Kind of starting over--advice needed; AND Payees combination

tarik2nu

Hello out there.

I am trying to figure out the best way to do the following:

Keep present data. (I know I can do a Backup for that.)

Then, go back and start over as of approximately 10/1/24.

I want to keep all the downloaded data (from online banking) starting at 10/1/24 and I will need to adjust some categories. I want to slim down my categories and Payees and work on some actually usable data (dropping everything before 10/1) with as little "extra" data (things I don't need to keep—like some Payees) as needed. I can figure this part out.

I guess my question is… If I delete all transactions before 10/1/24, will I ever be able to pull downloaded data if I need to restore my Backup? (For example: If I want to combine my "new" setup and the old (because the new does not work out), will my Backup restoral "redownload" my transactions that don't appear from the backup, after 10/1/24 up do the date that I would be doing the combination… as an example, December xx, 2024

I'm not planning on combining the data, but want that option IF it is possible.

I was thinking out loud, so I hope this makes some sense to others.

—

AND…

Can I get Quicken to combine, and stop adding new, Payees that may be off by a letter or two? I am getting Payees like:

Amazon food

Amazon delivery

Can't I combine all the Amazon Payees and have them stay that way for new transactions that have any Amazon reference. So, the two above would start to link to the existing Payee I've created of just "Amazon".

Thanks all!

Jon

@tarik2nu To answer the second part of your question, you can do both of those things.

To combine all of your existing Amazon payees into one, open the Payees & Rules window. On the Payees tab, select all the Amazon payees you wish to combine then press the Merge Payees button and type in name you want for the new combined payee:

Next, to stop more Amazon payees from being created go to the Renaming Rules tab and create a rule that any new transaction with the word "Amazon" in the Payee name should use the Payee you just created:

As for the first part of your question, I don't think you can merge data from a backup into an existing Quicken file.

tarik2nu

Thank you!

jacobs

One thing you could consider is starting as of 10/1/24 in a new data file, and keeping your existing data file for historical purposes. The two files then exist independently, and you can switch back and forth as needed. I'll say I'm generally not a fan of having an archival data file like this, because I like having all my history in one place. But depending how significantly you want to revamp your categories and payees, it's an option. But if you stay with one data file, you can now Hide categories you don't want to see in pop-up lists any more (while retaining them for the historical transactions which used them), or merge old categories together or into new ones. And cleaning up Payees has already been addressed perfectly by @Jon.

tarik2nu

Once again, good comments and thoughts.

I appreciate your continued help.