Renaming rules - ambiguous descriptions

markhayworth

I'm trying to rename a cryptic payee name downloaded from the back. Let's say it's "Debit purchase Kroger#1234" and I want to simply name it "Kroger". So I click the down arrow on the Payee field and bring up the "Renaming Rules" window. Now I see some, but not all payees on there, but not Kroger. So I say "Add a rule" and it brings up two blank fields that it requires me to fill in. One says "Change Payee to" and the other says "Quicken will rename the downloaded payee". How are those different? Basically I want it to rename the downloaded payee name "Debit purchase Kroger#1234" to my own custom name "Kroger" so do I need to put Kroger in both fields? Why are there two fields then?

Also sometimes I'll manually overwrite a payee name and it asks me if I want to use than name always and I'll say yes, but then when I download again in a week, it seems to ignore that and give me the cryptic bank payee name instead. Why isn't it permanent?

splasher

You want your Renaming rule to look similar to this:

BUT, you have to enter it first to look like this:

Notice the second line is different.  Click on the left part of the second line and you will be able to change the "if Quicken name is" to "If payee contains" which is what you want.

Don't ask me why they designed it so that you could not make the change during initial creation, but they are evidently smarter than we are in how to properly use Quicken and what is convenient.

Boatnmaniac

I don't usually set up Renaming Rules using "Add a rule" (I let Quicken suggest them for me when I download transactions) but I see the could use a little enhansement. 

That "Quicken will rename the downloaded payee" is for entering the downloaded payee name...or in your example "Debit purchase Kroger#1234".  It should give one or two other options for that such as "Downloaded payee starts with" or "Downloaded payee contains"  but it doesn't.

You might want to try the following workaround:

1. Enter "Kroger" into both the fields and click on "OK".
2. Click on the triangle to the left of "Kroger".
3. Click on "If the Quicken name is" to open the drop-down menu and change it to "If payee contains" and then click on "Done".

I think that should get you set up correctly so that no matter what the downloaded payee name is as long as "Kroger" is in it it will be entered into the register as only "Kroger".