Bill Manager - Multiple accounts at same bank look identical

jerryinsf

My spouse and I each have a checking account at the same bank. In Bill Manager, it shows the two checking accounts as identical, i.e. I can't tell them apart. For credit card accounts, it shows the last 4 digits, so you can identify them. There needs to be an identifier or some way to customize the name in Bill Manager.

MangoMan

When you say " I can't tell them apart." does this mean on your Quicken Account listing or when using Tools>Manage Bills and Reminders?

jerryinsf

No, it's in the window when you select "Bills >> Bills, Income & Transfers", that shows upcoming bills. There's a large icon representing each account. I believe that's what they call the Bill Manager. I have 14 icons there and when you set them up, there isn't a way to add your own identifier. In fact, one of them says "Type: Bank" when I'm sure it's a Visa credit card account. So, when you set them up and have multiple accounts at the same bank, you end up with identical icons with no way to tell them apart. I'm ready to delete all 14 entries and start over, which is a pain.

PeterK

Similar problem here. They should always list the last 4 digits of account numbers for all types of accounts

UKR

jerryinsf said:

My spouse and I each have a checking account at the same bank. In Bill Manager, it shows the two checking accounts as identical, i.e. I can't tell them apart. For credit card accounts, it shows the last 4 digits, so you can identify them. There needs to be an identifier or some way to customize the name in Bill Manager.

Can you show us how that looks for you?

And what are the exact account register names you use in Quicken for your and your spouse's checking accounts?

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words …
Can you please capture one or more images of the parts of your Quicken window showing the issue, sensitive information blacked out as necessary to protect your privacy but annotated to describe the situation, and attach the image(s) here?
The Windows Snipping Tool (available with Windows 7 and up) can be used to capture a partial screen image and save it to a file.  Microsoft Paint can be used to annotate the image.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13776/windows-use-snipping-tool-to-capture-screenshots
To take a screenshot in Mac please see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201361
Please create image files of type PNG, JPG or GIF only.
To attach the image here, start composing your reply in the "Type your comment" box at the bottom of this webpage. Drag and drop the image or, at the top of the text entry window you'll see a row of icons possibly beginning with B I S
Click the "Attach image" icon (the one that looks like a tiny landscape with mountain and sun). It will allow you to select and upload the captured image file(s) from your computer. The captured image(s) will be inserted at wherever the cursor is located in the text.

jrich75

I'm not sure this is the same issue but I have that problem with online billers on the B&I tab.  Quicken does not seem to provide enough information in their icons. I don't really see anywhere a checking account appears on the B&I tab (as mentioned by @jerryinsf ), unless it when the payment account is selected during a payment.

Here, the two BofA accounts are actually separate Visa credit cards (not Banks).  One is issued by BofA but the other is an Alaska Air card that BofA manages.  The Barclaycard is actually a Mastercard issued by Bank of Hawaii (managed by Barclay).
This is another instance where BIll Manager is deficient in documentation and in allowing user customizations.  It is possible to differentiate the accounts by looking at the pdf bills associated with each icon but that should not be necessary.  There is currently no way to edit online billers information because the Manage Online Billers window offers only Edit Password or Remove as action options.

Chris_QPW

Interesting for Chase I get more information (but not for Citi).

Chris_QPW

I have a "solution".  Link the bill to a reminder.
Once you do that instead of "Type: Bank" you will get the name of your reminder.

jrich75

Chris_QPW said:

I have a "solution".  Link the bill to a reminder.
Once you do that instead of "Type: Bank" you will get the name of your reminder.

That's great if it suits your needs. However, it seems it would be easier to just allow users the ability to label the online bills so they are easy to recognize. 

I did link reminders for a while but then my bill reminders kept being zeroed out once I paid the bill.  It would not use the estimates set for the reminders and my balance projections were off until the next bill arrived.  I ended up un-linking all reminders so they would still provide consistent future estimates. I only use the online bills feature to verify that a new bill has come in and update the estimated reminder to the actual statement balance.