Bills (reminders?) show in register in BOLD FONT, and cannot be "cleared"

DSperber

I don't understand.

I've set up four items in Bills & Income, corresponding to the four repeating monthly payments set up to be automatically paid by BofA (using their Online Bill Payment interface, since BofA no longer supports Quicken's Direct Connect but instead now forces us to use EWC+). And as expected and hoped, future-dated automatically created register entries were produced in my register, showing the upcoming future-dated payments that I knew would pay/clear on that date.

Now that date has arrived. Two transactions (with "payment" showing as the "payee", which I find undesirable and would rather have the actual payee as set up in the automatic online repeating bill payment per the BofA site) have now downloaded. These are obviously the matches for the long-existing future-dated register entries that got created last month, for the next upcoming repeated payment.

Unfortunately these downloaded transactions DO NOT AUTOMATICALLY GET MATCHED with the previously existing month-long register entries that they are obviously the match of. I want to ACCEPT these downloaded transactions, meaning I want the original month-old pre-created register entries selected automatically by Quicken when I push the "accept" button, so that when I press ENTER that entry will now show "c" (for cleared), as was always the case when Direct Connect was the functionality. This EWC+ is really for the birds.

Anyway, for some reason, today the month-old future-dated register entries are now showing as "overdue", and are in BOLD in my register, and I cannot myself manually change them in the register. I cannot actually cause the "c" (for cleared") to occur. The "bold" entry is essentially prevented from being edited.

Now right-click on the entry does offer an "accept", which I have tried on one of these and it UN-BOLDS (i.e. un-protectes it), and now I actually CAN manually cause the "c". Seems like a lot of trouble to go through, when all I want to happen is the downloaded transaction from BofA to be automatically matched up with this "reminder?" register entry (which doesn't need to be BOLD and protected, but just needs to be there automatically so that I don't have to do anything manual... like Direct Connect used to do).

In other words I just want to now "c" the month-old register entry that got automatically created by my "bill/reminder". I thought it would be a USABLE normal register entry, but it appears to have special properties and behavior. I cannot actually USE IT NORMALLY as of today, unless I first got to the trouble of manually right-clicking on it, and then manually selecting the "enter this reminder" from the popup menu (which un-protects it), so that I can then manually "clear" it... all of which has ZERO TO DO with the downloaded transaction I'm simultaneously wanting to accept/absorb to automatically match what I now see is just a "reminder" and not a true register entry (at least not until I manually make it one).

This is just awful. Manual, non-automatic, lots of extra effort...

What am I doing wrong? Is there some "renaming rule" or other mystical functionality I need to tweak or configure in order to make these now appearing monthly "payment" downloaded transactions (which have matching date and amount as the "reminder" entries, just not a matching payee) get automatically matched to the reminder register entries when I click on "accept"?

Or is this simply impossible to happen with this "reminder" notion?

And if so, is there anything I can actually do so that the future-dated "reminder" entry is actually a usable/editable register entry rather than a "protected reminder" entry with its own limited utility?

Who invented this stuff that works so badly? Just let me pay for Direct Connect, BofA, and I'll be glad to pay for it. I want it back and I'll be glad to pay for it. Quicken is meant to simplify my life, not make it more difficult and complicated, and suddenly working radically different than its worked for decades.

DSperber

Ok. I think I've figure it out.

I thought the automatically created future-dated register entries corresponding to items I created in "Bills & Income" (that corresponded to automatic recurring repeating payments paid by the BofA Online Billing Payment system) were ACTUAL TRUE REGISTER ENTRIES! How foolish!

Turns out they are just REMINDERS, i.e. pseudo-entries that are visible and numerically functional for planning purposes. But they are not actual true register entries UNLESS I MANUALLY "ENTER INTO THE REGISTER" (in any of several ways). At that time they become true and real, and automatically used for "matching" new downloaded transactions. But until and unless they are "ENTER INTO THE REGISTER" they do not even appear in the list of possible register entries that can be chosen with "manual match" for downloaded transactions. Nor can you manually "c" the entries in the register! They are "protected" and "invisible", even though they appear normal. They will go bold on the day they are due (i.e. "overdue"), but still are "protected" and cannot be edited.

But once they are "ENTER IN TO THE REGISTER" they truly become "real and normal", with proper behavior as if I had created them using the old Direct Connect.

So that's the trick. Sometime before the payment due date arrives and the transaction downloads from BofA, I need to push the ENTER button and accept the dialog for those "reminders" (in "Bills & Income") in order to convert them to true genuine and usable register entries. And now when the downloaded transactions actually arrive on that future date, the previously converted reminders->entries will in fact be automatically and properly matched, so that ACCEPT will do 100% of what it always did when Direct Connect was the operative mechanism.

==> Don't you think Quicken would have envisioned having a customization setting for this, so that I would NOT have to manually do this one extra thing for each and every "reminder" and each and every month, just to "ENTER INTO THE REGISTER" rather than have it appear but actually be a protected pseudo-entry with no function? Why not just automatically do the ENTER INTO THE REGISTER" simultaneously with its automatic monthly creation, so that I will NEVER HAVE TO DO ANYTHING MANUALLY and this will work with EWC+ just like it used to with Direct Connect (at least to me the user).

Suggestion for product improvement.

UKR

A setting to Automatically enter a reminder transaction into your register [xx] days before the Due Date already exists, but ... there's always a but in there somewhere ... it's a little bit hidden in the Optional Settings of each reminder.

So, when you Edit a Reminder "and all its instances" you will get to an "Edit ... Reminder" screen like the one above (only it won't be greyed out like my example).
Look for the small triangle to the left of "Optional Settings". If the 3 lines of text like the above do not show, click the triangle to open the hidden settings.
The first line, by default, always reads "Remind me [3] days in advance (change)". To change a reminder from "Remind me ..." to "Automatically enter ..." click the blue "change" text and you'll get the popup as shown above. Click the radio button to change between settings. Change the [xx] days number to suit your needs.

For reminders which always are the same amount, month after month, you can change to "Automatically enter".
For reminders where the amount changes every month, e.g., paying your electricity bill, you want to keep the reminder at "Remind me" and set [xx] days to about 21 days before due. You want the reminder to show up at about the time you receive the new statement from the electricity company. Enter the reminder when you know the bill amount, even if it's still a couple of weeks to go.

In general, for all your reminders, you want to be sure to record them (turn them into real register transactions) BEFORE a download from the bank contains the transaction confirmation. That makes it possible for Quicken to correctly, automatically, match the reminder's register transaction to the downloaded transaction. No more problems ... I hope.

Happy Holidays!

DSperber

EXCELLENT! I did not know this (of course not). Never needed to with Direct Connect. Now with EWC+ it's a whole new world.

Anyway it does look like this is EXACTLY what I want! Slightly different appearance for a BILL rather than an INCOME item, but the same "auto-enter X days before due" is available. I've now set this for all of my repeating "constant amount each month" bills, which I had established in Bills & Income.


Thank you very very much for this insight.