changing a scheduled transaction

plumjam

Problem: there is not enough clarity in the menu choices for Changing Scheduled Transactions. It seems to me that the drop down menu when you click on a Scheduled Transaction should say: Mark as Paid / Skip this Instance / Edit this Instance/ Edit all Future Instances / Delete all Instances / Delete this Instance. The Menu Item "Edit All Instances" seems to only edit future and not past occurrences but this is not clear in the language. This is also consistent with a lack of clarity in the Transaction Details Window that pops up. You should have the ability to change ANY details or scheduling info about an individual instance, without worrying that you are affecting past posted payments. In addition it should be clear when you are making a change (amount of payment date) that you want to keep for all future occurrences that that is the case. And then there is that annoying "Invalid Date" window that keeps popping up...

plumjam

oops this was posted to Quicken for Windows by Mistake - I am using Quicken for Mac subscriber version.

[Mod Note, post has been moved to Mac category]

jacobs

plumjam said:

The Menu Item "Edit All Instances" seems to only edit future and not past occurrences but this is not clear in the language.

"Instances" refers to the schedule fo future transactions. Past transactions are not linked in any way to the scheduled transaction for the future. Think of a scheduled transaction as a template which will be used according to the schedule you set; as soon as you mark a scheduled date paid or deposited, it becomes an independent transaction. No editing of a scheduled transaction will ever affect past transactions create by the schedule. 

plumjam said:

The Menu Item "Edit All Instances" ... should have the ability to change ANY details or scheduling info about an individual instance, without worrying that you are affecting past posted payments. In addition it should be clear when you are making a change (amount of payment date) that you want to keep for all future occurrences that that is the case.

The command "Edit All Instances" allows you to edit any field and/or the schedule, and will affect all future instances. 

If you want to edit just the next transaction, without affecting future scheduled transactions, Quicken only allows you to edit the date or the amount of that next transaction. The product manager has said there are some technical reasons for this, an they might be able to change it in the future. In the meantime, other alternative is to mark the next transaction as paid/deposited. Keep in mind all that marking a scheduled transaction as "paid" doesn't mean you've paid it, because the date is still in the future; all this does is separate the transaction on that date from the schedule template, so you can then edit any field in that transaction.

plumjam said:

And then there is that annoying "Invalid Date" window that keeps popping up...

Sorry, Im not familiar with what window you're referring to; I haven't encountered that with my scheduled transactions.