Bill Reminder Estimate "Time of year" feature can't find matching transactions

Question

In my credit card reminders when I use "Estimate amount for me" and try to select "Time of year" I get the error "Quicken can't find a matching transaction at this time last year…". A few cards I can do this for but not most of them. The cards I really want to use it for I have had for over a decade and have been actively using them in Quicken the entire time. I have a bill reminder set for everything and enter payment using those bill reminders diligently. What is it that could be causing this disconnect?

Scott Lindner · Answer

These details help. I suspect the issue is that not only do I pay off my credit card every month but also I pay it off promptly so the reminder date which I have set as the due date is much further away than the payment date.

The CC balance is a horrible solution for cash flow projection against normal spending habits. I put everything possible on my cards. Over $100,000/yr (no lie). Some months are over $20k and others under $2k. The trends are very predictable to include all insurance policies, youth sports such as hockey which runs over $20k annually. Right now I just do a fixed but that feels about right but this could be far more realistic if the Time of Year worked.

I would also consider the average over n months if it would go up to a year but it only goes up to 6 months so it really isn't very useful since everyone hits it hard for the holidays which happens once every 12 months as a great example.

Thank you for the response. It is helping me understand why it isn't working.

UKR · Answer

IIRC, Time of Year expects the transaction from last year to be within something like +/- 14 days, to be within the same checking account as last year and to use the exact same Payee Name. This isn't documented anywhere that I could find …

Are you paying off your credit card in full every month?

If so, using "Current credit card balance" might be better.

Otherwise you can try "Previous xx payments" with xx in the range of 3 to 12. [correction: the max range appears to be 6]