Recategorizing transactions after search

mazz56

after upating/downloading transactions from my financial institution, invariably some transactions categories are missing. so, i run a search, select individual transactions and use the replace feature to correct the missing category, But for each replacement, an annoying notification message appears to confirm changing the transaction's category each time.

How do i turn that notification OFF?! can't find it anywhere

Rocket J Squirrel

Are you auto-reconciling after each download, so you are modifying reconciled transactions? If so, you can eliminate the warning by going to Edit > Preferences > Notify and un-checking "Before changing reconciled transactions".

mazz56

Thanks for responding so quickly but no, they are not reconciled transactions. I usually categorized transactions long before reconciling them. The vast majority are transactions which have no previously category assigned

Rocket J Squirrel

Show us a screen shot of the warning.

mazz56

screenshot selecting find/replace feature and pop up message asking for confirmation of changing transaction category

mazz56

when i have a long list of transactions to update, all with different categories to change, it gets pretty annoying to have to respond 'ok' to change each one. i'm looking for the setting to 'turn off' having to confirm an update

Snowman

Instead of the Find and Replace you might try the search box in the upper right of any of the registers. You can enter a category name, payee name, amount, even a check number. When I have a bunch of transactions to change I can edit one, all and any in between and you will not get that message, at least I never have. Windows 10 x64 Quicken R50.14.

mazz56

thanks for that suggestion, i'll try it. unless using search that way is limited to individual accounts, meaning if we have multiple chk'g/savings/credit cards, etc., will using search that way cross all accounts?

UKR

Transaction download problems with matching and adding new transactions correctly

First 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.

Are you automatically accepting downloaded transactions into your registers?

If you are relying on Quicken to "automagically" fill your account registers from downloaded transactions, you may run into problems. Despite all efforts by the Quicken programmers, the "Autopilot" (that's my name for the part of the Quicken program which processes downloaded transactions and converts them into new register transactions) is not infallible. For that process to work 100% of the time one would need a crystal ball because the information downloaded from the banks often is just too terse and cryptic.

You should, at least for a while, turn off the "automatically accept downloaded transactions into registers" setting to gain better control over what is downloaded and what to do with it. Click on and review each downloaded transaction, make changes if necessary (e.g., to get a payee name = "Starbucks" instead of "POS TRANS 070119 STARBU", "POS TRANS 070219 STARBU", "POS TRANS 070319 STARBU" or to assign a category) before you click to accept each transaction.

Any changes you make to downloaded Payee Names are remembered in Renaming Rules.

Any other changes you make (add/change Category or Memo text) are remembered in the Memorized Payee List.

Next time the same transaction for this Payee comes along, Quicken should remember and give you a better new register transaction.

Paper checks you write should be recorded in Quicken as you write the check (and BEFORE you download transactions which might contain the cleared check). That gives you a register transaction with correct check number, payee name and category. No matter what information is downloaded from the bank, you already have a correct register transaction which the downloaded data cannot mess up.

In case you have issues with transfer transactions not being generated correctly:

For best results manually enter transfer transactions into your register BEFORE you download transactions from the bank which contain the transfer confirmations. For recurring transfers use scheduled reminders and enter them a day or two before the due date.

Be sure to use distinct Payee Names for each transfer / credit card payment to avoid confusing Quicken - memorized payee entries.

That takes the guesswork out of the Autopilot's process. Because a correctly entered transfer transaction already exists in your account registers, the Autopilot should just match the downloaded transfer transaction to the existing one in both accounts.

Where are the "Auto-accept downloaded transaction" settings?

There are two places where this is controlled in Quicken for Windows:
- Globally, for all accounts, in Edit / Preferences / Downloaded Transactions
- For each account individually, the global setting can be overridden from the Edit Account Details screen, Online Services Tab. Look for blue text "Automatic Entry is: ON / OFF". Click the text to change the setting.

mshiggins

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20369214#Comment_20369214

You can use the All Transactions register to search across all accounts. The link to All Transactions register is at the top of the Account Bar. The Account Bar is normally docked on the left side of the main Quicken window.

mazz56

many thanks for all your help and suggestions