Deleting income reminders

Susan

What exactly does "Delete this instance and all future instances" really mean? I was under the impression that it literally only deleted the current instance and any instances for dates AFTER it. However, when I selected this option, all of my past due income reminders were also deleted. Is this a glitch in the system, or is it by design?

jrich75

I would guess it is intended to delete all instances of the reminder.  I'm curious, why would you want to keep past due reminders?  For my use, if a reminder is past due it needs to be updated (the instance either entered appropriately, edited to a future date or skipped).  

Susan

I use past due INCOME reminders to help me keep track of who still owes me money. It might not be income, per se... it could be a credit due on an account (like when I return a purchase and am waiting for the credit to show up in the account), overpayments to doctors (when insurance pays more than the doctor expected and therefore charged me too much upfront), money my daughter owes me for her portion of the cell phone bill, or in this particular instance, actual income... two months worth of unemployment still being hoarded by the state as a result of the Covid fiasco. (Back to work now, so I no longer need the income reminder going forward, but my claim is good and I am supposed to be getting the back pay, someday... maybe??? lol.) I've been doing this for years and it has been a perfect tool for reminding me to follow-up on these types of transactions.

I don't think it has always worked the way it currently is, because I feel like I have done this successfully in the past. But, I could be mistaken.

Thank you for your response, jrich! For what it's worth, on the extremely rare occasion that I have a past due BILL, I actually just leave it as past due until I pay it. That glaring red text helps me to prioritize.

jrich75

Since I don't keep them around, I don't know whether reminders ever worked like you remember.  I did run a quick test to better understand how reminders work (now).  The following image reflects the options that are available when multiple overdue and future instances of a reminder are diaplayed in a register.  Only the first (oldest) instance can be fully edited.  Actions for subsequent instances affect all reminders. 

For your unemployment situation, what could be done is to edit the reminder to have a specific number of instances (one or more) so that they continue to show as overdue but do not continue into the future.  That would give you the ability to enter them iwhen they do occur.  Otherwise, I'd suggest just creating the a new reminder with splits for the missed payments to keep track of the expected income.

Susan

Interesting.

On my First Overdue INCOME reminder, I only see:
- Skip this one
- Edit this instance
- Edit this instance and future instances
- Delete this instance and all future instances

On my Other Overdue INCOME reminders, I only see:
- Edit this instance and future instances
- Delete this instance and all future instances

My Future INCOME reminders show the same two options as my "Other Overdue" ones.
- Edit this instance and future instances
- Delete this instance and all future instances (this is the option I picked, but it deleted all Overdue ones also.)

I'm not sure why they use the word "future" if they really mean ALL. lol

I went ahead and re-entered them with a stop date, so I'm good now. Funny, the system allows me to enter past due INCOME reminders, but when I've tried to enter a past due BILL reminder before, it spit out a message telling me that I needed to change my due date to a date in the future... which, makes sense, unless, of course, you manage them like I do (leaving them as past due until paid).

jrich75

Where are you viewing the overdue reminders?  I was looking in the actual account register (set to display future reminders).  There may be fewer options given in other locations.  Are you using the most recent program version?  Anyway I'm glad you were able to make it work for you...