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Memo field contains partial description

ec1060

Quicken connects to my Chase checking accounts and downloads all transactions. If I view my Chase statement online a transaction says (for example) "MICROSOFT *ONEDRIVE msbill.info WA 03/13 (...7474)"

In Quicken the Payee is changed to "Microsoft" and the Memo field says "O WA 03/13"

Why???!!! Why is Quicken taking random parts of the description field? Why can't it download the entire description?

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NotACPA

Check your OFXLog to see what Chase is sending. HELP, Log Files, OFX Log.

Also, click TOOLS, Account List and tell us what shows in the "Transactions Download" column adjacent to this checking account.

Lastly, please do HELP, About Quicken and tell us what Q product you're running, what BUILD of that product and, if present, your "Valid Thru" date.

ec1060

OFXLog shows this:
<STMTTRN>
<TRNTYPE>DEBIT
<DTPOSTED>20200313
<TRNAMT>-1.99
<FITID>202003130
<INTU.CC_TXN_ID>10149673512936
<NAME>MICROSOFT *ONEDRIVE msbill.info
<MEMO>WA 03/13
</STMTTRN>

Transaction Download:
"Yes (Improve Connection)"

Help > About:
Quicken - Deluxe
Year: 2020
Version: R25.21
Build: 27.1.25.21

ec1060

Here's another example that might show a pattern:

My Chase online statement shows the following description:
"VZ WIRELESS VE VZW WEBPAY 7002855 WEB ID: 0000751800"

In QUICKEN it looks like this:
Payee: Verizon Wireless
Memo: 855 WEB ID: 0000751800

I noticed that if I right-click on the transaction in Quicken I see an option
"Revert to VZ WIRELESS VE VZW WEBPAY 7002"

If I select that option then the Payee changes to:
VZ WIRELESS VE VZW WEBPAY 7002

and the Memo remains as:
855 WEB ID: 0000751800

It's as if Quicken puts the first 32 (?) characters into the Payee field and whatever is left over gets put into the Memo field. Maybe?

THEN ...
Quicken tries to be helpful and changes "VZ WIRELESS VE VZW WEBPAY 7002" to "Verizon Wireless"

I like that Quicken can identify the Payee but I think the entire description from Chase Online should appear in the Memo field, not just the leftover part because it breaks the description no matter if it's in the middle of a word or numeric value, leaving you with meaningless, half-missing Memo fields.

(For the record I also have a subscription to Quickbooks online and when I find this exact same transaction in QBO, the entire description is there, exactly how it appears on Chase online. And it also identifies the payee as Verizon Wireless. I guess it took my writing all this out to realize what is happening in Quicken and to point out that it should not split the description and then display only the second part. Doesn't make any sense.)

NotACPA

That "revert" message indicates that you've got a renaming rule in effect that changes anything that begins VZ to just "Verizon" and there IS a limit as to how many characters can appear in the Payee field.

I also have a suspicion (in the Microsoft example) that the * may be screwing things up

ec1060

Yes you are correct. There's a rule that renames the Payee to Verizon. I'd like to keep that. Whether or not I use a rule, it looks like Quicken is downloading the Description from Chase, taking the first 32 characters and putting that into the Payee field and everything else into the Memo field. This just doesn't make any sense to me.

UKR

Just to confuse things a little more ...
In my credit card accounts I have set the registers to 2-line-per-transaction mode and added the columns Downloaded Payee and Downloaded Memo, just so I can see what gobbledygook comes down the line.
All my transactions are always manually recorded the way I want them to appear, with proper Payee Names and Memo. I always record transactions before they appear in a download. That takes a lot of attempts by Quicken to be helpful out of the picture, because now the only thing Quicken can do is to match the downloaded info to what's already in the register, correctly named and categorized.
You might want to take Quicken out of "autopilot", put your hands on the steering wheel and take control over your transactions. You get much better results that way.

jehewitt

I have the same problem - I dont think the answer is to manually enter everything and have quicken match...there is something wrong with the way the data is being parsed and Quicken needs to address