Remember last selected reconcile method AND SKIP DIALOG WINDOW (Online vs. Paper Statement)

JayBugs

When you first open the reconcile window, you are given a choice of using the Online or Statement Balance. I ALWAYS use Online and have not seen a paper statement (or pdf of one) in a decade. Why must I always click through this useless dialog window step every single reconcile on every single account?

Add a checkbox when you first open the reconcile dialog window that says "Always use online balance." Once checked never show this dialog window again. (Perhaps have a clear in the preferences or something or add a Select balance method in the main reconcile window to change methods.)

I just want to cut out 50% of the steps and clicks in everyone of my dozens of accounts that I reconcile weekly by always using my online balance and not asking me every time.

jacobs

In the 6.2 release, Quicken does remember if you've previously selected to reconcile to the online balance; the radio button is selected when you start reconcile. All you need to do is press Return to advance to the Next screen. It's one keystroke or mouse click. It don't see this as being problematic; am I missing something?  (Taking the opening screen away and making users change preferences would create a lot more work for users who witch between online and statement reconciliation.)

JayBugs

The issues are (1) it is time for an extra window to appear and click through it for every account every time I reconcile and (2) it is making the user confirm something every reconcile for every account where it should not be changing per reconcile.

Earlier Quicken versions even discouraged you from reconciling one time to online and the next to paper statements and switching around. Quicken should ha e the data, but most likely for a given account a user selects online or paper statements and almost never changes it. Thus ask once, display it on the reconcile window, and allow a click to change it but don’t require a click to indicate keeping it the same time to time.

Reconciling should be one click to start it and one to confirm. Nothing more unless there is an error.

I don’t know how your financial institutions work with Quicken but out of my dozen or so using online syncing I get an error on a handful every month and thus need to keep the accounts reconciled or going back and tracking it down is a long complex mess. Thus reconciling happens after every download so every few days. One extra unneeded window and confirmation to move on definitely adds up and makes the product less pleasurable to use. Not the direction a company should move. 

jacobs

Jay, I only reconcile each of my accounts one a month, to the financial institution payment, so I don't have the same process you do. I do understand your point for your workflow, but what you suggest needs to work well for everyone for them to implement it; I wonder how many people who reconcile to the online balance benefit from seeing the opening screen so they have the option to update the account from there and/or see the balance there before they get started?

In any case, it's an Idea you've put forth, and I'm not here to oppose it, so I'll exit this conversation now and let others vote and chime in if they'd find your suggestion a useful change.

Quicken Anja

Hello All,

This idea seems to have fallen stagnant and due to the age of the request and lack of user votes/comments, will be archived within the next 7 business days.

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JayBugs

Just keeping this active for a bit more to allow newer people to see this. If it still gets no votes at next close time I’ll move on.

Given how silly the idea of paper statements is in todays world, it would seem reasonable to not have to go through a screen for selecting paper vs. online for every account every download…since I reconcile each download so things don’t get out of sync.

jacobs

(a) I don't consider paper silly. I still prefer to keep paper statements.

(b) Even for any accounts where I don't have a paper statement, I still reconcile to a monthly statement I'm viewing online. You said above you get a handful of errors every month reconciling to online balances; I typically get zero discrepancies when reconciling to a monthly statement.

I'm not trying to convince you my way is better, only to illustrate that we all have different ways of tracking our finances, and of using Quicken.

Chris_QPW

There doesn't seem to be much support for this, which is interesting, because this is exactly how it works in Quicken Windows.


The one problem with this setup is turning it off.  We get complaints all the time that the online balance isn't downloaded correctly and the only way to work around that is to go back to reconciling to "paper" (even if that is really just the balance when looking at it online).

Since the above dialog doesn't come up any more it can't be there.  So, the user has to go into the Account details -> Online Services tab to find the checkbox to turn it off.  Which isn't exactly intuitive of where you would find it.

JayBugs

So it is a good opportunity for Quicken Mac to do it better. Add a preference in a reasonable place with options for:

Use online balance always
Use paper balance always
Ask every reconcile

Chris_QPW

I'm sure if the Quicken Mac developers put in this feature, they would have a better place for turning it off.  At times Quicken Windows developers have seem to really strange ideas for where to add things like this.