Automatic register entry acts weird

garysmith87

Quicken Deluxe Windows R35.31.

I recently changed my Quicken Preferences settings to automatically add my transactions to the banking registers.  

About 98% of my transactions are manually entered...and then downloaded through One Step Update and matched later when I used the previous Downloaded Transactions Preview pane showing.  New transactions also appeared in that Preview pane.  Never had any issue with that.  Every downloaded transaction appeared as they were available and I accepted each one individually, as users have recommended for years.  

Now, with the new setting, the blue dot appears next to the accounts after I use a One Step Update.  So it signifies that there are transactions downloaded.  Great!  That's how its supposed to work.

But I'm finding that hardly any of the transactions in the register have a blue dot (New) or a blue pencil (New Match) next to them waiting for me to "review" them.  They just get automatically cleared and there is no review process.

Yesterday, one transaction out of three had a blue dot...yet all three had their status changed to "cleared".  So I couldn't review those other two transactions.  Pretty sure the other two should have had New Match status icons.  

Today, the sidebar account indicated a blue dot...yet when I went to the register there were NO blue icons (dot or pencil) yet those previous uncleared transactions had a status change from blank to cleared status.  

I'm pretty sure, but not 100% sure, that's not how it's supposed to work.  Aren't downloaded transactions that match supposed to have a blue pencil icon status (New Match) and new downloaded transactions supposed to have a blue dot status (New)?    

And then I'm supposed to be able to review those new and new match transactions?  

Yet, there doesn't seem to be any pattern which transactions get blue icons (New or New Match) and which ones don't...yet I'm thinking that ANY new download should have a blue icon, whether its NEW or NEW MATCH.  Isn't that correct?

Why do most but not all NOT give me those status icons and NOT give me the option to review them in the register?  

I'm confused as to why this is working the way it does...which is needless to say "inconsistent" at best.

As a solution, I may have to change back to the Download Transaction Preview pane setting and just keep doing what I've been doing forever.  

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.  Thanks. 

Chris_QPW

Are you using Sync to Mobile/Web?
Does this inconsistency show up the same in accounts that you use Direct Connect (if you have any accounts with that connection type) and Express Web Connect?

Personally I do use the mode, but I almost never enter any transactions manually.  But for the ones that I do it either matches because the amounts are the same or I will get a New  transaction where I need to change the amount of the one entered (by a reminder) and then match.  So this doesn't sound like what you are seeing at all.

Note there is a bug with Web Connect/QFX where they remove the blue dot from the account bar after downloading, and there are problems using automatic entry mode in investment accounts for cases where Quicken wants to "ask a question" like matching a transaction that is very close, but not exact.

EDIT

garysmith87 said:

I'm pretty sure, but not 100% sure, that's not how it's supposed to work.  Aren't downloaded transactions that match supposed to have a blue pencil icon status (New Match) and new downloaded transactions supposed to have a blue dot status (New)?    

And then I'm supposed to be able to review those new and new match transactions?  

Yet, there doesn't seem to be any pattern which transactions get blue icons (New or New Match) and which ones don't...yet I'm thinking that ANY new download should have a blue icon, whether its NEW or NEW MATCH.  Isn't that correct?

Yes, anything else is a bug.

garysmith87

Thank you for the response Chris.

I am NOT using Sync to Mobile or the Quicken Cloud...and never have used it.  

Auto-reconcile is off too.  Never used that either...if that's the next question you might have.  

The inconsistency shows with either Direct Connect or Express Web Connect accounts.  The connection type doesn't seem to make any difference.  I've never used Web Connect import in any of the accounts I use, so that's not it either.  

My file is a mix of manually entered transactions and scheduled transactions that are either automatically entered into the register on a specific number of days in advance or user triggered entered into the register.  I have very infrequent actual new transactions downloaded.  Only the occasional transaction I've missed entering manually or where I've entered an incorrect amount.  I really only use the downloads as a way to double check the transactions I've previously entered by either method.  

This, too has me baffled as there doesn't seem to be any pattern or particular behavior that triggers this.

The newly downloaded transactions are always there...and they are marked with a cleared status.  It's just skipping the "review" process within the register that seems to be missing for some, but not all.  

Very buggy, indeed.  

If this continues over the next week or so, I think I'll just go back to the Downloaded Transactions Preview pane that appears at the bottom of the register.

