Transferring and importing data between two accounts on the same computer???

LargeDoggie

Hi:

My wife and I share a Mac computer running Mac OS Catalina: she has one Mac account, and I have a different one.

In the past we used (emulated) Quicken 2007 on both Mac OS accounts. She had a stripped-down Q2007 data file where monthly she would enter her checking, disposable cash, and charge transactions. Once a month I would export her transactions from these accounts to a qif file in a shared folder, import that qif into my version of Q2007 that has years of our data, and then delete all of the transactions in her account once I was sure the transactions had made it into the Quicken account of reference on my computer. Thus, my Q2007 file served as the account of record, and hers was used just to enter her transactions over a month time period.

So how to replicate this process now that we are both running the current state-of-the-art Mac Quicken subscription???

I went through of a bit of a convoluted process tonight, importing her qif file into a new copy of modern Quicken, then exporting that data as QFX format, then importing the QFX into my modern copy of Quicken. It worked, but unlike the old Q2007 qif process, it didn't import transactions into the existing accounts in my copy of Quicken. Rather, it duplicated the accounts (Checking and Checking 2, VISA and VISA 2, MC and MC 2etc.). I dragged and dropped her transactions from each of the individual duplicated checking and credit accounts into the corresponding accounts on my computer, then deleted her duplicated accounts. This worked but WHEW, what a lot of effort and chance for error when done on a monthly basis!

I guess we could use Quicken in the Cloud, but a) correctly or not, I have security concerns and b) attention to accounting detail is not her strong suit and we are both worried that she'll inadvertently mess up the main reference account.

So with all that said, is there an easy way she can enter her transactions in her login on our shared Mac, and then I may drag and drop in one fell swoop from her Quicken account into mine (transferring whatever necessary data file via a shared folder into my Mac OS Login account), and then in one fell swoop delete all of the transactions in her account so that she has a clean account to start the next month with? No messing with duplicated checking and charge accounts, and no deleting transactions by checking and charge account.

Many, many thanks for reading so far and for any ideas you might have!

jacobs

Modern Quicken Mac is not designed to support the workflow you describe, and I think you will run into problems trying to replicate it. You can do it the way you worked out -- export the data, import it, move the transactions to the proper accounts -- but I agree with your assessment that this would be time consuming and error prone. 

You said you don't want to use the Quicken Cloud, but that might be your best option. She'd use the web interface for Quicken instead of a separate Quicken file you need to import. She can enter data by logging into your account in a web browser, and what she enters is automatically synced to your data file. While I acknowledge your concern about the potential for her to mess something up, keep in mind that this wouldn't be a large monthly batch process like you've done in the past; the transactions she entered would show up in your data file each time you use Quicken, so you wouldn't have a lot to review day to day if she's entering some transactions.