Changing a category for Payee not working...

Question

Hello,

Following this advice:

You can also edit payees after they have been added to the Memorized Payee List.

* Choose Tools menu > Memorized Payee List.
* Select the payee to edit. ...
* Click Edit.
* In the Edit Memorized Payee dialog, edit the payee information, and then click OK.
* Repeat steps 2 through 4 for each memorized payee you want to edit.

But the old category keeps reappearing as the default for the payee.

Rebooting does not help.

Thanks!

Jim_Harman · Answer

Aha. With those settings, you are using Quicken's suggested Payee names and Categories when downloading transactions. Because you have Renaming rules disabled, it will not use the Category from the Memorized Payee List (MPL) unless  Quicken's suggested name exactly matches the Payee in the list.

Quicken is very flexible, but the Payee renaming can be confusing at times and the Help is often not very helpful. Thus there are several ways you can fix this, including:

*  Leave the Downloaded transactions settings the same but change the Payee name in the MPL so that it exactly matches the name Quicken uses. Then the two will match and it will use the Category and other data from the MPL.
* Check the "Use my existing renaming rules" box and set up a Renaming Rule so that the downloaded Payee is renamed to match your preferred name in the MPL.

[adding]

Here is an example:

Say the downloaded Payee is MCDONALDS F6081 SANTEE SC and Quicken's name and Category are McDonalds and Food & Dining:Fast Food.

And say your current MPL entry is McDonald's and the Category is Travel.

With your current settings, there is no match to your MPL because McDonalds does not match McDonald's, so it uses McDonalds for the Payee and sets the Category to Food & Dining:Fast Food.

If you change the MPL so the Payee is McDonalds (without the apostrophe) it will use your MPL entry and set the Category to Travel.

Or if you enable your Renaming Rules and set up a rule to change MCDONALDS to McDonald's, it will use your existing MPL entry.

JayLo · Answer

Changes to the register have been manually changed and they remain as entered and are correct

When a change is made to the MPL the change remains, no issues with the MPL reflecting the right info.

The issue is with the newly downloaded transactions. When checking the renaming rules, no boxes are checked.  See attached screen shot

Also, you referred to "entered" transactions. My definition of entered is accepting the transaction with the suggested payee and category. Once accepted I would consider the transaction entered. I was wondering if downloading new transactions would have a different effect.

renaming rules Quicken.JPG

Jim_Harman · Answer

Changing an entry in the Memorized Payee List (MPL) does not affect transactions that have already been entered in your register. To change existing transactions, go to Edit > Find/Replace and find the Payee you want to fix. Then in the Replace section at the bottom, select Category and set the new Category.

Always back up your data before making bulk changes There is no Undo.

Or if the issue is with the MPL, when does the old Category reappear? Does it change as expected in the (MPL) or is it stuck on the old Category?

If the Memorized Payee list is OK, is the wrong Category applied when you download new transactions? If that is the issue, perhaps there is an issue with the Renaming Rule that maps the downloaded Payee to the entry in the MPL. Or if you go to Edit > Preferences >Downloaded transactions, perhaps the Use my existing renaming rules box is not checked.