Bulk-delete transfers to reconciled transactions

Roman L

I am trying to clean up my Quicken file by removing some of the history. It would be nice to have a tool for that, but that aside, I ran into a major issue:

Trying to remove 10 years of transactions from my bank account, I get a prompt "Deleting transfer to cleared (R) item. Are you sure?" Yes, I am sure, but there is no "Yes to All" option, so I am facing clicking that button a few thousand times. Not good. Even worse - there is no "Abort" button either, so the only way to get out of that loop is to kill Quicken altogether. Nice!

Now, one would think that "unreconciling" the target transactions would fix the issue. Not so fast! They are investment transactions that cannot be "unreconciled" in bulk. Global search and replace allows me to select these transactions and pretends to make a change to the Cleared status, but nothing happens (no errors or warnings either). So no matter how I attack it, I seem to be doomed to be licking some button a few thousand times. This may not technically be a bug, but it is a "design bug" as far as I am concerned. Very frustrating!

Is there any way to get around it?

For Quicken designers: Please consider a trim/cleanup feature that would support removing not just old accounts, but also old transactions from existing accounts. I've been using Quicken since 1993 and I don't need 30 years of spaghetti in my file. I understand that there are some dependencies, but just like you can add a new account at any point by specifying an opening balance, without entering all the history, you should be able to do that for an existing account by removing the history and adjusting the opening balance.

Quicken Kristina

Hello @Roman L,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and telling us about this issue.  I'm sorry to hear you're running into this problem. There are a couple tools that might help. If its mostly investment history you're trying to clean up, have you tried Archiving Transactions?

Another option to truncate history in your Quicken file, is creating a copy and choosing a date range that cuts off the extraneous history (Note that the original file with all history will still exist, so as long as you don't delete it, you will still be able to open the original file if you need to). To create a copy, please navigate to File > Copy or Backup File... > Create a copy or template (see examples below) which will also allow you to select a date range to move forward with.

It's important to know that all online services will be disconnected in the copied file, and you will need to sign back in with your Quicken ID and reconnect all of your online accounts, online billers, Quicken Bill Manager services, etc if you plan to use that copied file going forward. The reason for this is that the new copy also creates a new and separate dataset ID.

I hope this helps!

Roman L

Kristina - thank you for your prompt response, however …

1. The copy made with a cut-off date of 12/1/2019 still contains all the transactions going back to 2004
2. An attempt to run an archive on one of the accounts gave me the following: "Because you have no transactions for securities with closed positions (zero share balance), Quicken is unable to archive."

Your suggestion, however, led me to finding "Edit Multiple Transactions" option in the investments settings menu. Amazingly, that option appears to do what global search and replace was not able to accomplish (WHY?) - it allowed me to change the Cleared flag back to "c" on all investment transactions. Well - maybe. My joy was short lived, because even after the flag was visibly changed to "c", an attempt to delete the associated banking transaction still gives me the same prompt as before, complaining about a transfer to a cleared (R) item. If that's not a bug, I don't know what is.

Mark1104

why do you want to 'clean-up' the file and delete the transactions? for what purpose? what value it bring you?

Roman L

Unless one is a hoarder, they probably clean or de-clutter their household once in a while. The same question can be asked - why? Some people have no problem living with all the junk they accumulated in their life. I do, and that should be sufficient as a justification, but there are some practical factors too. Performance is one of them. Not having to deal with that data when performing any bulk operation (reporting, reconciliation, re-categorization, global search/replace, etc.) is another. Yes, I know - there are ways to hide/exclude it, but it takes extra effort and the junk is still there, just waiting to throw you off when least expected.

While on the subject of a clean-up, Memorized Payee List is one of my pet peeves. I am all for the concept, but why does it memorize the memo, then repopulates it with every auto-categorized transaction? As far as I know, there is no way to turn it off, so, if I once buy a gift for my cousin Annie, every future purchase from that vendor will be marked as a gift for Annie. Yes, I can go into that list and edit every entry manually (no bulk edit option), but that defeats the purpose, which - I assume - is to make the user's life easier. From the data modeling perspective, Memo and Amount are attributes of transactions, NOT payees, so they should not even be memorized in the "Payee List". I know this is a separate subject, but may it serve as a generic example that having extra data can do more harm than good, because there is a temptation to somehow use it and even if not, one must remember to explicitly exclude it in every query.

Justifications aside, the functionality of removing old transactions has apparently been envisioned and implemented. The problem is that it does not work as advertised. In my book that counts as a bug. The looping prompt "Deleting transfer to cleared (R) item. Are you sure?" is another bug. Actually two bugs: 1 - because to stop the loop one needs to kill the application, and 2 - because I am still getting that message despite not having a single reconciled transaction in the entire file (global search does not find any).

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

For the issue with it trapping you in the loop, I suggest that you try validating and/or super validating your data file.  Please save a backup file prior to performing these steps.

Validate: 

1. File
2. Validate and Repair File...
3. Validate File
4. Click OK
5. Close the Data Log
6. Close Quicken (leave it closed for at least 5 secs)
7. Reopen Quicken and see if the issue persists.

If the issue persists, proceed to Super Validate. If the issue is resolved after performing validation, then please disregard the instructions to Super Validate.

Super Validate:

1. File
2. Hold CTRL + Shift and click Validate and Repair File...
3. Super Validate File
4. Click OK
5. Close the Data Log
6. Close Quicken (leave it closed for at least 5 secs)
7. Reopen Quicken and see if the issue persists.   

For the memorized payees, have you tried adjusting your preferences? You can do that through Edit>Preferences>Data entry and QuickFill.

Thank you.

Roman L

Thank you for the suggestions, but Super Validate did not find any errors. I am still getting the same prompt, despite having no reconciled transactions in the entire file.

As to the memorized payees - yes, I played with those options in the past, but my choices are limited to all or nothing. It either fills all the fields or none of them. Excluding just the memo and/or the amount is not an option. As implemented, that feature helps with one part of the data entry, but messes up another. Again - memo and amount are attributes of a transaction and NOT a payee and the scenario when they would remain the same for all transactions for the same payee is rather unlikely. That is a design mistake which should be fixed.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Due to the nature of this issue, I recommend that you reach out to Quicken Support directly for further assistance as they can walk you through troubleshooting steps in real-time and escalate the situation as needed.  The Quicken Support phone number can be found through this link here. Phone support is available from 5:00 am PT to 5:00 pm PT, Monday through Friday.

I apologize that I could not be of more assistance!

Roman L

Will do - thanks