Payee Memory

MrTiel

It would be nice if each Payee is memorized by Account also.

Account A: Walmart:Groceries.
Account B: Walmart:Business Expenses:Supplies

Payee's are remembered based on the Account also.

So that Walmart in Account A defaults to Groceries, while Walmart in Account B is something else.

UKR

MrTiel said:

It would be nice if each Payee is memorized by Account also.

Account A: Walmart:Groceries.
Account B: Walmart:Business Expenses:Supplies

Payee's are remembered based on the Account also.

So that Walmart in Account A defaults to Groceries, while Walmart in Account B is something else.

... How do you record your purchases?
Do you wait until the transaction downloads from the credit card account?

Or do you manually record transactions BEFORE you download credit card transactions?

In the latter case I recommend using distinct Payee Names, e.g., "Walmart {Personal}", "Walmart {Business}"

This would be a workaround until (if ever) Quicken programmers get around to acting on your Idea.

jacobs

@MrTiel The Quicken Mac product manager has stated previously they looked at the idea of implementing QuickFill Rules on an account-by-account basis, but concluded it was too complex to implement and that they would not be adding such functionality.

MrTiel

Not that hard to implement, you would only have to add "Account" to any programming routines that have to do with storing or recalling Payees and Categories.

So instead of searching for just "Walmart" to see what category you "normally" spend money in, you search for "Current Account" AND "Walmart".

That way, you do not have to retype every category, for every account, after your first account.

It would be no savings of time if you only track one account in Quicken. I would really like to have ONE "Walmart" for a Payee and Categories as I need them for expenditures at Walmart.

Just imagine if you used Quicken day in, day out and tracked multiple accounts and even multiple family members accounts, as I do.

You would quickly realize how many different categories a "Walmart" Payee could be linked to.

Just saying.....

jacobs

@MrTiel Since neither you nor I are privy to the inner workings of the SQL database used in Quicken, there is no valid way to state that such a feature is "not that hard to implement".  The developers have looked at the possibility of account-specific QuickFill rules and declared that it would be complicated to implement. We just don't know where the complexities lie. User interface? Database optimization? Cloud compatibility? Updating Quicken Cloud to support such functionality as well as Quicken Mac (two different development teams), and perhaps Quicken Windows as well (since Quicken Mac and Quicken Windows share the Cloud mobile app/web interface), could certainly add complexity. In any case, they did evaluate the request and decided not to implement it, at least for the foreseeable future.

So working with what we have, let's see if there are ways to make this work easier. I want to make sure you're aware you can have multiple QuickFill rules per Payee. You describe doing a Search of Walmart to see your categories, but if you've defined two or three or six or 10 QuickFill rules for Walmart, then you'll see them all in the drop-down list of categories each time you enter Walmart. You also describe retyping categories, and you shouldn't need to do any any typing — just a single click to select the one you want from among your defined QuickFill rules in the drop-down menu.

Also, are you aware you can designate one of the QuickFill rules for a Payee as the default rule to use, so if 80% of your transactions at Walmart are in Account A and 20% or in Account B, you can se the default rule for Walmart to be the category you want for Account A. Yes, this mean you need to manually review your transactions, and edit the category for some of them. But if you've defined multiple QuickFill rules for the Payee, they will show up in the drop-down category list, so you can just pick the appropriate one. 

Just imagine if you used Quicken day in, day out and tracked multiple accounts and even multiple family members accounts, as I do. You would quickly realize how many different categories a "Walmart" Payee could be linked to. 

You're asking for a QuickFill rule to apply one category to one Payee based on one Account. How many separate Accounts do you have which have transactions at Walmart? Two? Three? Four? I don't imagine it's 10 or 15. And for each of those accounts, there's one unique category used every time? I would imagine that Walmart purchases might hit any of a number of categories. This is where you'd use a default rule for your most-used category, and pick from the drop-down list for others. 

MrTiel

Sounds like a good plan!