Need help understanding downloaded transfer matching

Will Fiveash

Running Quicken v5.18.2 on my Mac I frequently come across the situation where I've transferred money from an investment account to my bank account and both transactions have been downloaded. The problem is that the transfers aren't linked and when I edit the transfer transaction from the investment account and specify that it's a Transfer To my bank account Quicken isn't matching the transfer transaction from my bank. Instead it creates a new linked transfer transaction to my bank with the result that my bank account now has two transfer transactions causing the balance to be off. My expectation is that when I edit the transaction to indicate the account it transferred to Quicken would try to match the other transfer transaction downloaded for my bank account. As it stands I am forced to delete the downloaded transaction for my bank so the balance remains correct.

Is there something I'm doing wrong here?

John_M

When you create the transfer from the investment account, it creates a new transaction in your bank account. Quicken will not be able to "find" the transaction you already have downloaded. However, you should be able to just drag and drop the downloaded transaction onto the newly-created transfer transaction and have it match. This way, you don't have to delete the downloaded transaction – it just gets merged into the new one.

As far as your concern about the field labeled "Transfer to:" I don't see that anywhere. There is a field labeled "Transfer" but all it shows is the account that is on the other side of the transfer. It does not show the direction, which can be inferred from other fields such as Amount.

By the way, Quicken allows you to only edit a transfer from the originating account. If you try to edit the transaction in the receiving account, you will get the message below.

Will Fiveash

BTW, when I look at the linked transaction in my bank account it has the Transferred to: set to my investment account but labeling this field as "Transfer to:" isn't correct as the transfer came from my investment account not into it. Some refinement here would be nice.

John_M

When you create the transfer from the investment account, it creates a new transaction in your bank account. Quicken will not be able to "find" the transaction you already have downloaded. However, you should be able to just drag and drop the downloaded transaction onto the newly-created transfer transaction and have it match. This way, you don't have to delete the downloaded transaction – it just gets merged into the new one.

As far as your concern about the field labeled "Transfer to:" I don't see that anywhere. There is a field labeled "Transfer" but all it shows is the account that is on the other side of the transfer. It does not show the direction, which can be inferred from other fields such as Amount.

By the way, Quicken allows you to only edit a transfer from the originating account. If you try to edit the transaction in the receiving account, you will get the message below.

Will Fiveash

Thanks for that information, I will try your suggestion next time I'm seeing that situation. As for my second nit issue, I'm talking about the editing pop-up. I've attached an example.

John_M

Thanks for the clarification. In all my years of using Quicken, I had never seen the "Transaction Info" screen you posted.  I finally found it by right-clicking a transaction and choosing "Get Info." I always edit transactions by right-clicking on a transaction and then choosing "Edit Transaction." This shows how differently people use Quicken.

I checked both sides of a transfer and agree with you that the screen says "Transfer to:" for both sides of the transaction on that screen. An easy fix for Quicken would be to change the label to "Transfer to/from:" That way, additional logic would not have to be programmed to decide which end of the transaction it represents.