How to combine more than 1 payee (Q Mac)

Dan McCarter

I have three listing of Food city grocery store and would lie to combine them. Also I would like to assign a category and have the last amount come up when I recored a new transaction. Many time the amount for the new entry is exactly like the last precious entry. such as rent or health insurance

jacobs

If you actually have multiple Payees for the same entity, it's easy to combine them into one: select each one in the Windows > Payees list, click Merge Payees at the bottom of the window, and select which of the name variations you want to be the one you keep; all transactions in the database will be changed to use this Payee name, and the other(s) will be discarded.

But from your screenshot, it seems you may be asking about multiple QuickFill rules for the same Payee. To delete the ones you don't want, just select them and click the minus sign icon at the bottom of the window.

Next, edit the remaining rule to make it the way you want. For instance, have the category you want, but no amount. The next transaction for this Payee will get that Category and the amount you enter. If you have your Preferences > Register set to "Automatically create rule when I edit transaction" and "When saving new QuickFill rules, save All fields", then the next time you enter that Payee, a transaction will come up with the saved category and amount (and any tags, memos, or splits). As long as transactions to the same Payee keep the same Category, the rule will be updated but there will be only one rule.

But if you have a Payee where you change the category -- e.g. some Amazon purchases are groceries and some are clothing -- then Quicken will create a different rule for each category. Which could be useful… or might not be what you want. So the other tool you have in the Edit Rule screen is "Lock this rule to prevent changes to it when editing a transaction". Check that, and the rule will be unchanged if you make a change on a particular transaction. For instance, let's say you have a locked rule for Amazon for category=Clothing; you enter an Amazon transaction, and it comes as Clothing, but you change it to Groceries. The next Amazon transaction will come up as Clothing because the rule was locked and didn't change.

jacobs

When you enter "walmart", are there two entries in the Best Matches drop-down list, like this:



In this example using Amazon, notice that the first entry in the list is a single line and the second entry, which is highlighted, shows a category on the second line. Quicken always presents the option of what I call the "naked" Payee: just the Payee without any QuickFill rule. Selecting this one will full in the Payee but nothing else. The second entry shows a QuickFill rule, so if you select this one, it will fill in the Category (and any other fields, if they were part of your QuickFill rule).

Are you seeing two similar choices when you type walmart in a transaction Payee field?

jacobs

If you actually have multiple Payees for the same entity, it's easy to combine them into one: select each one in the Windows > Payees list, click Merge Payees at the bottom of the window, and select which of the name variations you want to be the one you keep; all transactions in the database will be changed to use this Payee name, and the other(s) will be discarded.

But from your screenshot, it seems you may be asking about multiple QuickFill rules for the same Payee. To delete the ones you don't want, just select them and click the minus sign icon at the bottom of the window.

Next, edit the remaining rule to make it the way you want. For instance, have the category you want, but no amount. The next transaction for this Payee will get that Category and the amount you enter. If you have your Preferences > Register set to "Automatically create rule when I edit transaction" and "When saving new QuickFill rules, save All fields", then the next time you enter that Payee, a transaction will come up with the saved category and amount (and any tags, memos, or splits). As long as transactions to the same Payee keep the same Category, the rule will be updated but there will be only one rule.

But if you have a Payee where you change the category -- e.g. some Amazon purchases are groceries and some are clothing -- then Quicken will create a different rule for each category. Which could be useful… or might not be what you want. So the other tool you have in the Edit Rule screen is "Lock this rule to prevent changes to it when editing a transaction". Check that, and the rule will be unchanged if you make a change on a particular transaction. For instance, let's say you have a locked rule for Amazon for category=Clothing; you enter an Amazon transaction, and it comes as Clothing, but you change it to Groceries. The next Amazon transaction will come up as Clothing because the rule was locked and didn't change.

Dan McCarter

Thank you vey much for the help. I have lots of corrections to make. Here ism one with sub folders that I do't seem to be able to correct

jacobs

What is the problem you're having? What are you wanting to do? It looks like there are 5 different rules for this Payee, the last one of which is locked and has no saved amount. If that's the one you want to keep, then you can delete the other 4. But you'll have to explain what problem you're having.

Dan McCarter

I am trying to clean up my Payee list I have attached tow photos One of Walmart and and another of the Rule for Walmart.
When I key in a transaction for Walmart I would like the category and the last amount to show up but it does not. What am I doing incorrectly?

jacobs

When you enter "walmart", are there two entries in the Best Matches drop-down list, like this:



In this example using Amazon, notice that the first entry in the list is a single line and the second entry, which is highlighted, shows a category on the second line. Quicken always presents the option of what I call the "naked" Payee: just the Payee without any QuickFill rule. Selecting this one will full in the Payee but nothing else. The second entry shows a QuickFill rule, so if you select this one, it will fill in the Category (and any other fields, if they were part of your QuickFill rule).

Are you seeing two similar choices when you type walmart in a transaction Payee field?