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How to prevent match on manually entered transaction

JT_77

A while back, for some reason, Quicken would never download one specific transaction from my bank. So, I manually entered it. E.g. the transaction is dated 11/12/21 and has Payee of 'Check 500086' for $150.00. Ever since then, if a completely different check was downloaded for $150.00, Quicken would match the manual transaction with that downloaded transaction, even though Payee has a completely different check number, e.g. 'Check 7304'. How can I stop it from doing that matching? Yes, if I happen to notice it, I can unmatch the bad match, but since the original manual transaction is a while ago, I have to page back to even see the issue has happened again. I would like to make my manual entry 'permanent' and not have Quicken continue to attempt to try to match it to a downloaded transaction. Is there some way to do that? I couldn't seem to find that, nor could I find anything in my searching. (I am on Quicken Premier on Windows PC, up to date with updates).
Thanks for the assistance

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garysmith87

Delete the Memorized Payee for Check 500086 and the Renaming Rule for Check 500086.

JT_77

This item is not in my Memorized Payee list, nor is there a Renaming rule for it.

Tom Young

According to Quicken the scan for "Match" is

"Date + Amount + Payee, to see the newly downloaded transaction matches one that was manually entered into the account register prior to the download."

Check number doesn't play into it. I'd suggest deleting the manually entered transaction and then entering it again, maybe with a Payee name that starts with "XXX" to try and stymie the "match." Maybe even change the dollar amount by a cent?

UKR

I suggest you change the transaction 'Check 500086' for $150.00 to a real Payee Name, anything other than "Check xxxxxx"

As to recording paper checks you write (or write from the bank's billpay): I suggest you record each transaction with a real payee name (e.g., XYZ Power & Light). Do so manually or with the help of a scheduled reminder as you write the check. When the next download contains a transaction for one of these checks Quicken should be able to recognize the existing transaction and match it properly.

I also recommend you change the settings for this account to NOT automatically accept downloaded transactions into the register. Being able to review and change a transaction before it is accepted into the register will allow you to catch errors before they vanish into the register.

Chris_QPW

UKR said:

I also recommend you change the settings for this account to NOT automatically accept downloaded transactions into the register. Being able to review and change a transaction before it is accepted into the register will allow you to catch errors before they vanish into the register.

If one is using automatic transaction entry mode, you can sort by the Status column and find the matches quite easily. But I will give it to you that if the check is old enough that isn't on your visible register one might not see it, and since the amount is going to be the same as another transaction you might not catch it on the reconcile.

Tom Young said:

According to Quicken the scan for "Match" is
"Date + Amount + Payee, to see the newly downloaded transaction matches one that was manually entered into the account register prior to the download."

My testing suggests that this isn't a complete true statement. First off, they might take the payee's name as "hint", but they certain are not going lock into it, because what you enter can be completely different than what is downloaded. And again, the date is more of a hint, it certainly isn't anything that has to be exact. So, the amount is of these three is the only one they look for an exact amount (not even a penny off). And even though they have changed how the check number is used from what I remember in the long past, it is still being used. One key thing is if the downloaded information actually has the check number in it or not.

Tests:
(conditions) Downloading a transaction with check #103 in it for the amount $100.

Manual transaction with date one day before (11/21/2021), and 103 in check number and amount $100.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/g0/qwi4j9dn9twn.png

Change date to after downloaded posting date (11/22/2021) set to 11/30/2021:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/0g/70zzd0fvfw4v.png

Trying a check with a very old date:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/vx/u9bcumdsxsfg.png

Trying the same old date, but without the check number. It didn't match:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/o7/o2pm9wucyw6g.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/bd/sarkfatkl9bu.png

Conclusion, date doesn't matter when you have matching check numbers. But if the manual transaction doesn't have a check number the date is used, as a "cutoff" for not matching something really old. This was put in a few years ago if I remember correctly. It used to be that it would match an exact amount of any manually entered transactions not already matched to a downloaded transaction, the oldest one first (not the one near the download transaction posting date).

The cutoff seems to be about 30 days. So, after 30 days when matching using just the date and the amount, it will no longer match.

Change check number to 105.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/6c/ni49bioc0k2k.png

So, the check number does matter. If the downloaded check number doesn't match the one in the manually entered transaction it will not match.

Remove check number from the manually entered transaction.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/65/vsf4fx08xa63.png

Not surprising it matches (on the amount only).

Changed transactions, manual transaction entry for a transaction downloaded that doesn't have a check number, exact date and amount entered.
before:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/kp/nljhs27g3l38.png

after:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/c3/clbj6d23lu52.png

So, if the downloaded transaction doesn't have the check number in it, having a check number in the manually entered transaction doesn't stop it from being matched. This match was done by amount and "cutoff date" only.

MY CONCLUSION FOR THIS PROBLEM.

The downloaded transaction information doesn't have the check number in it, and as such it is matching purely on the date and the amount. Since for this kind of match there is a cutoff of 30 days, you should continue to unmatch the transaction from the wrong one, and match it to the right one for the next month, and then the problem should go away.

JT_77

I find this all a bit confusing as to possible solutions. Nothing is in my column called 'Check #' for either of the transactions in question so doing anything with that has no meaning in my environment. When information is downloaded from my bank for a check, the 'Payee' column has the words 'Check xxxx' where the xxxx is replaced with the actual check number. So, in my manually entered transaction, I put in 'Check 500086' as that is what is the missing (never downloaded) item. (I use the Category column to identify what the check actually relates to) When I got the bogus matches, if I did the 'Unmatch' option, the new transaction has its real check number in the Payee information, e.g. 'Check 7304'. So it appears to not be paying any attention to the Payee information which has the word Check and the actual check number in the downloaded transaction information from my bank. Changing the amount, even by one penny seems like a poor answer too as then my account will always be off by that amount. To me, there should be a way to say, trust me, I know what I am doing on this transaction even when I enter it manually, and leave this transaction alone.
Thanks for the assistance

Chris_QPW

@JT_77 When the check number isn't provided in the downloaded check number field Quicken only has the approximate date and the amount to go by and will resort to matching the first manually entered transaction within a 30-day interval that hasn't been matched to downloaded transaction and is the same amount.

There are three methods I can think of, the last one I haven't tried.

Keep unmatching that transaction and match to the right one until it is 30 days old, so that it will be outside of the cutoff matching window.
Change the amount by a penny, until it is outside of the 30 days cutoff period, and then change it back.
Hold down Ctrl+Shift and right click on the transaction and select Copy transaction. A dialog should come up select the check box and put in a posting date.

JT_77

So, the 'Payee' field no longer comes in to play on doing this match, even though that is what Quicken says will be part of their match rules? (Per this exchange and per this page https://www.quicken.com/support/handling-downloaded-transactions under question at bottom).
Thanks for the assistance, I sure hope the 30 day rule pans out as then I can ignore this after a while and just have to be vigilant.