idea" is that Quicken change the Mac bill reminder system to that of the Windows system which allows editing of a bill payment before it is entered; and that Quicken add these valuable reminder and estimation features to the Mac bill reminder system.

sotu00

As another Windows to Mac user I could not agree more. In the Windows version, when I had a paycheck, my taxes would vary slightly. Now I have to mark as paid, then go into the transaction and edit it there.

On top of that, I usually like to look at projected balances 60 days out. This is really the best way to know what is going on when I pay full balances of credit cards every month. Because credit cards fluctuate so much each month, the ability in the Windows version to use the card balance as a estimate was great. If the card had $500 of charges on it, but the next month statement balance was $200, I could enter the $200 at this time. Then, next month's balance would show $300, and the following month would show $0. The 90 days projection would make sense. And as I keep charging to the card the $300 balance would increase. This is missing from the Mac version.

McSue

I recently upgraded from Quicken for Mac 2017 to the Subscription for Mac Premier 2020. I find it very frustrating to not be able to edit any details about a bill before entering in the register.
In the 2017 version, this was possible. When I chose to pay the bill, the entry would become active, and I could change any details necessary. For example, my Utilities bill is different every month, so I need to enter the amount for the current bill. Now, I have to enter the bill and then go find it in the register and edit everything there...so frustrating and time consuming. It used to be simple, edit the payment, and enter it in the register when done. I don't want to have to go to the register every time I enter a bill just to update the amount or add a memo. Why did this ability go away?

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @McSue

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community to provide your feedback.

To help me understand your concern, can you tell me where you are entering this bill from?

The 2017 version did not offer billers and only contained the bills page that displays projected balances, based on that it sounds as though you are attempting to edit a scheduled transaction prior to entering the transaction.

I am able to edit the upcoming scheduled transaction by double-clicking on the transaction, prior to entering to marking the transaction as paid.





I am able to do this in both the Bills & Income screen as well as the register.

The Mac version does not offer the ability to enter a reminder and estimation but it does offer what you are describing, please let me know so that I can update this Idea to clarify what is needed.

Thank you,
-Quicken Tyka

McSue

Thank you, Tyka, for clarifying that. I am new to the Subscription version, and went to Bills & Income screen like I've always done and saw a different format. I thought that was the new interface for Scheduled Transactions. I didn't realize that what I was looking for was on the Projected Balances screen. Forgive my ignorance.
I still think, though, that from the Bills or Income screen, it would be nice to have a way to edit it before marking it paid, but at least I can still do that from the Projected Balances screen. Thank you again for helping me see the light.