Backup Budget, Year-End Copy for Mac

Al H

It seems that I cannot back up (or restore) a budget. This is related to another article I am posting about Year-End Copy, which is available on Windows but not Macs (not sure why)... which is forcing me to create a new file, create all my connections in the new file, then create a new budget. But, if I am able to do a YearEnd Copy and reset my data, then all connections, and budgets, etc.. will be intact and I don't have to do all this extra work just because Quicken doesn't offer Year-End Copy on Mac versions !!

jacobs

You're correct that Quicken Mac doesn't offer a year-end copy. I can't speak for the developers, but my understanding is that when they create the modern Quicken Mac, they didn't see a need to separate data by years as used to be the case with older versions of Quicken for Mac and Windows. The database used by Quicken Mac has no size limits or corruption problems like its predecessors, so they didn't see a need to create separate files by years. Both registers and Reports can be filter to only show the current year, or whatever time range you want, so if you just don't want to see last year, the idea is to use the date filters to that you're only seeing this year.

There are two Idea posts (feature requests) on this forum for this functionality. This one has been marked as Not Planned by the developers. This one has been marked Under Consideration. Why the difference? I have no idea! I suggest you visit both threads and add your vote in the yellow box under the first post. It's also a good idea to add a comment about why you need this functionality, because if/when the developers review those threads, they may learn of use cases they hadn't anticipated which might change their minds about implementing such a feature.

That all said, perhaps you could explain why you find it necessary to start over with a new file each year. I have nearly 30 years of data in my Quickness's file, and it's all together in one file. when I'm just focused on the current year, or current versus prior, I can limit what I see to just that; when I want to find some historical transaction (when did we last replace the hot water heater?), that information is also at my fingertips. The only thing that's a little slow for me with 30 years of data is certain Searches, which take a couple seconds instead of being instant -- but not enough to be problematic for me.