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Annoying behavior of categories in memorized transactions - help please

three_jeeps

Been using quicken last 20yr +. Over the last 3-4 years there is an annoying and seemingly sporadic behavior of categories disappearing from memorized payees. Some of my memorized transactions have 8 or more split category entries and redoing them can sometime lead to inconsistency with previous transactions.
A related behavior that I noticed over the last couple of months is some of my Memorized transactions have just vanished - no in the Payee List.
I cannot seem to correlate it to any action such as checking the quicken data base or installing a new version.
Is this a bug in Quicken? fixed?
Is there a way to make a backup of the Memorized Payee List only and then import it when necessary?
Is there a way to freeze/protect the Memorized Payee List to prevent this from happening?

I've been using quicken to save me time. With this behavior, it is costing me time. Solutions appreciated.

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Accepted answers

Rocket J Squirrel

three_jeeps said:

Is there a way to make a backup of the Memorized Payee List only and then import it when necessary?
Tom Young said:

As far as I know there's no easy way to make a backup of the payee list.

You can export the payee list to a QIF file. Then if a memorized transaction gets messed up, you can copy & edit the QIF to contain just that transaction and import it.

All comments

Tom Young

The first thing I'd suggest is Edit > Preferences > Data entry and QuickFill and see if some boxes that you used to have checked there have been unchecked. Updates will sometimes do that and some of what you're seeing may be related to that. As to payees vanishing, that could be controlled by how long you're allowing a payee to remain on the list. Look at the number in the "Remove memorized payees..." line to see if that's the case. I typically set that number at 12 or 13 just to keep "annual" payees intact from year to year.

As far as I know there's no easy way to make a backup of the payee list.

The "Lock" column on the memorized payee list should prevent changes in your setup of a memorized payee, but I've have seen instances where check marks in that column are either set or unset with updates.

anemicscarecrow

I have the same problem. I did a test today. I memorized a transaction with two categories in the split. I said no to percentages. I went to the memorized transaction list and it was correct. I exited quicken with sync and backup. I went back into Quicken and opened the memorized transaction list. The transaction was there but with only one category, the other split category was gone. I have tried the validate and repair and checked the options in preferences. No joy.

anemicscarecrow

It appears to be the cloud sync that is doing this. Put in a new split memorized transaction then did a manual cloud sync -- gone. I just went in and fixed all of the memorized transactions. I have reset my cloud data (without syncing first). The cloud data was erased and is in the process of resyncing all of my data. When it finishes, I will see if the behavior is the same.

anemicscarecrow

Ok, that didn't work. When the resync finished, the split categories were gone again.

A while back I saw another post where someone wrote that resetting the cloud does mess with the Memorized Payee List (MPL) and mostly with the split transactions. When I tested it, my splits disappeared as well. So I too agree with your observations. Must be a bug related to cloud. My approach: Since then I have maintained a screenshot of my MPL including the split details to minimize the recreation pain.

Rocket J Squirrel

three_jeeps said:

Is there a way to make a backup of the Memorized Payee List only and then import it when necessary?
Tom Young said:

As far as I know there's no easy way to make a backup of the payee list.

You can export the payee list to a QIF file. Then if a memorized transaction gets messed up, you can copy & edit the QIF to contain just that transaction and import it.

three_jeeps

Thank you for the feedback. So, to avoid this issue, sounds like no syncing to the cloud. How ridiculous....
Thank you for the suggestion about backing up the payee list. Sounds like a plan.
Has a bug report been filed? Where can I see the bug reports and also know when they are fixed.
Much obliged
J

Smoothieusa

I am having same frustrating problem as others with Memorized Payee list changing on its own accord. Categories are deleted from payees. I fix then they disappear again after sync. Same with split transactions deleted to a single category. Old categories are reappearing for some payees replacing categories after having been corrected only to have Quicken replace correct with incorrect categories again after a cloud sync.

This is a significant problem for enough users paying for a product that should work that causes a lot of wasted time and effort to continuously correct Quicken's unauthorized changes to the memorized payee list only to have Quicken mess with it again. Quicken user since 1990's so let me know if I'm suddenly doing something wrong. Quicken needs to fix the memorized payee component so it operates effectively without unauthorized or unexpected changes. Posts notifying Quicken of this problem have been going on too long. Quicken is a great company with a great product. Please fix it.

feistmann

For me, this problem started when we were forced to leave Quicken Billpay. I often categorize my credit card bill into 20+ budget categories, so reentering them all every month is a nuisance. The new system is easier to use, once you get used to it, except for this.

Quicken, please fix it ASAP.

NotACPA

feistmann said:

For me, this problem started when we were forced to leave Quicken Billpay. I often categorize my credit card bill into 20+ budget categories, so reentering them all every month is a nuisance. The new system is easier to use, once you get used to it, except for this.

Quicken, please fix it ASAP.

I'm curious. Why don't you have a Credit Card account set up ... and record the transactions there?

THEN, your card payment becomes a simply, non-split transfer from checking to the card account.