Why don't downloaded transactions include the category?

Scott Rose

I setup one of my Chase credit cards accounts as "Direct Connect" in Quicken Mac.

Quicken Mac downloaded all of my new transactions into my register, but all of the transactions downloaded into Quicken Mac with "Uncategorized" as the category.

All of these Payee names have been previously entered before into my register with the EXACT SAME PAYEE NAMES VERBATIM, and all of these Payee names have been associated with categories in the past.

Why is Quicken not filling in the most recent category name for these newly-downloaded transactions?

smayer97

Scott Rose said:

I don’t care that my bank doesn’t know... that part is irrelevant. But Quicken for Mac definitely knows. It should always default to the last category entered, just like it always does when you manually enter a transaction! It should handle all transactions the same — whether it comes from me typing it in, or my bank. It should at least START with one category entered (the most recent category), and if it’s wrong, then we can edit it from there if necessary. This worked fine In Quicken 2007, if I recall correctly. 

That is correct. QM2007 will fill the category for any Payees it matches. I believe it draws from the QuickFill transactions (though not 100% sure since I have over 25 years of data; it could be drawing from a "history" of downloaded transactions too; not sure).

QuickFill is new to the current version of QMac. I would check if the matching Payee exists in your QuickFill list and see if the categorization is there. If so, that is definitely a problem. If not, I am not sure if with the new QuickFill, QMac is designed to go beyond that for categorization (and I cannot be sure it did in QM2007 either).

That said, I checked again in QM2007 and I do have downloaded Payees that are not a perfect match to ANY QuickFIll entry yet they are getting categorized with MY categories (so not public categorization algorithm or anything), so that does suggest it is going beyond just QuickFill.

smayer97

How to report a BUG:

1. The best is right after @Quicken Marcus posts a new release to post a report in that thread when he is actively monitoring the thread for about a week or two afterwards.
   
2. The next best is via Beta...
3. third is post in the forum then use the Report a Problem menu under the Help menu and include a link to this thread...
4. forth would be to contact Quicken Support and report it there.

The goal is to get maximum exposure.

Chris Mead

All, recently I am seeing the same thing. Payments that I enter or downloaded transactions where the category defaulted to the previous transacted payee no longer defaults and rather is `uncategorized`. This is creating a bunch of extra work AND risk of error if I forget to select the correct category. I'd say this has started top happen for the last 2 months so I'm not sure which update broke it.

John_M

This is why I enter my transactions manually and then download and match. That way I know I've got the correct category from the start.

jacobs

With the recent addition of QuickFill rules, you can create rules for certain Payees to always use certain categories if Quicken isn't auto-categorizing them correctly (or at all). Don't feel you have to tackle all your Payees at once! After a download, pick a few of your frequent Payees and create QuickFill rules for them. Over time, continue to add more, and eventually who will have Quicken correctly categorizing at least a significant majority of your transactions. 

Scott Rose

jacobs said:

With the recent addition of QuickFill rules, you can create rules for certain Payees to always use certain categories if Quicken isn't auto-categorizing them correctly (or at all). Don't feel you have to tackle all your Payees at once! After a download, pick a few of your frequent Payees and create QuickFill rules for them. Over time, continue to add more, and eventually who will have Quicken correctly categorizing at least a significant majority of your transactions. 

Nope, that still doesn’t work with downloaded transactions. Only transactions you manually enter.

Oh, sorry, you’re talking about rules. That’s just way too much work.

NotACPA

Downloaded transactions don't include the category because your bank/card/etc has NO IDEA what categories you use.

Do you have one big category for ALL medical expenses?  Or do you break it out by "Pharmacy", Primary Physician, Dentist, Hospital, etc.

Do you have one big category for everything that you buy at the grocery, or do you split it out as Grocery, hosiery, pharmacy, gasoline, reading, wine, etc?

