URGENT: Please add checkbox to QFX file import dialog which will reverse the transaction sign

avic

Pentagon Federal Union aka PenFed FCU no longer allows transaction download via quicken connect.

Users can download QFX files from PenFed fairly easily by account and range (but export have to be done foreach account one at a time, which is PITA)

however, the QFX for credit cards has the transaction sign reversed (yes, it is a PenFed issue, but unfortunately they will never fix it…)

therefore, I request a new urgent feature, whereby in the same QFX import dialog, where it asks you which account to import the QFX into, add a checkbox called "reverse transaction sign", which when checked quicken will reverse all transactions (and balance) amounts.

avic

Forgot to mention that if transactions are not reversed, it messes up more than just the credit card accounts, but also the bank account from which payments are made… my bank account now have the "real" payment as deducted from my bank account and another deposit transaction for the same amount coming from the bad imported QFX file.

also, I am aware that this is NOT a quicken issue/bug, but rather a bad QFX file sent by PenFed.

but it seems that the quickest way to work around this issue, is to request this "reverse sign" feature.

jacobs

Wait a second… PenFed actively supports Quicken by offering QFX downloads. (That means they have signed a contract with Quicken or Intuit to be a participating financial institution and receive a valid Intuit ID which is checked when files are imported.) If they didn't want to do even that, they'd stop offering QFX downloads. So if they're willing to do that, why would they be unwilling to fix a mistake in their export code which reverses the signs? I would think if enough PenFed customers bugged IT support at PenFed, they could get this fixed. And that would be better than Quicken implementing a wonky attempt to fix mis-signed data. What happens if the next financial institution downloads all values as positive numbers? Then users might want Quicken to offer an option to reverse the signs, but only on certain transaction types.

I understand your frustration with the current situation, but I think getting it fixed at the source is a better solution than offering user-selected bypasses which might help some but unexpectedly trip up others.

avic

Agree, better to fix it at the source

but I believe that since Quicken is much more awesome and responsive to its users, Quicken might be able to implement this quicker (pun intended).

I did call PenFed, the rep was not even sure how/who to route the request to… so I do not have much confidence in PenFed

jacobs

but I believe that since Quicken is much more awesome and responsive to its users, Quicken might be able to implement this quicker (pun intended)

I'm certain some users will disagree with you on that. 🤣

Seriously, though, I've never seen an Idea topic here turn into reality very quickly. The development teams have long lists of projects scheduled for months into the future. First, the Idea has to garner enough votes here for the moderators to forward it to the development team; they then have to assess if they think it's a good and viable idea, whether it will impact a large enough number of Quicken users to be worthwhile, and what work it would take to implement it; they then put it on their schedule… and sometime quite a while down the line, the new feature appears. I don't want to discourage you from trying; I just want to share my observation about how things typically work.

This doesn't mean what Quicken won't be aware of the problem and decide to implement a fix for it, but most of their financial institution-specific fixes seem to focus on the biggest of the big financial institutions (like Chase, Citi, Fidelity, Schwab, AmeEx, etc.)

In terms of pursuing from the financial institution end, in most cases you need to ask (or push) to be connected to Tier 2 technical support who specifically deals with transaction downloads. Trust me, someone there implemented their export of QFX files, so they can fix it if they hear from enough customers about a problem with their export.

wootsuit

Hi there. Perhaps Federal Credit Unions are using some bit of shared code to handle QFX exports. (I know, this is not actually the case. ha ha haha…) I have a UNFCU (United Nations Federal Credit Union) Visa credit card which has the same problems. Here's what UNFCU customer support had to say about it:

I apologize for the difficulties you’re experiencing with importing your credit card transactions into Quicken.

I understand how frustrating it can be to deal with data format issues and the extra work required to correct them manually. Unfortunately, our system's data export format does not align with the expected format in Quicken, which can lead to the discrepancies you're seeing.

To address this issue, I recommend contacting Quicken directly to inquire if there is a way to reverse or adjust how the data appears once it is downloaded into their system. You can reach Quicken support at +1 650-250-1900. Please refer to their support site for their hours of operation.

I am truly sorry for the inconvenience this has caused and appreciate your patience as we work to improve our services. If you have any other questions or need further assistance, please feel free to reach out.

"Unfortunately, our system's data export format does not align with the expected format in Quicken" mmhmm… or any other financial tracking software, in fact.

As point of reference, I have the same issue with Monarch Money. However, Monarch has a per-account "invert account balance" checkbox which I'm able to use. For quicken the only solution is hand-editing the exported QFX files.

Any chance of getting a "invert sign values" in Quicken? I suspect the likelihood of getting UNFCU to change their broken data format is approximately 0%.

jacobs

@wootsuit Since QFX is a defined standard, I would think getting the credit union to fix their mistake seems like it should be within reach. And probably easier and faster to implement than Quicken adding an "invert sign values" switch like you're asking for.

For what it's worth, this Idea post has gathered 6 votes since being posted in December. Idea posts for Qucien Mac generally need 30 votes before they are passed to the developers. Then the development team needs to decide if they think the Idea is a good one, then assess how much work it would take to implement, and then and a spot for it on their development calendar — which would typically be somewhere 6-18 months hence.

So unless the Quicken team already has this on their internal agenda, it's a long path to getting a new feature implemented. 😉

There is also the possibility that if Quicken determines the signs are invested for this financial institution, they could implement a hard-coded software fix to invert them. I really don't know if they ever do this; I suspect they hard code some tweaks for major financial institutions from time to time. If they do, it would probably need to originate through their Customer Support team documenting the problem and passing it to the developers for a fix.

avic

I had a really weird issue with the same credit union…

all transaction had the correct sign

but the overall balance had the wrong sign…

had to reconcile manually by flipping the sign on the amount.

jacobs

And of course, if Quicken hard-codes a change for reverse the sign of transactions or balances for a financial institution, it's inevitable that the financial institution will eventually fix it, and then users will complain again until Quicken undoes what they tried to patch. Which is why I think they probably don't do this sort of thing frequently, if at all.