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Renaming rules based on Memo field. Possible or Why not???

Jay_B

Is there a way to have the renaming rules based off of the memo field. I've looked and I'm guessing not but I need to ask and if not WHY not.

70% of my transaction are contactless (as are many Canadians) and for at least RBC accounts, the QFX transactions import like this

Contactless Interac purchase - 4142 (payee)
SAVE ON FOODS # (memo)

and the 4 digit number is not associated with anything other than probably time & date of transactions

So most of my renaming rules don't work because there's no way to assign a renaming rule to Contactless Interac purchase - 4142. The important data is in the memo field.

And because the renaming rules don't work my memorized payee list doesn't work and I have to rename & categorize most of my transactions manually.

It's absolutely infuriating to import data and be faced with rows and rows and rows of

C-idp Purchase-6115 [ ]
C-idp Purchase-1876 [ ]
C-idp Purchase-8740 [ ]
C-idp Purchase-1715 [ ]
C-idp Purchase-9913 [ ]
C-idp Purchase-1586 [ ]

I can write some code to switch the memo and name filed in the QFX file before import...but I shouldn't have to.

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Comments

Arctic Hare

A workaround would be to switch to a credit card as they don't exhibit this issue.

UKR

I don't know if something has changed or if that is an issue specific to the Canadian version ...

It's my understanding that Renaming Rules work on a combination of Downloaded Payee Name and Downloaded Memo.

So, theoretically, a Renaming Rule to set Payee Name = "Save On Foods" if "payee contains" save on foods should work.

Please ensure that all optional settings in Quicken pertaining to recall, memorization, automatic categorization and renaming of payee names are enabled. You find those settings in Edit / Preferences / Data Entry & Quickfill and Downloaded Transactions. Additional settings for the detection and processing of transfer transactions can be found in Edit / Preferences / Transfer detection.

Also please do make sure that you turned off the "automatically accept downloaded transactions into registers" setting. This allows you to review and change the Payee Name for a new register transaction before it is actually entered into the register. Quicken should be able to build a proper renaming rule for your situation.

Jay_B

Thanks. It does not work. I have a rule to rename Save On Foods with "contains Save On" so it should capture Save On Foods #1243 and Save On Foods #3323 But I just did an import and I have

C-idp Purchase-1586 | SAVE ON FOODS # | [ ]

I don't have the last option you suggested but one for Automatically apply Quicken's suggested name to payee. Sounds like that's probably the same. However, without it looking at the memo field I'm going to have to manually change everything anyway either before or after the import.

Arctic Hare

UKR said:

I don't know if something has changed or if that is an issue specific to the Canadian version ...
It's my understanding that Renaming Rules work on a combination of Downloaded Payee Name and Downloaded Memo.
So, theoretically, a Renaming Rule to set Payee Name = "Save On Foods" if "payee contains" save on foods should work.
Please ensure that all optional settings in Quicken pertaining to recall, memorization, automatic categorization and renaming of payee names are enabled. You find those settings in Edit / Preferences / Data Entry & Quickfill and Downloaded Transactions. Additional settings for the detection and processing of transfer transactions can be found in Edit / Preferences / Transfer detection.
Also please do make sure that you turned off the "automatically accept downloaded transactions into registers" setting. This allows you to review and change the Payee Name for a new register transaction before it is actually entered into the register. Quicken should be able to build a proper renaming rule for your situation.

FWIW... Quicken's documentation for this feature references only the Payee field; it does not mention the memo field... but, this help information states that it is strictly for the Canadian version of Quicken. I haven't looked for the related page for the US Version. Perhaps it is different. I have observed the same behaviour with contactless debit... one of the reasons I use that payment method extremely rarely. The data provided by credit card is better... and I get great rewards for using the CC.

Arctic Hare

Jay_B said:

Thanks. It does not work. I have a rule to rename Save On Foods with "contains Save On" so it should capture Save On Foods #1243 and Save On Foods #3323 But I just did an import and I have

C-idp Purchase-1586 | SAVE ON FOODS # | [ ]

I don't have the last option you suggested but one for Automatically apply Quicken's suggested name to payee. Sounds like that's probably the same. However, without it looking at the memo field I'm going to have to manually change everything anyway either before or after the import.

The preference that you didn't find is at the top of the dialog box. It is After Downloading Transactions --> Automatically Add to Banking Registers. You probably have it off (unchecked) already.

UKR

Are you importing transaction using a QFX file generated on the bank's website or are you downloading from within Quicken using One Step Update or "Update Now" from the account register?

AFAIK, Renaming Rules do not apply to file imports.

Arctic Hare

UKR said:

Are you importing transaction using a QFX file generated on the bank's website or are you downloading from within Quicken using One Step Update or "Update Now" from the account register?
AFAIK, Renaming Rules do not apply to file imports.