Scott Rose

I don’t care that my bank doesn’t know... that part is irrelevant. But Quicken for Mac definitely knows. It should always default to the last category entered, just like it always does when you manually enter a transaction! It should handle all transactions the same — whether it comes from me typing it in, or my bank. It should at least START with one category entered (the most recent category), and if it’s wrong, then we can edit it from there if necessary. This worked fine In Quicken 2007, if I recall correctly. 

NotACPA

"I don’t care that my bank doesn’t know... that part is irrelevant. "

In which case the title of your thread is irrelevant ... because it asks about the content of downloaded transactions ... which come from your bank.

Scott Rose

Omg, I don’t think you’re understanding me. Anyways, don’t worry about it — the point is that Quicken Mac is not a mature program at this point, and it’s very disappointing to someone who has been using the old Quicken for 31 years, which was — in many ways — more capable than the new version in 2020.

jacobs

@Scott Rose Did the update from version 5.13 to 5.14 create QuickFill rules for any of these transactions? What happens if you manually create a few QuickFill rules; does the next download from those Payees follow the category in the QuickFill rule or ignore it?

smayer97

Scott Rose said:

I don’t care that my bank doesn’t know... that part is irrelevant. But Quicken for Mac definitely knows. It should always default to the last category entered, just like it always does when you manually enter a transaction! It should handle all transactions the same — whether it comes from me typing it in, or my bank. It should at least START with one category entered (the most recent category), and if it’s wrong, then we can edit it from there if necessary. This worked fine In Quicken 2007, if I recall correctly. 

That is correct. QM2007 will fill the category for any Payees it matches. I believe it draws from the QuickFill transactions (though not 100% sure since I have over 25 years of data; it could be drawing from a "history" of downloaded transactions too; not sure).

QuickFill is new to the current version of QMac. I would check if the matching Payee exists in your QuickFill list and see if the categorization is there. If so, that is definitely a problem. If not, I am not sure if with the new QuickFill, QMac is designed to go beyond that for categorization (and I cannot be sure it did in QM2007 either).

That said, I checked again in QM2007 and I do have downloaded Payees that are not a perfect match to ANY QuickFIll entry yet they are getting categorized with MY categories (so not public categorization algorithm or anything), so that does suggest it is going beyond just QuickFill.

Scott Rose

smayer97 said:

QuickFill is new to the current version of QMac. I would check if the matching Payee exists in your QuickFill list and see if the categorization is there. If so, that is definitely a problem. If not, I am not sure if with the new QuickFill, QMac is designed to go beyond that for categorization (and I cannot be sure it did in QM2007 either).

Right, that is why I'm reporting it here.

The matching payee exists IDENTICALLY in the QuickFill list. 100% VERBATIM. Yet downloaded transactions will not fill in the categorization from the QuickFill list.

What would be the best way to alert the Quicken team to this bug?.

smayer97

How to report a BUG:

1. The best is right after @Quicken Marcus posts a new release to post a report in that thread when he is actively monitoring the thread for about a week or two afterwards.
   
2. The next best is via Beta...
3. third is post in the forum then use the Report a Problem menu under the Help menu and include a link to this thread...
4. forth would be to contact Quicken Support and report it there.

The goal is to get maximum exposure.

Scott Rose

Thank you!

jacobs

@Scott Rose  What you wrote in your most recent post above is different than what it seems you've said in all the posts above. Previously, you said that you had previous transactions for Payees, and Quicken wasn't using the same category from a previous transaction for that Payee (well, or any category). But you didn't say until just above that there were QuickFill rules existing for these Payees. So just to make sure we're entirely on the same page, let me just recap:

• You download a transaction for a Payee named ABC. It comes in Uncategorized.
• You open Window > Payees & Rules, and find Payee ABC.
• In the QuickFill column, it shows 1 (or a higher number).
• You click on the number and it opens the QuickFill rule, which shows ABC as the Payee name and one of your categories as the Category.

Is that correct? If so, that does indeed sound like a bug. (It's strange that lots of others aren't reporting this behavior, but it doesn't negate the problem you're experiencing; I  just wonder what's different.)(I'm a manual entry user, so I can't compare what you're reporting with my experience.)