very long-time problem - Quicken categorizes downloading transactions when I set it not to

DebbieJK

Why can't Quicken fix a very long-time (years) of problem with downloading transactions on PC! Years of not ever having turned on "automatically categorize transactions" and YET is still does the very annoying thing of adding whatever it thinks MIGHT work. I've purchased the newest version of Quicken many times over the years, and it still has the problem!!! Does Quicken read these comments???

Chris_QPW

Are you sure there isn't any memorized payee filling in the category?

Jim_Harman

To build on what @Chris_QPW said, if you see a transaction that has been assigned a Category, go to Tools > Memorized Payee List and click on Options at the bottom. Select Show locked status column in list if it is not already selected, then look for that payee.

If you do not want the same Category to be assigned to that payee each time you use it, edit the memorized payee, make the Category column blank, and check the Locked box.

Chris_QPW

Jim_Harman said:

If you do not want the same Category to be assigned to that payee each time you use it, edit the memorized payee, make the Category column blank, and check the Locked box.

There is also a Never Auto-categorize check box.

Jim_Harman

@Chris_QPW, do you know how the "Never Auto-categorize" box  in the Memorized Payee List interacts with the "Automatically categorize" setting in Preferences > Downloaded transactions and the presence of a Category in a memorized payee? There are a lot of permutations.

I suppose the setting in Downloaded transactions does not affect manually entered transactions. Also the auto categorization of downloaded transactions sometimes produces very odd results.

I tried to make a flow chart of this process a while ago but I think it is incomplete.

Jim_Harman

Thanks. The other thing I observed just now is that if you enter a transaction that matches a memorized payee and change the Category or add one if it was originally blank, the category in the memorized payee does not change even if it is not locked. 

DebbieJK

> @Jim_Harman said:
> To build on what @Chris_QPW said, if you see a transaction that has been assigned a Category, go to Tools > Memorized Payee List and click on Options at the bottom. Select Show locked status column in list if it is not already selected, then look for that payee.
>
> If you do not want the same Category to be assigned to that payee each time you use it, edit the memorized payee, make the Category column blank, and check the Locked box.

Hi Jim,
Thank you for the help! I didn't know about the Memorized Payee List. I opened it and thought, I don't want to make any mistakes, especially ones that would change any transactions or my business reports for previous years.

So, if I were to click (turn-on) the 'never auto categorize' box for every item in the 'Never Auto-categorize list,' it would just affect the tax year I have "open" and future years after that year? For the Memorized Payee List I just mentioned, what is the purpose of the 'Show on' column? I'm hoping that by turning "on" the Never Auto-categorize option it will (or at least should) remove any captions from being inserted by Quicken. Correct? Then there are several checked "Show on" - should I "un-click" them?

Is there anything else I should do?

Really appreciate your help, this has been a frustration for quite some time.

Debbie

Chris_QPW

The Memorized Payee List only affects future transactions, it will not change past transactions.
It is used whenever you manually enter transactions (you type in the payee and it fills in the category) or when you download a transaction and the payee matches, it will use it to fill in the category.

Note during downloading this works with the renaming rules.  Since Memorized Payees have to match exactly except for the case, you use the renaming rules to "normalize" the payee name.  Like change Safeway #34343 into Safeway.

The "Show on" column is actually "Show on Calendar".  Resized the column to see it all.

Chris_QPW

For me, Quicken never adds a category to a transaction that isn't in my memorized payees.  It will leave it blank, so I don't know that the problem you are having is.


Example, my just wife bought some food at a new restaurant for us.

DebbieJK

This was a large problem previously, where Quicken, for some reason, makes it's own decisions how to categorize, and they aren't correct. I have never set up Quicken to automatically categorize. Thank you though, a lot, for trying!

DebbieJK

I have NEVER turned on "Automatically Categorize Transactions' yet I still end up with Quicken inserting categories. So, would anyone have any idea how to fix this, or is it a bug? "

Chris_QPW

Are you sure there isn't any memorized payee filling in the category?

