Confusing account transactions visual cues

QknRod

I am using Quicken on Windows and mobile with default visual preferences. On my desktop I get the following default visual cues:

• Red pencil = unmatched manual entry
• Blue dot = unmatched download entry
• Blue pencil = matched manual entry
• Dark info = not reconciled transaction
• Light info = reconciled transaction

On mobile I think I get:

• Light info = unmatched manual entry
• Dark info = downloaded entry
• Blue dot = not reconciled transaction
• No dot = reconciled transaction
• There's no way to distinguish a matched manual entry from a download-only transaction.

This is confusing; I have to type it out here to understand what the mobile entries mean. The desktop is "correct" and just makes sense without thinking about it. Can we get the mobile app to display these cues in the same way as the desktop?

Chris_QPW

It gets worse than this because there is also Quicken Mac, which I believe uses slightly different visual clues. And then there is the diehard Quicken Windows users that don't use the automatic transaction entry mode, so the transactions go through the Downloaded Transactions tab. They have a red flag on the account name for transactions were downloaded. The red pencil for uncleared (manual entry) transaction. No blue anything.

But on top of that your descriptions aren't exactly correct, there are some very subtle differences. I will go through your first list. Note there might be some confusion between the status/blue dot column and the Clr (clear status). I will call the blue dot column "status" that the other one Clr.

• Red pencil = manually entered transaction that isn't marked cleared (c in the Clr column). (If you manually mark it cleared the status goes to blank, when you download a transaction and it matches that manual transaction it sets the Clr status to c, which is the reason the red pencil goes away, but in automatic transaction entry mode the status will also go to New Match/blue pencil. If not in that mode, the status is blank)
• Blue dot, this one you have exactly right.
• Blue pencil, this one you have exactly right.
• Dark information, not reconciled, you have this and the next one right, but need to know that this is optional. There is a setting Edit → Preferences → Register → Gray reconciled transactions. So, what is different with Quicken Mobile/Web is that they are missing this option.
• Light/Gray Reconciled, but only if the option above has been selected.

I'm going to flag @jacobs with is a Quicken Mac SuperUser to fill in what Quicken Mac uses.

I'm also, going to throw out something that I know is already a difference that is cause friction with the Quicken Mac users. In Quicken Windows when you edit a transaction (which include doing a reconcile), it is "marked reviewed" by clearing the status/blue dot column. This was pushed to Quicken Mobile/Web a while back and it is causing the Quicken Mac people headaches because Quicken Mac will not create the status until the user marks reviewed. It doesn't clear its status for edits or for reconcile.

There is also a push in Quicken Mac to have the other mode where transactions don't go directly into the register (which at this point the developers have said no to, which I think is the right thing to do.)

jacobs

Here's (from online Help) is how Quicken Mac uses the status column and its icons:

I don't use the mobile app, so I can't comment on how that functions.

Chris_QPW

Of all of this, I think the one visual cue that might be implemented without running into compatibility with different ones is the optional graying out of reconciled transactions when they are reconciled.