How to enter a group of transactions I do periodically

rsub

Hello, I have a "standard" group of transactions that take place periodically. The only way I can think of doing is to create a bill, and make each transaction a split. Is there a better way of saving and entering a group of transactions? I'd be happy if I could enter the group and then make minor tweaks manually (e.g. I do this with my paycheck and the amounts vary a little each month due to taxes etc.) Thanks.

jacobs

Ah, thanks for providing the example. And unfortunately, no, there's no way to do that. Aside from there being no macro-type feature to create several transactions in one process, you can't schedule investment transactions, only banking-type transactions. You also can't do splits in investment transactions, only banking-type transactions.

Jon

One thing that might make it a bit easier is you can select a group of transactions & press Command-D to duplicate all of them at once. You'll have to go in & modify the date of each duplicated transaction individually afterward, but I've found that can be faster than creating a set of new transactions from scratch.

jacobs

I'm not sure whether I correctly understand what you're describing as a group of transactions: are these actual separate transactions (e.g. water bill, electric bill, cable bill) or is this one transaction which has several components (e.g. Amazon bill split between clothing and household goods, or a paycheck which has splits for each of the withholdings from your gross pay)?

If they are separate transactions, you can set each one as a Scheduled transaction, and set it to recur at whatever interval you want (1st day of the month, second Wednesday of the month, the 15th day of each quarter, etc.). I suggest setting these up in your account register, which you can set to show future scheduled transactions for the next month or two months or longer; the scheduled transactions are in gray. As each transaction occurs, you mark the next instance of the transaction as "paid", which simply changes it from a scheduled instance to an actual, independent transaction; you can then edit the amount or date. (If you instead want to change the amount for all instances of the transaction, you can double-click on the scheduled transaction, and select Edit all instances from he pop-up menu.)

Each scheduled transaction is independent — there is no way to group multiple transactions together — but you can have as many scheduled transactions as you need. They can all occur on the same dates, or have their own independent recurring schedules. 

If that doesn't answer your question, please reply back and give an example of what you're trying to accomplish. 

rsub

Thanks Jacob. You're right, I could schedule them, that's one thing I was thinking of as well, by using the "Bills and Income" page where I have some things scheduled, like paychecks.

The specific use case I had in mind was, for example, if you transfer a certain amount into an investment account once a month, and then buy 4 different stocks with it (this is just an example). Is there a way I can group those four purchase transactions and enter them using a macro? It's similar, but not exactly the same as the schedule transaction. I could do it as splits in the schedule transaction, or separately scheduled transactions, but I was wondering if there's a way to enter those transactions as a group. It's a subtle difference.

jacobs

Ah, thanks for providing the example. And unfortunately, no, there's no way to do that. Aside from there being no macro-type feature to create several transactions in one process, you can't schedule investment transactions, only banking-type transactions. You also can't do splits in investment transactions, only banking-type transactions.

Jon

One thing that might make it a bit easier is you can select a group of transactions & press Command-D to duplicate all of them at once. You'll have to go in & modify the date of each duplicated transaction individually afterward, but I've found that can be faster than creating a set of new transactions from scratch.

rsub

Thanks Jacob & Jon, that pretty much sums it up :-(. I can't do exactly what I want, but the command-D will help some. I hope Quicken adds the ability to schedule investments, including within a split.

Quicken Jared

rsub said:

Thanks Jacob & Jon, that pretty much sums it up :-(. I can't do exactly what I want, but the command-D will help some. I hope Quicken adds the ability to schedule investments, including within a split.

Hello @rsub,

Thank you so much for contributing to the discussion regarding the editing of groups and scheduled investments.

I want to take a moment to point out that you can always recommend features you desire here on the Quicken Community in the form of what is called an Idea thread. Users then submit their votes on the proposed addition to the software and after tallying the total, it can then be passed along to the development team based on its popularity. I am linking a thread below that explains how to submit an Idea post:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7849425/creating-and-voting-for-ideas-in-the-community

Feel free to reach out to the Quicken Community with any additional questions or concerns, and thanks again for taking the time to speak with us.

Best regards,

Quicken Jared 

rsub

Thanks Jared