Jim_Harman

To build on what @Chris_QPW said, if you see a transaction that has been assigned a Category, go to Tools > Memorized Payee List and click on Options at the bottom. Select Show locked status column in list if it is not already selected, then look for that payee.

If you do not want the same Category to be assigned to that payee each time you use it, edit the memorized payee, make the Category column blank, and check the Locked box.

Chris_QPW

Jim_Harman said:

If you do not want the same Category to be assigned to that payee each time you use it, edit the memorized payee, make the Category column blank, and check the Locked box.

There is also a Never Auto-categorize check box.

Jim_Harman

@Chris_QPW, do you know how the "Never Auto-categorize" box  in the Memorized Payee List interacts with the "Automatically categorize" setting in Preferences > Downloaded transactions and the presence of a Category in a memorized payee? There are a lot of permutations.

I suppose the setting in Downloaded transactions does not affect manually entered transactions. Also the auto categorization of downloaded transactions sometimes produces very odd results.

I tried to make a flow chart of this process a while ago but I think it is incomplete.

Chris_QPW

I was surprised to see that it does in fact suppress filling in the category during manual entry when I just tested it.

So basically it looks like it does the same thing as would happen if you set the category to blank, without actually doing it.

I guess it is just a quick way to do the same thing since you can select it without selecting Edit.

Jim_Harman

Thanks. The other thing I observed just now is that if you enter a transaction that matches a memorized payee and change the Category or add one if it was originally blank, the category in the memorized payee does not change even if it is not locked. 

DebbieJK

> @Jim_Harman said:
> To build on what @Chris_QPW said, if you see a transaction that has been assigned a Category, go to Tools > Memorized Payee List and click on Options at the bottom. Select Show locked status column in list if it is not already selected, then look for that payee.
>
> If you do not want the same Category to be assigned to that payee each time you use it, edit the memorized payee, make the Category column blank, and check the Locked box.

Hi Jim,
Thank you for the help! I didn't know about the Memorized Payee List. I opened it and thought, I don't want to make any mistakes, especially ones that would change any transactions or my business reports for previous years.

So, if I were to click (turn-on) the 'never auto categorize' box for every item in the 'Never Auto-categorize list,' it would just affect the tax year I have "open" and future years after that year? For the Memorized Payee List I just mentioned, what is the purpose of the 'Show on' column? I'm hoping that by turning "on" the Never Auto-categorize option it will (or at least should) remove any captions from being inserted by Quicken. Correct? Then there are several checked "Show on" - should I "un-click" them?

Is there anything else I should do?

Really appreciate your help, this has been a frustration for quite some time.

Debbie

Chris_QPW

The Memorized Payee List only affects future transactions, it will not change past transactions.
It is used whenever you manually enter transactions (you type in the payee and it fills in the category) or when you download a transaction and the payee matches, it will use it to fill in the category.

Note during downloading this works with the renaming rules.  Since Memorized Payees have to match exactly except for the case, you use the renaming rules to "normalize" the payee name.  Like change Safeway #34343 into Safeway.

The "Show on" column is actually "Show on Calendar".  Resized the column to see it all.

DebbieJK

Hi Chris_QPW, thanks so very much for answering my questions. Here when I wrote: I'm hoping that by turning "on" the Never Auto-categorize option it will (or at least should) remove any captions from being..." you probably figured out I meant 'categories.'
Also, thanks for mentioning the feature that will rename payees, that I'm going to start using to clean up my data.

I appreciate all the info! Debbie

Jim_Harman

To reiterate, changing the Memorized Payee List only affects transactions you enter or accept in the future, not ones that are already in your register.

If you have never reviewed it, you will probably find many entries that you don't want. It is safe and also good to delete these.

There are also settings to control whether new Payees are automatically added to the list and to automatically delete entries that have not been used recently. I have the first un-checked and the second set to 18 months.