What is the easiest way to create a End Of Year file for 2021 and start 2022 clean (Q Mac)

Question

Not sure why Quicken cannot add "Create an EOY file" for MAC but it is what it is.
 (Although it used to be a feature - I've used Quicken since DOS and pre-OSX)
 Is it possible to copy the 12/31/2021 reconciled file and name it Year 2022, and then just use the 2022 file.  Is there some way to easily delete all of the 2021 reconciled transactions at once?
 Thanks

Chris_QPW · Answer

There seems to me be lot of jumping to conclusions/misinformation in this thread.

For instance, what does year end copy have to do with producing a year end statement report?
I can make such reports for any year in my Quicken data file you just set the report end date to the end of the year.  Or does your end year statement include part of the next year, but not some of the transactions over the same period?  Doesn't make any sense to me.

Year-end copying is about separating out physical data, which certainly isn't needed to generate a given report from a database.

And then there is the statement about being "professional".  Quicken has never been marketed as "professional" it is marketed as "personal".  That is the reason it doesn't have auditing or features that don't allow changes and such like a professional accounting system would have.  And as for what year end copying does for "freezing" the data, the same can be done with copying the data file.

Year-end copy isn't any kind of "Validate and repair".  And since I'm on the subject Validate and Repair in Quicken Windows isn't completely what it seems to be.  One might think that it is there for "corruption" where the database system did something wrong.  But one has to be very careful when describing what "corruption" is, and what causes it.  To a user anything in the data that makes it work wrong is "corruption", but I think I can put these into four categories, physical, bugs, and conversions that can't be done, and the last is the database itself doing something wrong.  Physically is say a hardware write error.  Bugs can create any number of problems.   Conversions from one format to another can sometimes be impossible and one picks the "least worst".

I would judge that over 90% of times where validate and repair does work, it is fixing data problems caused by a bug in Quicken's software.  The most unlikely cause of these problems is the database itself, with physical coming as the close second.

The period of time covered in a data file, or the size of the data file does not affect how much corruption you might see in your data file.  By far it will be determined by the features you use in Quicken, which will determine which bugs you are going to hit which write out bad data.

There is a very good reason why the SuperUsers can go for very long times with very little corruption in their data files.  They know what features to avoid.  For instance you won't find any of them using sync to Mobile/Web, on Quicken Windows that is basically asking for corruption in your data file.  And BTW you won't find any of them using Year-end copy.

And it is a total misconception that year-end copy was created for performance reasons.
There is only the slightest difference in Quicken Windows in a register with 1 transaction than one that has 20,000 transactions is in it.  And by slightest, I mean you can't time it on a stopwatch, your reaction time isn't fast enough.

The one area where performance goes way down in Quicken Windows with the "volume of data" is in an investment register.  But from what I have been able to determine that is mostly caused by the fact that it is a very poor GUI and that they are recalculating lots of information for every change in the register.  None of it actually has anything to do with the database.

And year-end copy doesn't touch investment transactions.  They are much to complex.  You have the security lots to deal with, and they have always chosen not to get into that can of worms.

jacobs · Answer

Because Quicken Windows is built on very old technology and had a database which is prone to corruption, and to slowing down as the data file grows. Splitting off data in Quicken was created as a way to minimize the chances of data loss and maintain performance. Quicken Mac uses a much more modern and robust database which doesn't not have those issues.

So do you feel the absence of the "Validate and Repair" function in Quicken Mac makes it less professional than the Windows version? ;)  to the contrary, it signifies that Quicken Mac is more secure and robust than Quicken Windows in the database and data integrity department. 

On this I definitely agree. But what do you feel you can't produce in Quicken Mac as a record for the prior year? Income Statement? Net Worth/Balance Sheet? Tax report? Copy of your account register(s)? Report of Payees? All of these and many other things can easily be printed and/or exported to have a permanent record and to provide to an accountant/financial advisor.

As for the user preference for record-keeping, you can and I think you should permanently save a backup copy of your data file once all your prior year data has been entered. Should you ever need to "go back in time" to access the data as it existed at any prior year-end, a year-end backup copy gives you that.  But it doesn't mean you stop using your primary live data file going forward, year after year.

Saransk93 · Answer

But how do you create a concise record of just one year for accounting and tax purposes.  It may not be needed for functionality, but too many instances of financial reporting require an End of Year statement.
 My accountant does as do my financial advisors.
 And it might be something preferred as a user for record keeping.
 If it is not necessary why does every Windows version still have it?
 Without this functionality the Quicken for Mac remains less professional than the Windows version.