Default Transaction Category

nschloss

When I download transactions from bank/credit card/etc. they are each assigned a category. Sometimes this category is appropriate, sometimes not. How can I affect what category is assigned by default to a payee so that it will be my typical assignment and I only need to change it for exceptions? Right now many are just the opposite - they default to an exception I may have used in the past but it's not the 'normal' category for the payee.

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @nschloss

Thank you for your response and the additional details.

A memorized payee can be locked by right-clicking on the payee and choosing "Lock."

To learn more about the memorized payee list, I would start by reviewing the information available here and here.

I hope this helps!
-Quicken Tyka

Quicken Anja

Hello @nschloss,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community with your question.

First, could you please provide which version of Quicken you have currently running?

• Help > About Quicken

It is possible that this may be caused by a saved category rule or saved rules for one payee and multiple category options.

You can check for this by following the steps below--

1. Go to Tools
2. Memorized Payee List
3. Find the payee(s) that you're experiencing issues with
4. Check if the payee has more than 1 line with different categories saved

(See example below-- payee name, "Albertsons", with 5 lines of saved categories)



If so, delete each line with an undesired category and keep the line that has the desired category saved.

I hope this helps!

nschloss

This is indeed helpful - thank you! It begs another question though - for payees with multiple categories, how does Quicken choose? Alternatively, can I just 'lock' the preferred saved category? I've attached my version.

Quicken Anja

For your first question, I recommend reviewing this help article that provides a detailed explanation of the topic.

As for your second question-- Yes, there is an option to lock a payee which can be found by going to the Memorized Payee List, selecting a payee, and clicking Edit. However, I only recommend using the lock feature if the category and amount are the same every time as the lock feature does prevent you from being able to make any changes to it in the future.

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @nschloss

Thank you for your response and the additional details.

A memorized payee can be locked by right-clicking on the payee and choosing "Lock."

To learn more about the memorized payee list, I would start by reviewing the information available here and here.

I hope this helps!
-Quicken Tyka