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Year End, Archive, etc.....

KGH

Ok, I have been reading a number of posts about making a year end copy, archive, etc. I've seen some posts also regarding a person who wants to start the new year with a new data file with only the uncleared transactions. Here is my question, What is the right option to start a new year when I am changing my categories? Over the years the list of categories used has grown. I'd like to clean them up, delete categories no longer used, and set up categories that more closely represent what we now do.

How can I do this without affecting the current data? Auditors may want to see our records from previous years and those categories. Hope this makes sense. Looking for help to start a fresh with the least amount of hassles.

Thanks,
Keven

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Accepted answers

Jim_Harman

I would not recommend making a year end copy or deleting any Categories.

Do you want to preserve your current data and Categories, then reorganize the Categories going forward, using the new Categories for both old and new transactions?

If so, you should start by making a backup of your current data file. That will preserve everything as it is today.

Then you can review your Category list and reorganize them by renaming where it makes sense, merging ones that overlap, and hiding those that you don't use or were once important but you do not use any more. Deleting Categories prevents Quicken's automatic categorization from working, and if you have used them, those transactions will become uncategorized.

For example, say you have the Categories Food, Groceries, and Diapers. When your children were young, you split the supermarket bill into Food and Diapers but now you do not buy diapers and everything you buy at the supermarket goes to the Groceries category. I would hide the Diapers Category and merge Food into Groceries. That would leave you with one visible category and no loss of data.

splasher

I was going to offer up my thoughts, BUT, after reading Jim's response, I can't really add anything to it except to stress, don't make a YEC and do hide the old categories you no longer need.

If you do a YEC, you will regret it later since all of your data is not in one file and you will have to switch between the files to find things you need information on.

Personally, my data file goes back to 1996 and I would not have it any other way.

splasher

Do you ever run a Networth report over time? Deleting things will cause you to not have an accurate picture?

BTW, YEC does not delete anything from your investment accounts.

About the Memorized Payees, there are Preference settings that control how long they are kept if unused and also if they are auto-saved.

One thing you have to remember, Quicken is an old program made with old technology, it just isn't going to be fast.

All comments

Jim_Harman

I would not recommend making a year end copy or deleting any Categories.

Do you want to preserve your current data and Categories, then reorganize the Categories going forward, using the new Categories for both old and new transactions?

If so, you should start by making a backup of your current data file. That will preserve everything as it is today.

splasher

I was going to offer up my thoughts, BUT, after reading Jim's response, I can't really add anything to it except to stress, don't make a YEC and do hide the old categories you no longer need.

If you do a YEC, you will regret it later since all of your data is not in one file and you will have to switch between the files to find things you need information on.

Personally, my data file goes back to 1996 and I would not have it any other way.

KGH

Thanks Jim & splasher, great help.

So one question for Jim, you mentioned merging categories that overlap and/or renaming categories.

I assume if renaming, reports all continue to work without issues. Would just need to ensure the new category name is included in the report. Is my assumption correct?

Regarding merging categories. How do you do that? When merging categories, do all transactions using any of the previous categories automatically update to listing the new, merged category?

Thanks,

Keven

Jim_Harman

To merge Categories, go to Tools > Category List and Right click on the Category that you want to merge into another Category. Select Merge and select the new Category to use. This will change all transactions that use the original Category to use the one you selected second.

If you only want to recategorize some of transactions that use a Category, you can use Edit > Find and replace.

Be sure to back up your file before making any bulk changes, in case the result is not what you wanted.

KGH

Excellent, thanks

Nalgas

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20412392#Comment_20412392

Hey Splash

I stumbled onto this before opening a new thread about cleaning up my very old data file. Like you, I have transactions going waaaaay back to the late 90's. I have accounts that have been closed for years, etc, etc. I imagine or assume that the program will run slicker/quicker if it was working with a smaller data file. Or am I wrong?

Also. Yes, on occasion, I've had to research a transaction from the past hoping that I typed something helpful in the MEMO box. Or I may have had to look up the purchase price of a stock. Other than that, none of us have a need to see something from 1996, so why not clean it up? Why have so many years of credit card transactions, for example, and in cards that have been closed for some time? We throw away financial paper records after 7 years, so why not clean up Quicken, no?

I ask to get educated, not to challenge.

Thank you

splasher

@Nalgas

I view it as a financial diary which comes in handy when I want to know when I either purchased something or how much did a project cost (everything against a Tag). Do we REALLY NEED the older data, probably not, but it is nice to have.

I imagine or assume that the program will run slicker/quicker if it was working with a smaller data file.

Not really. Quicken only opens the accounts it needs to display or edit what you are doing. Yes, a networth report will probably take longer since it has to look at everything, but working with your checking account has no reason to chew computing memory or energy on the old closed accounts.

Investment accounts are the only accounts that are affected by size. If you do a lot of trading or an account is big, it would probably help if you archived an investment account. What it does is create a second account and keeps the open/active positions in the current account and the closed positions in the archive account, BUT, this is not creating a separate file, just another investment account in your current file.

Every once in a while we get a user writing to ask how to combine two files (a YEC and their current file) back together and we get to point them to the old thread that describes how to do that and it is not an easy task.

I guess the bottom line is, it is a personal choice.

Nalgas

@splasher

Thanks a lot for the explanation that makes sense. Yes, it is a personal choice.

The financial diary function has come in handy a handful of times when attempting to find the purchase price of a stock, for example, or something else. Sure. But it seems "wasteful" or dumb, for example, to have a mutual fund that I owned 12 years ago in the file even if the account is closed. However, if the proceeds from that sale got transferred to another account, obviously, then deleting that mutual fund account will leave a transfer open-ended, right? The new account will have a transfer of cash, but the source will be deleted. So, that's where your diary function comes in very handy.

I deleted over 1000 memorized payees that I had for some reason, and I don't have a big file, 150mb with 21 accounts. So I don't have a lot, but it just would be nice to see Quicken move as fast as other programs.

Thanks again

splasher

Do you ever run a Networth report over time? Deleting things will cause you to not have an accurate picture?

BTW, YEC does not delete anything from your investment accounts.

About the Memorized Payees, there are Preference settings that control how long they are kept if unused and also if they are auto-saved.

One thing you have to remember, Quicken is an old program made with old technology, it just isn't going to be fast.

davidsmathews

Year end backup or archive has never worked for me. The program never creates a new data file starting with Jan 1 of the current year. What it does do is create an exact copy of the old file and then a dialog box appears and states "file not back up". Is this f-ing weird or what.

Dave Mathews

splasher

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20416551#Comment_20416551

A YEC file would rarely start exactly on Jan 1 since there are probably a few un-reconciled transactions when you make. If you waited a month or so and then did the YEC, it might happen.

If a user really follows the instructions in this FAQ:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7149937/faq-year-end-copy

they generally find that it works correctly.

I never do it except as a test, but every time I test it, it works as expected. It is all about getting everything reconciled that needs to be reconciled, especially the matching half of transfers. Both ends need to be reconciled, otherwise both ends are kept.

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20416551#Comment_20416551

I have seen a few people report that Year End Copy says "file not backed up" and fails, but I have never heard of any fix for it.

The general guess would be that your data file isn't on a local drive or in in "Cloud folder" that is locking the data file when Quicken is trying to access it.