Transactions being erroneously classified as transfers

anaxagoras

So my entire quicken file got messed up. I tried to restore from backup and got an error, which is another problem in and of itself. I added a couple of Amex accounts and balances on my main checking account went insane. It added a number of uncleared transactions to my checking account. And of course if i delete them i discovered it deletes the corresponding valid transaction in my amex card.

I decided to start a new file, and i've probably created about 6 new files, the issue keeps repeating. Firstly on the new file i went to Edit→Preferences→Transfer Detection and select "confirm possible transfers before entering in register". So why is it even trying to log a transfer? On the fresh file the payee was renamed to "American Express" if i look at the downloaded payee, they are things like "Amex Fine Hotels Res XXXX-XXX" or "Amex Fee Reimbursement" or "Amex Fine Hotels and AmexTravel.com" they don't have the word transfer or xfer in them. And there's not a matching transaction in my primary checking account either, it's adding a new uncleared transaction.

What the heck is going on? And how do i fix this.

anaxagoras

Just posting an update. I tried to create yet another new file. The very first thing I did before adding any accounts was to go to Preferences and 1.) TransferDetection: Deselect "scan downloaded transactions for possible transfers. 2.)Downloaded Transactions: Deselect "Automatically Categorize Transactions" and Deselect "automatically apply Quicken's suggested name to payee"

It is still incorrectly renaming payees and incorrectly logging transfers that have no match in my primary checking account. This is nonsensical. I'm kind of losing it because this is making no sense to me. How do i stop this behavior?

UKR

I can't say why Quicken did what it did when attempting to create transfer transactions out of thin air, based solely on downloaded information from the Downloaded Payee and Downloaded Memo fields.

But, you said that you deleted these incorrect transfer transactions from the checking account and it made things worse.
Please understand that a transfer transaction in Quicken consists of two linked transactions, one in the Transfer-From account and one in the Transfer-To account.
Because the bad transfer originated from the credit card account, it should have been corrected in the credit card account and NOT deleted from the checking account … deleting a transfer transaction in one account makes it disappear from the other account. However, changing the category of the credit card transaction from transfer to an expense or income category would have corrected the issue and removed the incorrect transaction from the checking account.

Transaction download problems with matching and adding new transactions correctly

First please ensure that all optional settings in Quicken pertaining to recall, memorization, automatic categorization and renaming of payee names are enabled. You find those settings in Edit / Preferences / Data Entry & Quickfill and Downloaded Transactions. Additional settings for the detection and processing of transfer transactions can be found in Edit / Preferences / Transfer detection.

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.

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 into your new credit card accounts 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.

anaxagoras

 it should have been corrected in the credit card account and NOT deleted from the checking account …

I'll try that, thanks.

First please ensure that all optional settings in Quicken pertaining to recall, memorization, automatic categorization and renaming of payee names are enabled

Are you automatically accepting downloaded transactions into your registers?

I am automatically accepting right now, my workflow is to accept them, then edit them in the register. editing them below in the unaccepted transactions window, the workflow feels so much more cumbersome. Especially in this case with a new datafile and many of my accounts are downloading over 2 years of transaction history. Thousands of transactions, that many of which can be more easily edited in the register by sorting by payee, and editing groups of 10-20 transactions at a time that all have the same payee.

I don't want quicken to do any magic. I just want it to download the transactions, don't autofill, don't guess, just add them to the register and let me rename them, categorize them, and join transfers on my own.

For best results manually enter transfer transactions into your register BEFORE you download transactions from the bank

I get why if you want quicken to do everything automatically, but i don't.