Downloaded transactions overwrite my entered reminders - anyway to not have it do this?

TheGrobbler

Example: I have Auto Insurance set up as a reminder. I have category set to auto insurance and a tag that has the name of the car. I post it (enter it through reminders) and then a few days later it downloads from online account (say I payed with a credit card). And in that account it now has the downloaded Life Insurance Category and no tag. In addition on the far left it has a red uncleared. if I click on that it says match to a downloaded transaction…. but nothing to select…. (not that I want this transaction to be the downloaded one).

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @TheGrobbler,

Thank you for reaching out to the Quicken Community, though I do apologize that you are experiencing this issue.

Before I can further assist you, I require some more information. When did you first notice this issue begin to occur? After a recent update? If so, which update? Are you receiving any error codes or messages?

I look forward to your response.

TheGrobbler

I recently started using Quicken (on recommendation from father in law - who uses it offline - no downloads).

So over the past 3 weeks or so I have started adding accounts - first Checking/Savings/Investments. Add bills associated with them … I have reconciled them and getting into just now (first time) using the reminders to enter transactions.

Last night - I entered Car Insurance (using the reminder) and then actually went online to Farmers and made the payment (with Credit card). Today when I went in to Quicken. it did its normal update of accounts. I went to check the Credit Card I made the payment to Farmers and noticed that the Category was changed from the one I set up to the default (life insurance)… it also removed the tag….. it had the unclear next to it… and has match to download - but nothing to match to.

My first thought was - oh this is the reminder I set up (and not a download)… maybe I didnt set the category etc… but in checking - it is set. And there is a Memo which is not what I had set in the reminder (I just have Farmers - Car Type)…. this memo has Direct Debit fromFarmers Life Insurance.

So I guess the answer to the question is…. it happened Today - and yeah I think there was an update… but not sure why an update would do this.

TheGrobbler

I worry about this because what is going to happen when I get to something that is more complex (like a paycheck). Really dont want to have to enter all the splits every month for every transaction… not worth.

mshiggins

@TheGrobbler are you using Q mobile or web or syncing to the Quicken cloud? If so, try turning off the syncing for long enough to determine if the sync is causing the transaction to be overwritten. You might also want to turn off the preference to Automatically Add Downloaded Transactions to Banking Accounts, which will give you a chance to review and if necessary correct the downloaded transaction.

TheGrobbler

I did read online of others having this issue and to turn off mobile/web syncing to the cloud. I did the one on mobile and web (turned off) but the directions for the cloud through one step update are no longer accurate so I guess I didnt turn that off… but I havnt been asked to sync to cloud.

It does seem to defeat the purpose by turning off automatically adding transactions to banking accounts - meaning I would have to manually enter them.

Also, if paying for features (like web/mobile) and having to turn them off to fix something … also doesnt seem right. But I am trying that (I probably wouldnt use this feature anyway).

I do miss microsoft money..that was pretty perfect!

UKR

When you entered the Car Insurance reminder, which account register was it paid from? A Checking account or the credit card account register you actually paid from?

What was the reminder's due date? IOW, did you pay early and did you adjust the reminder's register transaction to the actual payment date? Quicken may not match a downloaded transaction to a future-dated register transaction.

Does the Tag field show in all your account registers? You may have to add it to some register types where you know you will be using transactions with Tags.

mshiggins

Turning off the preference to Automatically Add Downloaded Transactions to Banking Accounts does not require that you manually enter transactions. Instead, the downloaded transactions are presented in a sub window at the bottom of the account register where you can review them before they are added to the account register. It gives you more control and facilitates training Quicken to properly categorize your downloaded transactions.

You could disable the preference temporarily and test drive whether it addresses the download transaction overwriting the already entered transaction. Then turn the preference back on later.

TheGrobbler

@UKR I used the Credit Card register - the due date was July 26th. I paid online with Credit card on July 26th. (Actual payment).

In Qucken about 5 min later, I entered the reminder so it was in the Credit card register in quicken. It showed Auto Insurance and the proper tag.

on the 27th, I went into quicken. It did the normal download. i noticed 2 new items in the credit card register. I checked. The download had downloaded the payment to the car insurance and added a memo, changed the category (to life insurance) and removed the tag.

UKR

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.

If you use the exact same Payee Name for two different payment cases, e.g., Car insurance and Life Insurance, it'll be better if you used distinct Names instead, e.g., "XYZ Ins. {Car Ins}" and "XYZ Ins. {Life Ins}".

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.