Bills & Income comments (Q Mac)

QuickPeter

Jacobs, some time ago you said
"

jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

January 21

Unfortunately and somewhat inexplicably, it's not possible to set the Memo column to appear in the Bills & Income screen.

There is an existing Idea thread (request for feature/enhancement) for adding the Memo field to that screen; you should click on this link to visit that thread and add your vote for it (in the yellow box under the first post). "

I never got round to voting, and I'm disappointed with myself for that.

Anyway, it looks like that a partial fix has been introduced.

I've  just noticed in the Bills & Income window, Edit all Instances of a transaction, you see "addTags/memo/action".

I've just used it to add a note/memo to one of my recurring debits.
However, I still would have preferred a column where we can post a comment that can always be seen/visible.

QuickPeter

jacobs

@QuickPeter I think that's always been present in editing scheduled transactions. The problem, for people who depend on the Bills & Income screen, is that you can't add a column to view the Memo field, as you can in transaction registers. (I do most of my work in my account register screens, so I don't spend much time on Bills & Income, but we all use the tools of Quicken differently to suit our needs or preferred workflows.) It seems odd, since Control-clicking on any column heading pops up the expected list of columns which you can show or hide — except that Memo/Notes is not one of them. I can't think of a good reason why it has been excluded. The Idea post has a a status of "Under Consideration", so it means the developers have received the feedback from the thread; they haven't committed to implementing it yet, but neither have they rejected it. 

So don't beat yourself up for not voting in the past, and go to the Idea thread and add your vote. More votes can and do help push things higher on the developers' roadmap.  

QuickPeter

jacobs, noted, thanks.
I’m away from my desk at the moment but I’m not sure if I knew about “ … Control-clicking on any column heading pops up the expected list of columns which you can show or hide…”. I’ll look into that.
The best thing I can do about the Memo column in Bills & Income is to post a comment requesting it.  And I will do that.
Thanks,  QuickPeter 

QuickPeter

jacobs, I've posted a request to the Quicken Development Team (Help/Report a problem, "Report a problem to the Quicken development team")

They warn you that they will not send an acknowledgement.   That's not helpful.

Is this the best way to lodge my request?

QuickPeter

jacobs

@QuickPeter "Report a Problem" is solely for reporting something you feel is a bug in the software. They check the report and if they can (a) reproduce it, and (b) determine it is not working as it should, then a bug is documented in their database for future action by the development team. Because it is a one-way communication from you to Quicken, you have no way of knowing if they understood your submission, if they could reproduce it, if they agree and classify it as a bug, if it's an already-known bug, or what priority it has been assigned for repair.

In this case, they likely will not consider the absence of the Memo field on this screen to be a bug. They define a bug as when the software is "not working as designed." If it turns out that the Memo field was in their design documents and accidentally left off, it would be considered a bug. But more likely, if it wasn't originally designed to include this field, it won't. Instead, it's a feature request/request for enhancement, and they do not accept those via "Report a Problem". That's where the Product Ideas section of this forum comes in. As previously discussed in this thread, there is an Idea thread to add the Memo column to the Bills & Income screen. Adding your vote for it, and also a comment if you wish, is the only way to submit a request for a change in the program's functionality. And yes, this process feels frustrating when there is a feature, large or small, which you feel would improve the usefulness of the program — but more votes for features do (eventually) make a difference.

QuickPeter

jacobs, many thanks.  I agree it was not a bug.  

I've posted a comment and voted in the idea thread you directed me to.   Thanks for your patience in repeating what you previously told me!

I've done my bit, with your help, now lets see if it makes a difference.

QuickPeter