PS.  I know you're a Quicken Windows guy, but I also use Quicken Mac parallel to the Windows version...and the Mac version has the dots perfect per each and every download designating the newly downloaded transactions.  That's actually how I noticed that the Windows version was missing them for some transactions.  I'd have five downloaded transactions with blue dots in a register in the Mac, and only one or two with blue New Match in the Windows version.  Even though all five downloaded and were marked as cleared in Quicken Windows.  

Chris_QPW

Well I have a clue at what is going on.  I actually had forgotten about automatic reconcile, which as said would do that.  It should in fact never be used with automatic entry mode.  Interesting enough in Quicken Mac reconciling doesn't clear the review/blue dots, so in its case it can use both modes at the same time.

The usual reports of something like this seemed to be connected to the "sync" which both Sync to Mobile/Web and Express Web Connect use, but even that I haven't heard many complaints about recently.

You might run this past Quicken Support and see if they have any ideas.

Things like this are one reason why I caution the Mac users to be careful for what they wish for.  I know that a lot of them want the Downloaded Transactions tab/Accept method to be added, but as you have seen it certainly hasn't been a great success to have both modes in Quicken Windows.  And the ironic part is that automatic transaction entry mode is the default for new users.

Boatnmaniac

garysmith87 said:

PS.  I know you're a Quicken Windows guy, but I also use Quicken Mac parallel to the Windows version...and the Mac version has the dots perfect per each and every download designating the newly downloaded transactions.  That's actually how I noticed that the Windows version was missing them for some transactions.  I'd have five downloaded transactions with blue dots in a register in the Mac, and only one or two with blue New Match in the Windows version.  Even though all five downloaded and were marked as cleared in Quicken Windows.  

When you said you "use Quicken Mac parallel to the Windows version" do you mean that you have a QWin installation you use with Windows and you have a separate QMac installation you use with your Mac?  Or do you mean that you are running QWin in Parallels for Mac?

If you are running QWin in Parallels for Mac, is the data file used there a copy of the same data file you use in Windows?

garysmith87

Thank you for responding, Boatmaniac...

I run Quicken Deluxe Mac 6.4.2 on my MacBook Pro running Big Sur.

I run Quicken Deluxe Windows R35.31 in a Windows 10 virtual machine using VMWare Fusion.  

They are two completely separate data files.  However, they mimic each other.  There is no data transfer or conversion between the two Quicken installations.  So...no, they are not a copy of the same data file.  At least since the first data conversion to Quicken Mac back in 2016.  

I am a very long time user of Quicken Windows...and used it on my Mac in a virtual machine for over 10 years.  I've been using Quicken Mac natively on various Macs since Quicken Mac 2016, but I do have all my register transactions match my Quicken Windows transactions.  

Why do I run two versions?  I love the Quicken Mac GUI and ease of setting up reports.  The Mac version has improved beyond 100% since then. 

But I also need the Tax Planner and the Lifetime Planner in Quicken Windows.  I'm hoping beyond hope that one day Quicken Mac will add those two modules and I can ditch my Quicken Windows and the virtual software.  

I have plenty of time on my hands, so using both versions doesn't impact my lifestyle at all.  As a matter of fact, I'm glad I use both.  I've caught more than a handful of mistakes along the way and was able to double check one version against the other. 

For example, a few versions back Quicken Windows some how updated from FDS to QCS.  When it did, it changed my Starting Balance in my only Express Web Connect checking account unbeknown to me.  When I went to reconcile, for the first time in forever it wouldn't reconcile.  My transactions matched up, but I saw that the starting balance was wrong.  Going to Quicken Mac easily showed that the account starting balance there was different than in Quicken Windows.  When I changed that entry to match Quicken Mac's, my account reconciled to the penny again.  Something in the conversion wacked my account out of balance.

I doubt if I didn't have my Quicken Mac version I would have ever been able to even know that was the problem or be able to fix it.  

Anyways, getting back to the matter at hand, yet today I downloaded transactions into my Quicken Windows installation...and once again some of them showed as New Match and others didn't...yet they all had their status changed to cleared.

I'm going to continue through next week and see if anything changes in the behavior.  If it continues as is, I'll just change back to having the downloaded transactions appear in the pane below the register and accept them one by one as I have since forever.  It's not an earth shattering problem.  I just thought I could use the same method of accepting transactions in both versions (which I should be able to do, but its not working that way).  

Thanks again for your interest. 

