Payee additions...default--off

tarik2nu

I have a feature request.

Every transaction that comes in from bank and credit card downloads produces an additional Payee to the list. Instead of matching Payees already there. Even though there are "rules" in place to avoid such a problem, they are not working due to small diferences in the Payee "name".

For example, Ed's Garage doesn't match up to ED'S GARAGE. Nor do matches like Quest Diagnostics match up with Quest Diagnostics of Pameoquest . . .

It's way to time consuming to keep merging Payees for reports. The "rules" are not matching this incoming data.

What a mess this is becoming anytime you want to look at Payees. There should be a way to turn OFF additonal payees being added on incoming data from online services.

jacobs

With the structure of the Quicken Mac database, it would be impossible to "turn off" adding new Payees. Every transaction has a Payee, and that Payee exists as an entry in the table of Payees in the database.

So the issue is how to improve what you're experiencing. First, in Settings > Connected Services, do you have the item for "automatically improve the quality of downloaded payee names and categories" checked? This controls Quicken's server based Payee renaming and categorization processes. If it's not checked, try checking this box and seeing over a week or two if it improves. It might be better, it might not matter, or it might make things worse. The server rules are base don some undisclosed crow-sourced data, so it's mor elikely to correctly standardize the name of Home Depot or McDonald's than a small local business like Ed's Garage. But it's worth a try.

The more reliable solution is to invest a little time creating local Renaming Rules. Yes, it takes a little time to set up rules for your frequent Payees, but once you create them, it's not something you need to mess with on a recurring basis. For a Payee like Quest Diagnostics of Pameoquest, you'd create a rule likes this:

This will insure that any transactions downloaded with a payee name that contains "Quest Diagnostics", it will be assigned to your Payee Quest Diagnostics.