End of year operations

dickpollock

In my previous copy of quicken I could take the current file and develop a new file with only transactions from the previous year (2019) and another new file with only transactions for the current year (2020). I cannot find the place or key strokes to do this for my current version (Version 5.14.3). Any instructions on what I am doing wrong or need to do.

smayer97

There had not been such a feature in QMac since QM2007. So whatever you did must have been done manually or only in QM2007 or earlier.

Meanwhile, you can add your VOTE to Add "Save a Copy" feature (similar to "Year End Copy").

First, click on the underlined link above to go there, then click the little grey triangle under the VOTE count at the top of page 1 in the blue banner, so your vote will count for THIS feature and increase its visibility to the developers by seeking to have the features you need or desire end up in the latest version (it may take a moment for your vote to register).

Your VOTES matter!

smayer97

There had not been such a feature in QMac since QM2007. So whatever you did must have been done manually or only in QM2007 or earlier.

Meanwhile, you can add your VOTE to Add "Save a Copy" feature (similar to "Year End Copy").

First, click on the underlined link above to go there, then click the little grey triangle under the VOTE count at the top of page 1 in the blue banner, so your vote will count for THIS feature and increase its visibility to the developers by seeking to have the features you need or desire end up in the latest version (it may take a moment for your vote to register).

Your VOTES matter!

jacobs

@dickpollock As noted above, this is not currently a feature of Quicken Mac. The developers originally said they weren't planning to add it, but one never knows which user requests may get addressed in the future. Meanwhile, if you're looking to do this simply because you've always done it that way, I'd encourage you to rethink your approach -- for a few reasons.

By creating separate annual files, you are working uphill against much of the functionality Quicken offers. Separate annual files prevent you from running comparison reports, and finding older transactions can require hunting through multiple old files.

Additionally, every time there is an update to Quicken's database format, it is imperative that you open and update all your prior year files. The reason is that Quicken doesn't indefinitely support opening old data files. There was a user who posted in this forum recently about needing to find some data in old annual Quicken files and discovering that those old files can't be read by the current version of Quicken; that user faces a daunting task of finding an old Mac and old version of the software as a bridge to the current Quicken Mac, or never being able to access his old data. We see users in this unfortunate situation on a recurring basis on this forum.

In older versions of Quicken, both Windows and Mac, the databases could become slow when they got large, develop data corruption, or flat-out run out of space for transactions, and those issues forced the developers to create ways to save copies with more limited data. The modern Quicken Mac doesn't have the Save A Copy feature (at least so far) because the modern database doesn't have the limitations that the older generations did. Database technology has advanced a great deal since the early days of Mac OS and Windows, and Quicken Mac uses the same SQL database that powers many parts of the modern Mac (and Windows) operating system, and many other applications. Quicken Mac was designed to have data filters pretty much everywhere in registers in reports, to make it easy to only see current (or past) year data when you don't want to see everything.

Of course, it's still a good idea to manually save a copy (in the Finder) from time to time, so you have multiple layers of backups should something go wrong in the future. So unless it's causing you some specific problem to have your prior year data in your data file, I'd recommend you just use Quicken the way it was designed to keep your entire history in one place. 

TeeQue

At some point Quicken needs to come up with a way for us users to do an end of year so that we can make our data file smaller. I really dont need 8 years of data being opened every time I need to balance my Checkbook. I really on need 3 years of data. Please support this feature and lets get on top of this. Thanks.