Why don't QuickFill rules actually work? (Q Mac)

radcapitalist

Hey - I have a Quick Fill rule for "Target Redcard" to use the catgegory Groceries. Yet, when Quicken (Mac) downloads a "Target Redcard" transaction, it sets the category to "Uncategorized". What is the point of QuickFill rules if they don't work?
The "Target Redcard" payee is the result of a renaming rule. If you have a transaction with a payee before renaming that is "XYZ", and you rename that to "ABC" and have a quickfill rule for "ABC", will the quickfill rule not get picked up?

jacobs

@radcapitalist You're saying the transaction has downloaded, and then you manually edit the Payee, right? When manually entering or editing a transaction, you have to select the Payee plus Rule from the Payee dropdown menu. In the Payee dropdown menu, you will always see the Payee name, alone, first. Under that, if there are any QuickFill rules, they will appear. Here's an example:

The first match in the dropdown menu is the "naked" Payee: just Colorscapes; if you select that, no QuickFill rules will be applied. Following that, there are two more Colorscapes Payees with QuickFill rules I created. One has just a category: Lawn & Garden; the other has a Category, an amount, and a memo. You need to select the one you want, either with a mouse click or by down arrow on the keyboard.

radcapitalist

Most of my transactions come in to Quicken via download, and I go through and edit ones that are wrong. I write a check every month to a company named Colorscapes for landscaping, and it comes in downloaded as "Check #1234". So I go to edit it and type in "Colorscapes" as the payee. However, my QuickFill rule to categorize Colorscapes as Landscaping does *not* get run. If I type in a new transaction for Colorscapes, the rule *does* get run, but if I am editing a transaction, the quickfill rule is ignored. If I recall correctly, Quicken for Windows is not this dumb. Can you fix this please? Who would want it to work this way?

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @radcapitalist,

Thank you for contacting the Quicken Community, though I do apologize that you are experiencing this issue with your Quickfill Rules. 

First, I suggest deleting the Quickfill rule and then recreating it. You will notice if this has worked when you initiate the next download. 

Please let me know how this goes!

UKR

radcapitalist said:

Most of my transactions come in to Quicken via download, and I go through and edit ones that are wrong. I write a check every month to a company named Colorscapes for landscaping, and it comes in downloaded as "Check #1234". So I go to edit it and type in "Colorscapes" as the payee. However, my QuickFill rule to categorize Colorscapes as Landscaping does *not* get run. If I type in a new transaction for Colorscapes, the rule *does* get run, but if I am editing a transaction, the quickfill rule is ignored. If I recall correctly, Quicken for Windows is not this dumb. Can you fix this please? Who would want it to work this way?

The bank doesn't know about a paper check's real payee name and can only download "Check 1234".
How about recording this check in your register when you write the actual check? A Scheduled Reminder will help generate this transaction with proper Payee Names and Categories / Splits every month.
If you do so BEFORE the check actually clears the bank and downloads into your checking account, a correct register transaction will already exist and allow Quicken to match the download to the register transaction. No need for renaming rules, quickfill, etc.  If Quicken doesn't auto-match the two together, simply drag the downloaded "Check 1234" over the correct "Colorscapes" transaction and you're all done.

radcapitalist

(I can't seem to @mention quicken jasmine) Hey, Quicken Jasmine - I deleted the quickfill rule and re-created it. Then, I created a dummy transaction. Then, I tried to edit the transaction putting Colorscapes as the payee. The quickfill rule was not invoked. That is not a fix.

@UKR Thanks for the possible workaround. For things that are actually monthly, adding the scheduled bill could help. This scenario also occurs in scenarios that are not regular monthly bills, so it would be nice if Quicken could fix this bug.

Eric

jacobs

@radcapitalist You're saying the transaction has downloaded, and then you manually edit the Payee, right? When manually entering or editing a transaction, you have to select the Payee plus Rule from the Payee dropdown menu. In the Payee dropdown menu, you will always see the Payee name, alone, first. Under that, if there are any QuickFill rules, they will appear. Here's an example:

The first match in the dropdown menu is the "naked" Payee: just Colorscapes; if you select that, no QuickFill rules will be applied. Following that, there are two more Colorscapes Payees with QuickFill rules I created. One has just a category: Lawn & Garden; the other has a Category, an amount, and a memo. You need to select the one you want, either with a mouse click or by down arrow on the keyboard.

radcapitalist

@jacobs has the best answer so far. I can't say that I have ever noticed that drop-down as I type the payee. I type fast and hit Tab when I see the completion. So this is a workaround.

Do I think it is a good user interface that it works one way for a new transaction and a different way when changing the payee on an existing transaction? No, I can't say that I do. But this will help me.

It also does not explain why, in the case of a "Target RedCard" downloaded transaction, the category gets left as "Uncategorized" when I have a quickfill rule.

jacobs

@radcapitalist Actually, the user interface for selecting the Payee plus QuickFill rule is the same whether you're manually entering a new transaction or editing an existing one.

When you're typing fast and pressing Tab quickly, you're accepting the Payee option Quicken has defaulted to. By default, Quicken will highlight/select the most-recently-used QuickFill rule for a Payee, or the one you have manually edited to be the default rule to use for that Payee. If you keep selecting the "naked" Payee, it will keep defaulting to the "naked" Payee.

So I think you will find that if you enter your transaction for Colorscapes and select manually the option for the Payee + the QuickFill rule, the next transaction you enter for Colorscapes, it will default to picking that same option, so you can quickly Tab and move on. I actually think this is a pretty good user interface implementation.

As for the Target RedCard transaction, I would double check that the Payee name in the Renaming Rule is exactly the same as the Payee name for your QuickFill Rule. If they are even slightly different (an extra space, for instance), they won't work in concert the way you want them to. 

radcapitalist

@jacobs I agree, if Quicken remembered which rule I picked for Colorscapes and used that the next time, that would be a good user interface. So far, though, when I am editing an existing transaction, it is still defaulting to the "naked" rule, even though I have tried to train it by editing several transactions and picking the rule I want for Colorscapes. But I'll keep trying! Thanks!