Questions from a recent Windows to Mac Quicken convert

ScoutDP

I have used Quicken for Windows for many years and I'm quite familiar with that version. I recently decided to move to a Mac and I'm working on learning that version. Can someone help me with the following:

1. Downloading transactions seems to be different. On Windows the dowloaded transactions went into a queue to be accepted, changed or deleted. On Mac, they seem to just hit the register with a blue dot on the far side of the register. Is there a way to have the interim step before they hit the register or is this just different on the Mac?
2. Do I need to do anything to remove the blue dot on the left side or if things are correct, just leave it?
3. Is there a way to update one account at a time or the only update mechanism is the "update all accounts" button?
4. Are there ways to re-order your accounts on the left side? Windows you could move them up or down and it seems Mac is based on alphabetical order.
5. so far I have added a checking account with connection to BoA. When I manually add a transaction in the future, I don't get a green line indicating that is in the future like I have seen on online videos.

In general, it just seems there was more customization capabilities on the Windows side. For user that have worked with both, I'm curious on your take. Why are they not more similar? Any major advantage to the Mac version? Thanks in advance for your help!

jacobs

Welcome to Quicken Mac. I know it an be a bit jarring with the differences in the User Interface and ways of doing things. Hopefully, after you get used to it for a while, you'll find the more modern UI and database engine equal if not outweigh the capabilities missing from the Windows version. 😉

1. You're correct: there is no separate queue for downloaded transactions. They go directly into the appropriate register, which shows a blue dot in the left sidebar to indicate there are unreviewed transactions. In the register, the blue dot or blue pencils show you which transactions have been downloaded. (Blue pencils denote a downloaded transaction which was auto-matched with a manually-entered transaction; blue dots are other downloaded transactions.) From what I've read, Quicken Windows offers this same process as an option (and default for new users) in addition to the old downloads queue. You might find it helpful to read this post from a longtime Quicken Windows user about why he prefers the automatic mode in Quicken Windows.
2. Whether you remove the blue dot is up to you. You can leave them there forever. But if you want to be able to check your most recent downloaded transaction, then you'll probably want clear the dots after checking your downloads. You can do so in two ways: (a) click a transaction, Control-click (right-click), and on the pop-up menu, select Set Status of Selected Transaction to > Reviewed; (b) click on a transaction and from the main menu, select Transactions > Set Status to > Reviewed. An important note is that you can select multiple transactions and make this change on all of them at once. In Quicken Mac (like most Mac applications), you can select multiple items in two ways: (a) to select a contiguous group of transactions, click the first one, then Shift-click the last one, and everything in between will be selected; (b) to select multiple transactions which aren't contiguous, click the first one and then Command-click on additional transactions to add them to the highlighted transactions.
3. The approach to downloading accounts is a little confusing, but I'm not sure if it's different than Windows, since it deals with how Quicken's connectivity works. On the Accounts menu, you'll see there is a command called "Update Selected Online Account", which suggests you can download only a single account at a time. But here's what this command actually does: if you have selected a Direct Connect account, it will download that account and any other Direct Connect accounts at the same financial institution; if you have selected a Quicken Connect (the equivalent of EWC on Windows) account, it will download all Quicken Connect accounts. There is no way to download a single account, unless you have a single Direct Connect account at a particular financial institution.
4. You cannot do much to change the order of the sidebar. The developers have hinted they may do something about this in the year ahead. Meanwhile, what I and many users do to partially control the order of accounts is to rename accounts with a numerical prefix to control the order:
      1-XYZ Visa
      2-ABC Mastercard
      3-Amex
   This only helps within each of the category groups; there's no way to move your main credit card account to the top of the sidebar above checking accounts.
5. The green line will appear as long as your register is sorted in Date order. Click on the Date heading once or twice (each click will toggle between newest at the top or oldest at the top); you should see the green line separating future-dated transactions. Is your future transaction a regular transaction or a scheduled transaction? If it's scheduled, it will appear in gray and italics — if you have the register set to show future instances of scheduled transactions. You can control how many future scheduled transactions appear in a register by clicking on the little clock icon in the upper right, just below the Search box. The pop-up menu gives you the choice of showing the next instance of each scheduled transaction, or all transactions over the next 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, etc. days. Note that you can set this individually for each account register, so you can have 60 days in your checking account but next instance only in your Visa account.

As for why Quicken Mac and Quicken Windows are not identical, or more similar, well, that's a subject which could take thousands of words to explain. 😂 It's a long and twisted story. Here's the one-paragraph short version...

Quicken for Windows is the culmination of 30+ years of development. Quicken Mac was in a similar state in 2007, when the developers concluded that they couldn't keep adding onto it because changes in the Mac operating system were going to make core parts of the program obsolete. They bit the bullet and decided to start over from scratch. Unfortunately, management at Intuit at that time changed direction and leadership a few times, resulting in a failed first effort that never made it to market (Quicken Financial Life in 2008), then a second effort that made it to market as a very basic, limited version of Quicken (Quicken Essentials in 2010), and near abandonment of Quicken Mac and the development team thereafter. In late 2012, they hired a new product manager, who hired a few developers and steered this tiny team to create what came to market as Quicken 2015 for Mac. It was a major improvement over Quicken Essentials, but fell well short of either the venerable Quicken 2007 for Mac or Quicken Windows. Over the past decade, the Mac development team has slowly grown, and there has been a long string of enhancements to the Mac program. Nonetheless, Quicken is a complex program and development is slow, and the Mac product today still doesn't have all the features of the Windows product or the old Mac product. 

You ask if there's an advantage to the Mac version. I can only answer as someone who has only ever used Quicken on a Mac. One clear advantage is the rock-solid modern SQL database; you've noticed there's nothing like "validate" and "Super validate" in Quicken Mac, because its database doesn't develop the issues the Windows developers have had to deal with. And it's fast even as the size of the database grows, again because of the underlying technology. Another advantage is a younger code base and more modern user interface. That's why, for instance, Quicken Mac implemented dark mode several years ago, while the Windows development team is still working on revamping lots of old screens built with out-of-date code technology.

We all use Quicken differently, so for some people the missing feature in the Mac product are inconsequential or are inconvenient but able to be worked around; for others, one or more missing features makes the Mac product not suited to their needs. The good news is that Quicken management seems committed to continuing to enhance Quicken Mac and adding features users want. The bad news is that the progress is slower than any of us would want.

Hope that helps!

ScoutDP

@jacobs Thank you so much for the well articulated responses above. You went above and beyond and I really appreciate it. You have answered my questions very well. In terms of the auto download, I read through that post you mentioned and it makes sense but my personal use case was a bit different, specifically with my credit card. I liked downloading into a queue and then picking all the items that fell into a certain budget category (like groceries, gas, etc.) as I do my budgeting in a spreadsheet and could easily know where was I at in a given month against budget line items. Probably not the way others do it but has worked for me for 20+ years. All my other accounts the auto download works fine so I'll learn to live with it. I do agree the user interface is better and the best part is I don't have to have Parellels on my new Mac to run the software. I got tired of constantly having to keep a Windows machine updated inside a Mac. Anyway, more than you needed but thanks again for the information. this was great!