Bank Bill Pay with Direct connect - Windows vs Mac

I'm a 10+ year Quicken Windows users, transitioning to the Mac. I'm confused on bank bill pay settings in the mac version. In Quicken Windows, I would set up a online payment via direct connect (to PNC), set the date for it to be paid, and it would automatically figure out if it needed a check or could do a EFT to the payee. If it was a check, it would get sent with 5 or so days ahead to assure it arrived on time

In Quicken Mac (subscription version), there is this "Pay on next update" dropdown. I can't choose "automatically" for some reason, only "I'll do it myself", or "Before scheduled time" and then I can enter a number of days. I have no idea how this translates, or what I should do if I want a payee to get a check on the 15th of the month.

Anyone else using this and have advise? This is very different in the Mac version, and I'm a bit lost.
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Answers

  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    The “Pay on next update” and “Pay now” refer to when to connect to the bank and transmit the instructions. If you choose Pay on Next Update, it will send the transaction the next time you connect via Update Selected Online Account or Update All Accounts. If you click Pay Now, it will connect immediately.

    None of this has anything to do with how the payment is processed once the bank receives. That process is the same as it has been for you in QWin. The bank will either mail a check so it arrives in time for the due date, or pay electronically on the due date if able depending on the payee.

    The I'll Do It Myself and Before Schedule Time are also a totally different feature for scheduled transactions. This tells QMac whether you and to mark the transaction as paid manually, or if you want Quicken to mark it as paid automatically some days ahead of time.

    As you probably know, to have a payee receive it on the 15th, you have to transmit the transaction to the bank some number of days ahead of time. If you date a transaction on the 15th and don't send it til, say, the 14th, you will be told that the date must be changed to a later date.

    So, in the case of a one-time non-scheduled transaction, you would want to transmit it to the bank (Pay On Next Update or Pay Now) manually far enough ahead so the date won't have to be changed to a later date.

    For a scheduled transaction, you can manually mark it as paid respecting the same lead time, or you could have it marked as paid automatically X days before scheduled date. But you would still need to initiate a connection to the bank to get than transaction transmitted.

    Before you transmit the transaction, you will see “send” in the Check# column. If it's a scheduled transaction that has not been marked as paid, then “send” will be gray. If it's marked as paid, then “send” will be black. After you transmit to the bank, you will see either “sent” or a check number in the Check# column.

    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Genius_not
    Genius_not Member ✭✭
    Thanks very much. This is helpful.

    My most urgent need is to re-setup my cadence of recurring payments that I had in QWin (and cancelled before the migration because that was recommended during the migration process) . In the schedule tab, I set them up for the necessary frequency (e.g. monthly). On the Details tab, I set up "Pay on next update" as 1 day before the scheduled date, but my understanding from your above comments is that just affects when the bill will be marked paid in the ledger?

    When I do this, the upcoming payments show up in the ledger with a gray "clock" icon and a gray "send" in the check # column. This has me concerned they aren't scheduled to be paid by the bank.

    I guess my goal is to have the recurring payment happen automatically by my bank like they were before, without having to take action on the payments until I want to change them.

    Does that all make sense?
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    I mispoke about the Pay On Next Update option in the scheduled transaction scheduling window. Rather than just marking as paid, it will send it to the bank, but only when you manually initiate an update by clicking Update All Accounts or Update Selected Online Account in the Accounts menu.

    Think of it this way: when you a scheduled bill-pay payment in the register, before you do anything, as you say, it has a gray(blue) clock icon and gray “send” in the Check# column. If you double click the transaction, you will see a blue bar like this

    If you click Pay On Next Update, the clock will change to an orange envelop and “Send” will turn black. But nothing else will happen until you inititate the connection to the bank. When you do connect to the bank, the payment instruction will be sent. Setting up Pay On Next Update in the schedule tab causes Quicken to automatically click that Pay On Next Update button in the transaction edit bar however many days ahead of the due date you choose. So the clock will change to an orange envelop and “send” will turn black without you doing anything. But again, it won't get transmitted to the bank until you connect. There is no “automatically connect” in QMac. You still have to open Quicken and click Update All Accounts or Update Selected Online Account in the Accounts menu.

    If the payment is due on the 15th, then you'd want to send it to the bank at least a few days ahead of that date. If you manually click Pay On Next Update in the edit bar with too few days remaining, you will see a message that the payment date must be changed because the “Payment Date is Too Soon”. How many days depends on the rules set up by the bank. You can send it to the bank many days ahead of time if you want. But it depends on the partiular bank on whether they withdraw the funds from your account immediately upon receiving the payment instruction or if they wait to debit until the payment is actually sent. It all depends on the bank. My bank does not debit the payment until either (1) the check is cashed if paper check, or (2) the payee receives the electronic payment. So in my case, I will transmit the payment for the 15th before the end of the prior month and need not worry about my balance going low in the interim. But again, some banks withdraw the funds immediately. I don't know about PNC.

    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Genius_not
    Genius_not Member ✭✭
    OK, so the "pay on next update" setting determines when QMac sends the payment instruction to the bank, even if it is part of a recurring bill payment?

    I didn't have to do any connections or updates on QWin to keep a recurring transaction going. The payments would just continue to happen on the cadence and dates that I set. They would then show up as "payments made outside of quicken" when I connected, and get matched to the register transactions when I reviewed and reconciled.

    Appreciate the help - QMac is different enough that I'm feeling a bit lost ...
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    Not exactly. Pay On Next Update in the schedule tab causes the payment to be marked to be sent to the bank the next time you connect. It does not actually send the instruciton until you open Quicken manually inititate a connection. Setting up a recurring payment in QMac does not set up a recurring payment on the bank's servers, it only sends one payment instruciton at a time.

    That said, most banks have the option on their website to set up a recurring payment that will happen automatically without any intervention on your part. I'd suggest that you may want to set yours up this way. If so, then in Quicken, you would still have a recurring scheduled transaction and that transaction would be matched when you download the transaction that happens on the bank's end. Using this method, you would not put “send” in the Check# column in the scheduled transaction (that would cause it to happen twice).

    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Genius_not
    Genius_not Member ✭✭
    For anyone using Bank Bill pay with QMac, here is my solution to try and replicate the QWin way of having a repeating payment be set up at the "bank" end (where the bank repeats the payment) vs the Quicken for Mac (where Quicken sends each individual payment when the repeat data occurs). I set the "pay before scheduled date" to 99 days - which seems to be the longest available. So for monthly recurring payments it will schedule the next 3 payments, allowing plenty of cushion if I'm not able to update quicken in between, which sometimes can happen due to my travel and obligations. This seems to be working for me, others may have different approaches. Any cautions or advice welcome!
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    One catch I see is if your bank is one that deducts the funds from your account as soon as it receives the instruction, you will be down three months of money ahead of time.

    If at all possible with your bank, I'd suggest setting up the recurring payment on their website and set up a matching non-bill-pay scheduled transaction in Quicken.

    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Genius_not
    Genius_not Member ✭✭
    > @RickO said:
    > One catch I see is if your bank is one that deducts the funds from your account as soon as it receives the instruction, you will be down three months of money ahead of time.
    >


    Yes I thought of that, but it looks like the withdrawal date for the funds is always set at 6 business days before the payment date, at least according to the one-step update window. And I think my bank doesn't actually withdraw funds until the check is presented, or on the EFT date for electronic payments.

    If anyone from Quicken is here, there needs to be a lot more info on how this works in QMac. The QWin operation for this bank pay function is much better documented. Also not sure why the two versions would work differently since they accomplish the same connection with the bank for the payments.
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