Boatnmaniac

@garysmith87 - Thanks for the clarification.  If you were running QWin in Parallels for Mac and if the data file was a copy of the QWin data file in Windows then it would have meant that the two files were sharing a common Cloud Account.  Sharing a common Cloud Account can be problematic because there is some “cross-talk” that can occur via that Cloud Account.  For example, adding or deleting a category in one data file can add or delete that same category in the other file.  So, if this is what you had done then it raised a question in my mind if this could perhaps be a cause or contributing to the issue in QWin that you are seeing.  IMO, a shared Cloud Account will at some time cause data file issues...it's not a question of if it will happen, it's a question of when it will happen.

However, I’m not sure what happens when a QWin data file is converted to a QMac data file…do they still share the same Cloud Account or are there now 2 different Cloud Accounts?  And can a QWin data flle and a QMac data file even share a common Cloud Account at all?

Just some musings on my part.  I really don’t have much else to add at this point.

Chris_QPW

On the question about cloud data with a Quicken Mac data file converted and used on Quicken Windows.  There is no possible way they are sharing the same data set.  And in fact if one looks at them say from another data file that has Sync to Mobile on, you will see that they have their separate tabs.

Now if one was sharing the same data set by copying one Quicken data file between machines there is certainly a possibility for what you suggest @Boatnmaniac.

Chris_QPW

BTW I might be wrong, but I would bet that most people on the Windows side that are using automatic transaction entry mode, don't do a lot of manual entry/matching.

garysmith87

To Boatmaniac:

I can assure you that the two separate distinct Quicken data files, one Quicken Mac and one Quicken Windows do NOT share the same Quicken Cloud dataset.

Why is that?  My Quicken Mac dataset has a completely different name than my Quicken Windows dataset.

Additionally, I only sync my Quicken Mac to the mobile device.  I don't with the Windows data.  Sync has always been turned off.  And I've repeatedly deleted the Windows Quicken Cloud data...multiple times over the years actually.  So the Windows cloud data set is nothing but the usual Quicken subscription info and Express Web Connect transactions.

And...the inconsistency of matching previously entered transactions showing as New Match occurs in both Express Web Connect accounts AND Direct Connect accounts.  

And the Mac and Windows accounts don't share the same Quicken Cloud names anyways.  

I am 99.99% certain this issue has zero to do with the Quicken Cloud or any syncing issue.  

Thanks for trying to help though. 

To Chris:

Regardless of how almost all users actually use automatic transaction entry via downloads, ALL New Matches should STILL show up as New Match.  Still wondering why some do and some don't.  

Thanks for your comments.  As I said, I'll give it a full week to "straighten itself out".  Maybe I'll stop manually entering transactions for a bit too and see if that makes any difference.  

If not, I'll go back to accepting transactions from the Download Preview Pane one by one again.  

Chris_QPW

The only reason I mentioned what I thought the most common use case is because bugs tend to be exposed quicker for common use cases (and hopefully fixed).  And that might be one reason this isn't being reported a lot.  Given that automatic transaction entry mode is the default though I do suspect that it is used quite a bit.  I have seen this kind of problem reported from time to time, but usually with either Sync on or maybe automatic reconcile on, or actually more like the people seldom respond back enough to troubleshoot what might causing it.

Boatnmaniac

garysmith87 said:

To Boatmaniac:

I can assure you that the two separate distinct Quicken data files, one Quicken Mac and one Quicken Windows do NOT share the same Quicken Cloud dataset.

Why is that?  My Quicken Mac dataset has a completely different name than my Quicken Windows dataset.

Additionally, I only sync my Quicken Mac to the mobile device.  I don't with the Windows data.  Sync has always been turned off.  And I've repeatedly deleted the Windows Quicken Cloud data...multiple times over the years actually.  So the Windows cloud data set is nothing but the usual Quicken subscription info and Express Web Connect transactions.

And...the inconsistency of matching previously entered transactions showing as New Match occurs in both Express Web Connect accounts AND Direct Connect accounts.  

And the Mac and Windows accounts don't share the same Quicken Cloud names anyways.  

I am 99.99% certain this issue has zero to do with the Quicken Cloud or any syncing issue.  

Thanks for trying to help though.  

Based upon what you had previously posted, I'd assumed as much.  As I stated, in my last post, those were just my musings on what possibly could have contributed to the issue you are experiencing if there was a common Cloud Account being shared.  But it's not so it's all moot.