2017 to 2020 transition

gulf83

I purchased 2020 quicken premier and will be transitioning from 2017 deluxe. I want to install 2020 on my laptop and set up all the new online bill pay, etc. I understand this could take 2 weeks or so. Is there any issue with activating 2020 premier on my laptop, moving my quicken file to there and setting up my quicken bill manager while still continuing to use 2017 on my desktop? I will still need to pay bills and update my accounts through the end of April. So in essence I will have both 2017 and 2020 active on my account.

UKR

You cannot combine two copies of the same Quicken data file where changes have been made in one file, but not the other.

Install Q 2020, move a backup copy of your data file(s) from old to new computer and start using it exclusively. Set up the new Bill Pay Manager, one payee at a time, and just be prepared to manually pay a bill if the setup hasn't been done on time.

If I may say so, I've been avoiding Bill Pay hassles all this time by authorizing the biller to withdraw the amount due directly from a checking or credit card account on Due Date. Has worked extremely well for many years, even in the old times where there was no Internet, no downloading, etc.

Chris_QPW

Here are my thoughts on what you are trying to do.

1) Even though Quicken Inc is transitioning to the new Bill Manager system that doesn't mean that Quicken Subscription (2018 and above) dropped support for Quicken Bill pay, it works the same as in Quicken 2017.  The two systems can be used in the same data file if I'm not mistaken because the work differently.  So I don't see the advantage of maintaining Quicken 2017 on another machine.  What is going to be eventually going to happen is the third party providing Quicken Bill Pay is going to stop processing the payments when the contract expires with Quicken Inc (which has been recently extended to give people more time, in the light of the CoronaVirus)

2) If you really want to do what you are suggesting you can't merge data between two different copies of your data file, but you could copy the data file back and forth between the two different machines as you use it on that machine.  Quicken 2017 and Quicken Subscription use the same data format.

3) Like UKR I "flip the problem" and have the "biller" make an automatic withdraw for the amount of the bill (auto pay).  I prefer using a credit card that I get cash back so most come out of that, with a few like my utilities taken directly from my checking account (and the credit cards are auto pay from my checking account).  This has been working great for me for 20+ years.   Having them paid through the credit card also gives me the advantage of mostly managing my cash flow just on the credit card payment instead of individual bills.  And there extra 20 days or so to see it coming.