I don't believe that is true. I believe renaming rules apply equally to Express Web Connect and Web Connect. I can't readily test that right now, but I don't recall renaming rules not working when I have used Web Connect - and the documentation certainly doesn't list that as a limitation constraint.

smayer97

UKR said:

Are you importing transaction using a QFX file generated on the bank's website or are you downloading from within Quicken using One Step Update or "Update Now" from the account register?
AFAIK, Renaming Rules do not apply to file imports.

I know in the Mac version this is NOT true... Renaming rules DO apply to QFX/Web Connect imports, and always have. I'd be surprised it is any different for QWin.

Chris_QPW

Renaming rules do apply to memo even if it isn't stated in the dialog.
https://help.quicken.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=3216345

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/yk/cukp9go6gfq8.jpg

Unfortunately, new renaming rules defaults to "Quicken name is", and the you have to go to Tools -> Renaming rules even to change it.

And renaming rules do apply to QFX file imports. They don't apply to QIF imports.

Arctic Hare

Chris_QPW said:

Renaming rules do apply to memo even if it isn't stated in the dialog.
https://help.quicken.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=3216345

Unfortunately, new renaming rules defaults to "Quicken name is", and the you have to go to Tools -> Renaming rules even to change it.

And renaming rules do apply to QFX file imports. They don't apply to QIF imports.

The Canadian version may be different. The following (pasted below) is all the Canadian Help has to say about the Memo field. Furthermore, the Canadian help does not make reference to the memo field being searched.

What if my financial institution downloads payee information in the Memo field?
When the Memo field contains the name of either the originating financial institution or the originating mutual fund, automatically created renaming rules use the Memo field to change the payee name. Here's an example:

A downloaded bank transaction contains the payee name AnyTown Moneyline.
The Memo field in the same transaction contains AnyTown Brokerage, which is the desired payee name.
The payee name is changed to the value in the Memo field.

Chris_QPW

The Canadian version might be different, but I seriously doubt it. It isn't even on a separate development branch these days.

Arctic Hare

Chris_QPW said:

The Canadian version might be different, but I seriously doubt it. It isn't even on a separate development branch these days.

I can't think of a quick test for this. I'll keep my eye out for the behaviour if/when I do get some of those C-idp transactions. The screen shot below is totality of my use of contactless interac debit. There are a small number of local retail stores that don't accept credit card; one is them is the Lick's Ice Cream parlour included in the list below. I've now set up a renaming rule so that I can run an "ice cream test" of this renaming functionality on the Canadian version. Worst case outcome is that I get to enjoy some good ice cream.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/r0/4ofhxdj3pr67.gif

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/3w/l045ta5kpuc4.gif

Chris_QPW

The way I test this is by just editing a QFX file.
If you change the FITID (like adding a 'a' at the end) and then change the MEMO field you can keep importing the same transaction over and over to try different things.

<TRNTYPE>DEBIT

<DTPOSTED>20110208120000[0:GMT]

<TRNAMT>-408.00

<FITID>201102080

<NAME>E*TRADE BANK TRANSFER

<MEMO>PPD ID: 9621280001

</STMTTRN>

Jay_B

As noted in my second post, I have tested and the Canadian version does not rename based on the memo field.

I have a rule to rename Save On Foods with "contains Save On" so it should capture Save On Foods #1243 and Save On Foods #3323. I did an import of this

<STMTTRN>
<TRNTYPE>DEBIT
<DTPOSTED>20220919120000[-8]
<TRNAMT>-6.43
<FITID>90000010020220919C0019CCED057
<NAME>C-IDP PURCHASE-1586
<MEMO>SAVE ON FOODS #
</STMTTRN>

which imported as

C-idp Purchase-1586 | SAVE ON FOODS # | [ ]

With it neither being renamed nor properly categorized.

Arctic Hare

Jay_B said:

As noted in my second post, I have tested and the Canadian version does not rename based on the memo field.

I have a rule to rename Save On Foods with "contains Save On" so it should capture Save On Foods #1243 and Save On Foods #3323. I did an import of this

<STMTTRN>
<TRNTYPE>DEBIT
<DTPOSTED>20220919120000[-8]
<TRNAMT>-6.43
<FITID>90000010020220919C0019CCED057
<NAME>C-IDP PURCHASE-1586
<MEMO>SAVE ON FOODS #
</STMTTRN>

which imported as

C-idp Purchase-1586 | SAVE ON FOODS # | [ ]

With it neither being renamed nor properly categorized.

Thanks for doing that test Jay_B. Your only options are to switch to using a brokerage account (I'm not aware of any negative consequences to this approach) or to pursue the issue with Quicken support.