Trying to understand Online Biller process overview

Randy 415

I see details on how to implement Online Biller, but my question has to do with overall, how to best use it. "Best Practices". I have bills that vary month to month. Electric bill, Gas bill, Water bill, etc. I have online vendor accounts with all. I set them up with AutoPay thru their web site. Each month, I get a transaction download from my bank/credit card account with the amount. It varies each month. I have to then go in and add the name (usually incorrect), category, and tag, and Memo, each month for each transaction. I set up Bill Reminders that help me with some of that. So now I have to adjust the Bill Reminder each month for the correct amount. I tried using Online Biller to download the correct amount each month and link that to the Bill Reminder. Does not seem to work. It adds the reminder with the same wrong amount each month.

How is it best to structure this, where I have the Online Biller, variable amount each month, linked to a Bill Reminder which contains the correct name, category, tag, and memo?

jrich75

When does the vendor initiate the autopay.  On the day the bill is due, the day the bill is issued or some specific date each month?  I assume you are paying the full amount of the bill.  From my experience, the bill will go to zero once it is paid and remains at zero until a new bill is retrieved.  The linked reminder used to go to zero during that period as well and then reflect the bill amount once it was acquired by Quicken (not sure if this is still the case).  If so, only during the period between receiving the bill and paying it does the reminder display the billed amount.  Is that not what your are seeing?  If the reminder is entered during the period between bill receipt and payment, it should match the download.  If the vendor does not have a reasonable and consistent delay between bill date and autopay date, I can't see an easy solution.

Sherlock

If you link the online bill to the bill reminder, Quicken should use the online bill's amount for the estimated amount on the bill reminder.  When a new online bill is received, you should be able to use the reminder to enter the transaction.  When the payment transaction is imported, it should be matched to the transaction entered.

Randy 415

Yes. That is what I was hoping for. I have the bill reminder set to "Auto enter 16 days in advance." That caused issues. Then I set it to "Auto enter 0 days in advance." In that case, I have to get the date of the bill spot-on, otherwise it will Auto enter with an old/wrong amount. So far, it has not worked as you have stated. Maybe my settings are incorrect. I have tried this on several bills over several months. Still no luck. I am hoping to get to a point where the reminder will add to the register automatically with the correct amount, and at the point of transaction download, the downloaded transaction will Match to the register transaction and I just have to click "Accept".

Sherlock

Randy 415 said:

Yes. That is what I was hoping for. I have the bill reminder set to "Auto enter 16 days in advance." That caused issues. Then I set it to "Auto enter 0 days in advance." In that case, I have to get the date of the bill spot-on, otherwise it will Auto enter with an old/wrong amount. So far, it has not worked as you have stated. Maybe my settings are incorrect. I have tried this on several bills over several months. Still no luck. I am hoping to get to a point where the reminder will add to the register automatically with the correct amount, and at the point of transaction download, the downloaded transaction will Match to the register transaction and I just have to click "Accept".

I suggest adding an idea to have Quicken offer an option that will auto enter the bill reminder when the online bill is received.  For now, I suggest you manually enter the bill reminder's transaction when the online bill is received.  

jrich75

When does the vendor initiate the autopay.  On the day the bill is due, the day the bill is issued or some specific date each month?  I assume you are paying the full amount of the bill.  From my experience, the bill will go to zero once it is paid and remains at zero until a new bill is retrieved.  The linked reminder used to go to zero during that period as well and then reflect the bill amount once it was acquired by Quicken (not sure if this is still the case).  If so, only during the period between receiving the bill and paying it does the reminder display the billed amount.  Is that not what your are seeing?  If the reminder is entered during the period between bill receipt and payment, it should match the download.  If the vendor does not have a reasonable and consistent delay between bill date and autopay date, I can't see an easy solution.

Randy 415

Thank you for a description of the process. I was not aware of this. Usually the Autopay is initiated the day the bill is due, but that may vary a bit by vendor. Yes, I pay full amount. Generally, I see that the Bill Reminder, in the "bills and Income" > "Bills" list, shows a dollar amount equal to the last bill, but that will be there for almost a month, until a new bill is received. I think the other concern, now that I understand the process, is that I Do Not run a OSU daily or even weekly. I generally OSU 2-3 times a month only. That may be causing my issue if the bill is received and paid all within a 2 week period when I do not OSU. I guess I need more testing. And maybe more regular OSU. Thanks for the description - most helpful.