Can I go from Starter to Deluxe for my wife.

TTSguy

My wife is using Starter. Since Staples has Quicken Deluxe marked down from $51.99 to $31.99 for Black Friday I'm tempted to order 2. One for my renewal and one for my wife to change over to Deluxe. When my wife converts over will her current data file in Starter be moved to the Deluxe Version, or if she chooses, can I download my current QDF file to her new Deluxe version and she can take off from there?

Chris_QPW

Yes, this is certainly possible.  Note though if you plan on transferring a given data file back and forth, you have to log out of the one Quicken Id and into the other every time you change over.

Personally, though I would just use the same Quicken Id (Deluxe) for both files.  I don't see a real need to have a different one for my wife (we share our finances and have nothing to hide from the other).

jacobs

And just to clarify the last statement from Chris above, you don't need to buy two subscriptions to Quicken unless you want separate Quicken IDs. With one subscription, you can have one file for yourself and one for your wife. The only reason I can think of to have separate subscriptions is if you both use the Quicken mobile app or web interface (e.g. Quicken Cloud). If neither of you do, or only one of you does, one subscription is probably all you need.

jacobs

@TTSguy  It sounds like you want to have one Quicken ID (e.g. one Quicken Deluxe subscription), with separate Quicken data files for you and your wife. You can have different categories in her file than yours; if she doesn't need investment or loan features in Deluxe, they won't get in her way. Your data file and her data file are completely separate. If you have Sync turned off for both files, neither one will be syncing any actual data via Quicken Cloud. (There is a still a different Quicken Cloud account associated with every separate data file, but it does not contain your transactions or passwords.)

Chris_QPW

Yes, this is certainly possible.  Note though if you plan on transferring a given data file back and forth, you have to log out of the one Quicken Id and into the other every time you change over.

Personally, though I would just use the same Quicken Id (Deluxe) for both files.  I don't see a real need to have a different one for my wife (we share our finances and have nothing to hide from the other).

jacobs

And just to clarify the last statement from Chris above, you don't need to buy two subscriptions to Quicken unless you want separate Quicken IDs. With one subscription, you can have one file for yourself and one for your wife. The only reason I can think of to have separate subscriptions is if you both use the Quicken mobile app or web interface (e.g. Quicken Cloud). If neither of you do, or only one of you does, one subscription is probably all you need.

Chris_QPW

jacobs said:

The only reason I can think of to have separate subscriptions is if you both use the Quicken mobile app or web interface (e.g. Quicken Cloud). If neither of you do, or only one of you does, one subscription is probably all you need.

Even if both use Mobile/Web the only reason have two Quicken IDs is so that the other person can’t see what they have synced to the Quicken Cloud dataset/Mobile/Web.

If one isn’t trying to “hide” accounts from the other, there isn’t any reason for having multiple Quicken IDs.

In other words without sync on, the only way to see what is in the other person’s data file is to get access to that data file.  With sync on, and a shared Quicken I’d then both people can see whatever has been synced.

I do have a starter edition license, but only because I get it for free with TurboTax, and I only use it for testing.
And because the free deal is only for new users I change the email address each year.

TTSguy

@Chris. If I use the same file for my wife and myself, I'd like to have her copy to start 1/1/2022, and let her use her own categories, tags etc. Can that be possible without screwing it all up in Quicken when one of us does a copy file, that I believe uses sync. I'll have sync turned off, but I know Quicken still syncs on certain operations. Also what are the descriptors, on when and how to upgrade her to Deluxe from Starter?

Chris_QPW

TTSguy said:

@Chris. If I use the same file for my wife and myself, I'd like to have her copy to start 1/1/2022, and let her use her own categories, tags etc. Can that be possible without screwing it all up in Quicken when one of us does a copy file, that I believe uses sync. I'll have sync turned off, but I know Quicken still syncs on certain operations. Also what are the descriptors, on when and how to upgrade her to Deluxe from Starter?

You need to separate out the concepts of Quicken data files and the Quicken Id.
Under one Quicken Id you can have multiple Quicken data files, there isn't any need for a Quicken Id per Quicken data file unless you are trying to hide the information from the other person.

For your wife to have different categories and starting of transactions and such, you need a different data file, but not a different Quicken Id.

Note that the Quicken Id is tied to a subscription that decides the "edition" like Deluxe or Starter.

If needed, the way to switch a data file between different Quicken Ids (which in turn lock in what edition's features you are going to have) you just need to log out of the current Quicken Id and into the other Quicken Id.
Edit -> Quicken ID & Cloud Accounts -> Sign in as a different user

Chris_QPW

P.S. just so it is clear, you can't be using the same data file and have different categories, and transactions and such no matter what edition you are using.  Switching editions turns features on or off in Quicken, it doesn't change the data in a data file.

Example.  Say you have an investment account which you added in the Deluxe edition.  Now you change your Quicken Id/subscription to the Starter edition.  The Starter edition doesn't support investment accounts, so what happens to that investment account is it becomes read-only.  It doesn't get removed or changed in any way.

jacobs

@TTSguy  It sounds like you want to have one Quicken ID (e.g. one Quicken Deluxe subscription), with separate Quicken data files for you and your wife. You can have different categories in her file than yours; if she doesn't need investment or loan features in Deluxe, they won't get in her way. Your data file and her data file are completely separate. If you have Sync turned off for both files, neither one will be syncing any actual data via Quicken Cloud. (There is a still a different Quicken Cloud account associated with every separate data file, but it does not contain your transactions or passwords.)