Linked transactions, different dates?

jtcrawf55

Am wondering if it's possible to have two different dates when a single transaction is linked to two different accounts. It is quite common for a Credit Card payment to post with the credit card company several days before it posts back to the payment account i.e. checking account. Thank you.

Boatnmaniac

@jtcrawf55 - No, when the payment clears the financial institutions the date does not get updated in the registers.  You can set up your registers to see both the transaction dates and the posting dates (the date when the transaction actually clears) but the posting date is not used by Quicken to determine the register balance...the transaction date(s) are used for that.

What some people who really want to see separate dates in the two accounts do is to set up a dummy manual "Cash In Transit" bank account.  They then transfer the cash from one account into it on one day and transfer it out of there to the other account on another day.  That really approximates what happens in the real world of financial cash transfers.

But that's more work than I'm willing to do, especially since I personally would not realize any significant benefit for that level of detail in my account registers.

There was some talk in this forum a while back about submitting a request for Quicken to automate this "Cash in Transit" bank account process but a product improvement idea for it was never submitted.  If you wish to, you might want to consider suggesting it at Product Enhancements (Windows).  Other users can then view and vote for it.  The Quicken Team does monitor product enhancement ideas posted there and the number of votes they receive.  The higher the number of votes in favor of an idea the more likely the Quicken Team will integrate that idea into their product development plans.

splasher

No.  The posting date will show the different dates that you are seeking.  You can change the columns show in the register if that is what you want.

What would you do if you wrote a paper check and stuck it in the mail, would you expect to show the date in the credit card to be a week or two later?

jtcrawf55

Who pays with checks anymore? Everything I do is online. I have been using Quicken since what seems like it's inception and I am just trying to understand why things are the way they are. OK so, my credit card payment just cleared and reconciled with a date of today. The linked account transaction shows the same date but it obviously hasn't cleared or reconciled. So that account now shows an online balance higher than the current balance. I don't understand why that has to be. So you are saying that when the payment clears the bank it will update the date in that account and will show different transaction date than what it is currently showing? I have not found that to be the case. It seems to me that the online balance should match the current balance, that's all I am saying.

Boatnmaniac

@jtcrawf55 - No, when the payment clears the financial institutions the date does not get updated in the registers.  You can set up your registers to see both the transaction dates and the posting dates (the date when the transaction actually clears) but the posting date is not used by Quicken to determine the register balance...the transaction date(s) are used for that.

What some people who really want to see separate dates in the two accounts do is to set up a dummy manual "Cash In Transit" bank account.  They then transfer the cash from one account into it on one day and transfer it out of there to the other account on another day.  That really approximates what happens in the real world of financial cash transfers.

But that's more work than I'm willing to do, especially since I personally would not realize any significant benefit for that level of detail in my account registers.

There was some talk in this forum a while back about submitting a request for Quicken to automate this "Cash in Transit" bank account process but a product improvement idea for it was never submitted.  If you wish to, you might want to consider suggesting it at Product Enhancements (Windows).  Other users can then view and vote for it.  The Quicken Team does monitor product enhancement ideas posted there and the number of votes they receive.  The higher the number of votes in favor of an idea the more likely the Quicken Team will integrate that idea into their product development plans.

jtcrawf55

Thank you for the kind response. Ah, Downloaded Posting Date, I see that. Let me play around with that and see how it goes. I have quite a few bank accounts. I have noticed that Capital One seems to update transactions in Quicken fairly quickly when some Credit Unions may take 3 - 4 days before the transactions actually download into Quicken. I understand that cannot be controlled. I also understand that yes, I know the transactions are going to eventually post so why worry about it if nothing more than keeping Quicken dates the same as actual banking dates.

jtcrawf55

PS.. Wow! There are a LOT of suggestions for Product Enhancements. This should be fun.

splasher

Lots of folks use paper checks, I do in certain situations. 
How many dates do you want?
Back to the paper check scenario, you write a check on day 1 and stick it in the mail.  The recipient gets it on day 4 and credits your account, deposits it on day 5 and your bank honors the check finally on day 6.
There are a lot of dates in that scenario, how many do you expect to track/remember?

jtcrawf55

@splasher I find your reply to be off topic to my concern, argumentative and not helpful. Please leave me alone.

NotACPA

jtcrawf55 said:

@splasher I find your reply to be off topic to my concern, argumentative and not helpful. Please leave me alone.

@Splasher's reply is entirely appropriate and accurate.  He's trying to ascertain exactly what you want after you've already been told that what you want for the transaction date isn't possible.

Would you want your checking account to NOT be debited until the payment is posted?  Then simply change the date of the transaction to accommodate that ... of course that will cause your checking balance to be mis-represented.

jtcrawf55

@NotACPA, Holy Smokes. Let's go thru his initial reply. "What would you do if you wrote a paper check and stuck it in the mail, would you expect to show the date in the credit card to be a week or two later?" My reply: No, of course not. And looking back, my question was misunderstood, so I will take partial blame for that. @Boatnmaniac understood it and answered it exactly to my my understanding (which I stated) it has been the accepted answer. After my question was answered I get asked "How many dates do you want? My answer: Why am I being asked how many dates do you want? I found this reply to be argumentative. Why ask that question when the previous thread answered my question and was acknowledged? Then: "Back to the paper check scenario, you write a check on day 1 and stick it in the mail.  The recipient gets it on day 4 and credits your account, deposits it on day 5 and your bank honors the check finally on day 6. There are a lot of dates in that scenario, how many do you expect to track/remember?" My reply: Oh my goodness, I never asked for multiple dates to remember. I never asked about how manual checks get posted as I never asked about manual checks. My question was actually quite simple, but again, feel it was misunderstood. I am not flagging anybody here. I am sorry if I offended anyone.    

SeattleDave

The problem as I see it is that you have let's say a Bank account and Credit Card account and you want to see the payments from Bank to Credit Card as a Transfer between those accounts, so there is a link you can follow connected them, yet the dates will clear on different days. So the solution would be simply to be able to create the Transfer link independently of the dates upon which they fall.