Memorize split payees as percentages

twarner1

How do you create a memorized payee with splits as percentages?  No matter how I create a memorized payee by clicking on "new payee" in the "Memorized Payee List", it ends up with the "type" as spl.  I tried entering the split amounts of two lines as "94%" and "6%" (to try and account for 6% sales tax) but the payee type ends up as spl.  I also tried "94" and "6" with the same results.
Also, is there a way to change an entry in the Memorized Payee List from spl to %spl?

Chris_QPW

I have never been able to get this feature to work.

First off I have not seen any way to set it up in the Memorized Payee List, let alone try to change from non percentage to percentage.

The only time I have been able to get it to "partially" work was to enter a split transaction into the register and then select Ctrl+M to memorize it. At that time it will ask if you want to do it by percentage.

But when I go to use it and I type in the payee name I get this dialog:


And say I type in 200.
When I go to save it, it gives me this dialog:

I say OK and it opens up the split dialog:


Clearly the feature doesn't work.

splasher

It used to work as advertised.  I remember years ago when NoWayJose answered a question about it (new feature to me), I tested it and it worked.  I've never used it since, but it did work at one time.

twarner1

Thanks Chris.  I too was able to create a memorized payee with splits as percentage by adding a split transaction into the register and then select then memorize it to get the percentage dialog box.  I was wondering how to do it from create button in the Memorized Payee List.  I haven't tried to use this function with a new downloaded transaction yet, but from what you described and others have posted, it is futile.

twarner1

I was able to set up a test payee as percentage with $100 Dining out and $6 Sales Tax. When I made a new transaction in the register and selected the test payee, Quicken asked me for the amount and I put in $53 (total transaction).  To my amazement, I had two lines in the split transaction. One line for $50 as Dining out and one line for $3 as Sales tax (6%).  So far, so good!

Chris_QPW

Well you faired better than I did.  

smono57

This does not work for me either. It works fine if I manually enter a new transaction and select the memorized payee. But the memorized payee does not apply to downloaded transactions when doing a One Step Update. Very frustrating. Does anyone have other recommendations or can someone at Quicken look into this?

Rocket J Squirrel

It may not be worth the effort to set this up. I went through the same process several years ago and it didn't quite work out.

I memorized a "seed" transaction for BevMo with $100.00 for booze and $8.50 for sales tax, total $108.50. It worked for a short time to correctly calculate sales tax in the split. But then it started to "drift". The numbers started to deviate more and more from the 8.5% I'd memorized.

I finally inferred that each percentage-split transaction was basing its calculations on the previous one, not on the original seed transaction I'd memorized. So as numbers became rounded to the nearest cent (because I didn't ever spend exactly $100 at BevMo), I observed drift in the split over time.

I eventually gave up and just enter sales tax manually in the split.

smono57

I think I found my issue. I have a second file where I manage someone else's finances and found the split memorized payees apply correctly to downloaded transactions in that file. I compared the "Edit -> Preferences" settings and found under "Downloaded Transactions" the "Automatically categorize transactions" checkbox was checked on my file. When I uncheck it, the split transactions in my memorized payee list now apply to downloaded transactions. It appears that when this box is checked, the split memorized payees are not processed (on downloaded transactions). Non-split memorized payees apply fine whether the box is checked or not.