Removing old transactions

Question

I have over 11k transactions in my check register back to 2003.  All of them are "R".  I suspect this is impacting performance.  I would like to remove everything through 2010. Is this possible without affecting current balance?

Chris_QPW · Answer

For what it is worth I have never found the number of transactions in a non-investment account to affect the performance in that register.  There have been reports that when they get to about 32,000 in one register it might be "funny things", and as such you might want to move transactions to another register.  But that is about it.

Note that investment registers are completely different and really slow down with a lot of transactions/securities/security lots.

Chuck64@ · Answer

Thanks, I will consider that.

splasher · Answer

It could only affect the performance of that single account.  Rather than deleting them, why not start a new account with just the transactions from this year and any non-reconciled transaction prior to that date.  You still get what benefits may exist from the smaller account and still have your history.
You can move them using this FAQ: FAQ - Moving Transactions
You would create a transfer in the original account to the new account to transfer the ending balance, it should be the balance of the original account after the transactions have been moved.
Note: You could use the new account to hold the history and continue with the original if you don't want to deactivate the old account and activate the new account for downloading.
I hate to see history deleted because I look at my Quicken data file as a sort of diary of what I have done.