How to set different future amounts for a scheduled transaction.

mackim

My utilities payments are all on the equal payment plan, so every year there is an annual adjustment in July, and then a new equal payment for August and following months. I would love to be able to change the amount of the July payment (that's easy) and then change the following month and all future amounts at the same time. Is that possible?

RickO

Yes, there's a way to do this without marking the July payment as paid. Do these steps (you must do them in this order):

1. Double click the future July payment and select Edit All Instances in the blue bar below the transaction.
2. Change the amount to the new amount that starts in August and click OK. The July payment will be showing the wrong amount; that will be fixed in the next step.
3. Next, double click the July payment again, but this time, do not click on any option in the blue bar. Instead, just enter the old July amount in the Amount column.
4. When you mark the July transaction as paid, it will have the correct July amount and the August and later transactions will have the new amount.

RickO

Yes, there's a way to do this without marking the July payment as paid. Do these steps (you must do them in this order):

1. Double click the future July payment and select Edit All Instances in the blue bar below the transaction.
2. Change the amount to the new amount that starts in August and click OK. The July payment will be showing the wrong amount; that will be fixed in the next step.
3. Next, double click the July payment again, but this time, do not click on any option in the blue bar. Instead, just enter the old July amount in the Amount column.
4. When you mark the July transaction as paid, it will have the correct July amount and the August and later transactions will have the new amount.

mackim

Thanks, that’s helpful. I discovered another way that worked, which was to set my register display to show 60 days ahead. That allowed both entries to be displayed at the same time. So I was able to change the July amount and then the repeating amount starting in August. However, I think your solution is a better one.

jacobs

@mackim You can adjust the payment amount for only the next scheduled transaction, no matter how many you can see in your screen. If you set the register to show Next 60 Days, and you double click to edit the amount of the second upcoming transaction Quicken will jump to be editing the next transaction, not the second one. So typically you must mark the next one as paid (even if it's in the future), edit the amount of the transaction because it's no longer connected to the scheduled transaction, and then double-click the scheduled transaction and Edit All Instances to change the amount for future months.

In @RickO's solution to a future price change following a one-time adjustment, you can edit the recurring series for the payment amount which will take place starting in two months, then do the amount ovverride for the next month, and tackle both at one time.

mackim

Yes, I guess I inadvertently did what you suggest. I marked the July payment as paid and then edited the next one. I'll know what to do next time. Thanks for the clarification.