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Things to consider when adding a data file

wrjohnson

I am considering adding another data file for my wife's accounts. I have Quicken Classic Premier. I am looking for advise on "hiccups" that others may have encountered before I get started. For instance: are all data files updated or reconfigured when a software update occurs? I have been using Quicken for many years and have not set up any new accounts recently. When creating a bank account or credit card account and making the 1st down load from the financial Institution, how do you control the balance and transactions that down load? Does it download all transactions or can you designate a starting point for transactions? Any other helpful hints will be appreciated.

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RalphC

Unless you and your wife file totally separate tax returns, I would echo @RickO 's question of why would you want to do this? You can Isolate and track your wife's accounts and transactions in one combined data file making joint tax reporting much easier.

wrjohnson

Thank you for quick responses. My wife and I were only recently married and are both retired. We file standard deduction tax returns. For estate purposes (blended family - we have both been single for quite a long time), we keep assets separate and share household and living expenses. Before my 1st wife passed away, everything was combined and I agree that that is the ideal way to handle things.

Anyway, thanks for answering my questions and I am more comfortable with getting things set up for my wife to have her own data file. Keeping records on Quicken (once she gets familiar with using it) will simplify the way she tracks her finances.

jacobs

@wrjohnson Do you both have completely separate credit card accounts? If you share any accounts, even with different card numbers, the downloads from each financial institution may or may not give you a way to see which transactions belong to which individual. If you have separate accounts, and separate logins, to each financial institution, then there should be no problems.

wrjohnson

Good Point - Thanks

We do share one credit card so I will make sure it is only accessed with one data file.

Boatnmaniac

Each time a data file is updated or converted for a new Quicken version, a pre-update backup is automatically made.

To clarify: The automatic pre-update backup files are a function of the software update, not of the data file. If there are multiple data files being used, the pre-update backup file will occur only with the last data file that was open at the time of the update. The other data files will not be automatically backed up.

So, if you do set up a separate data file for your wife, only 1 of your 2 data files will be automatically backed up when your Quicken version is updated.

The automatic backup file will have the prior version added to the backup file name so it is easier to identify. The following picture is an example of what that would look like. The 1st line is what a routine automatic backup file name might look like. The 2nd line is what a version update automatic backup file might look like….I have shaded in yellow how the prior version has been inserted into the backup file name.:

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20447377#Comment_20447377

Dang! I did it, again! Sorry about posting the QWin info into a QMac thread. Thanks for catching this and providing the correct QMac info.

I am a bit surprised to see that QMac does not add the version info to the pre-update backup file name, though. There are enough QWin version updates that there can be multiple pre-update backup files in the Automatic Backup files location since these pre-update backup files do not automatically get removed at some point. So, if you do not manually delete older pre-update backup files they will remain in that backup file location forever. That makes the version number being added to the pre-update backup files a really good and important thing.

So, in QMac, are the pre-update backup files automatically deleted after a period of time or do they simply get overwritten the next time there is a version update? Or am I misunderstanding something here?

Boatnmaniac

Yes, QWin has a lot more version updates than does QMac. It's not unusual to have 3-4 version updates (sometimes less, sometimes even more) in a month. Easily identifying earlier version QWin data files can sometimes be really important. I'm glad to hear that this is not so much of an issue for QMac users.

retird

Interesting conversation…. I use Quicken for Windows but also pondered years ago whether one data file or two. Decided to have just 1 data file.

Me and the wife have many joint accounts and also many individual accounts. Long story short they are identified and sorted on the home page. We can easily see which accounts are joint, mine, or hers. She doesn't do computer financial software so she likes that it ALL gets done. One Step Update downloads all accounts.

That has worked just fine for years and in the last 2 years life events made it necessary to add many more individual accounts for me and the wife.

If you are comfortable and leaning toward setting up 2 data files that will work. I would recommend any joint accounts/cards should be in both data files.

I didn't see where you said if you had a joint household account where each of you put money there to "pay the bills".

Also if 2 data files are made using the same computer it might be beneficial to backup the data files to different folders. One folder for each data file.