Accounts not updating

dalrad1

Quicken for Windows Home-Business version. Accounts for Wells Fargo not updating as well as one our local banks? The local download error say that one of the accounts may have been recently closed; which is not the case. Recently switched from MAC version and has been working okay but missing deposits and transactions. Any thoughts?

Tom Young

Are you reporting a problem that you're just noticing "today", or is this a chronic, ongoing problem?

If this is "today's" problem the first thing I'd try is to go into each bank's Quicken register and click on the "Update now" selection under the Account's gear wheel icon.  That sometimes gets the download kicked off properly. 

If that doesn't work then I'd give it a day or two and see if the problem clears up on its own.  If the connection method for either bank is Express Web Connect, then understand that method of downloading is somewhat more fragile then Direct Connect; banks are supposed to notify Quicken when they change something on their site that might affect downloads, but frequently don't. 

I know that downloading from Wells Fargo has been a chronic problem mentioned frequently in here.  It's been enough of a problem for long enough that personally if I had a WF account I'd probably think about moving my account to another bank. 

In which of the two banks have you been missing deposits and transactions, or has it affected both?

UKR

Another question ...

Are you automatically accepting downloaded transactions into your registers?

If you are relying on Quicken to "automagically" fill your account registers from downloaded transactions, you may run into problems. Despite all efforts by the Quicken programmers, the "Autopilot" (that's my name for the part of the Quicken program which processes downloaded transactions and converts them into new register transactions) is not infallible. For that process to work 100% of the time one would need a crystal ball because the information downloaded from the banks often is just too terse and cryptic.

You should, at least for a while, turn off the "automatically accept downloaded transactions into registers" setting to gain better control over what is downloaded and what to do with it. Click on and review each downloaded transaction, make changes if necessary (e.g., to get a payee name = "Starbucks" instead of "POS TRANS 070119 STARBU", "POS TRANS 070219 STARBU", "POS TRANS 070319 STARBU" or to assign a category) before you click to accept each transaction.

Any changes you make to downloaded Payee Names are remembered in Renaming Rules.

Any other changes you make (add/change Category or Memo text) are remembered in the Memorized Payee List.

Next time the same transaction for this Payee comes along, Quicken should remember and give you a better new register transaction.

 

In case you have issues with transfer transactions not being generated correctly:

For best results manually enter transfer transactions into your register BEFORE you download transactions from the bank which contain the transfer confirmations. For recurring transfers use scheduled reminders and enter them a day or two before the due date. Be sure to use distinct Payee Names for each transfer / credit card payment to avoid confusing Quicken - memorized payee entries.
That takes the guesswork out of the Autopilot's process. Because a correctly entered transfer transaction already exists in your account registers, the Autopilot should just match the downloaded transfer transaction to the existing one in both accounts.

 

Where are the "Auto-accept downloaded transaction" settings?

There are two places where this is controlled in Quicken for Windows:
 - Globally, for all accounts, in Edit / Preferences / Downloaded Transactions
 - For each account individually, the global setting can be overridden from the Edit Account Details screen, Online Services Tab. Look for blue text "Automatic Entry is: ON / OFF". Click the text to change the setting.

Tom Young

Are you reporting a problem that you're just noticing "today", or is this a chronic, ongoing problem?

If this is "today's" problem the first thing I'd try is to go into each bank's Quicken register and click on the "Update now" selection under the Account's gear wheel icon.  That sometimes gets the download kicked off properly. 

If that doesn't work then I'd give it a day or two and see if the problem clears up on its own.  If the connection method for either bank is Express Web Connect, then understand that method of downloading is somewhat more fragile then Direct Connect; banks are supposed to notify Quicken when they change something on their site that might affect downloads, but frequently don't. 

I know that downloading from Wells Fargo has been a chronic problem mentioned frequently in here.  It's been enough of a problem for long enough that personally if I had a WF account I'd probably think about moving my account to another bank. 

In which of the two banks have you been missing deposits and transactions, or has it affected both?

dalrad1

Thanks Tom! I'll wait a few days and see if these update. I have been using Quicken for Mac for many years and getting used to Windows again. Thanks again for the quick feedback!

UKR

Another question ...

Are you automatically accepting downloaded transactions into your registers?

If you are relying on Quicken to "automagically" fill your account registers from downloaded transactions, you may run into problems. Despite all efforts by the Quicken programmers, the "Autopilot" (that's my name for the part of the Quicken program which processes downloaded transactions and converts them into new register transactions) is not infallible. For that process to work 100% of the time one would need a crystal ball because the information downloaded from the banks often is just too terse and cryptic.

You should, at least for a while, turn off the "automatically accept downloaded transactions into registers" setting to gain better control over what is downloaded and what to do with it. Click on and review each downloaded transaction, make changes if necessary (e.g., to get a payee name = "Starbucks" instead of "POS TRANS 070119 STARBU", "POS TRANS 070219 STARBU", "POS TRANS 070319 STARBU" or to assign a category) before you click to accept each transaction.

Any changes you make to downloaded Payee Names are remembered in Renaming Rules.

Any other changes you make (add/change Category or Memo text) are remembered in the Memorized Payee List.

Next time the same transaction for this Payee comes along, Quicken should remember and give you a better new register transaction.

 

In case you have issues with transfer transactions not being generated correctly:

For best results manually enter transfer transactions into your register BEFORE you download transactions from the bank which contain the transfer confirmations. For recurring transfers use scheduled reminders and enter them a day or two before the due date. Be sure to use distinct Payee Names for each transfer / credit card payment to avoid confusing Quicken - memorized payee entries.
That takes the guesswork out of the Autopilot's process. Because a correctly entered transfer transaction already exists in your account registers, the Autopilot should just match the downloaded transfer transaction to the existing one in both accounts.

 

Where are the "Auto-accept downloaded transaction" settings?

There are two places where this is controlled in Quicken for Windows:
 - Globally, for all accounts, in Edit / Preferences / Downloaded Transactions
 - For each account individually, the global setting can be overridden from the Edit Account Details screen, Online Services Tab. Look for blue text "Automatic Entry is: ON / OFF". Click the text to change the setting.