Do Paychex accounts have to be added via offline accounts?

Quicken Windows Other Member ✭✭

Paychex was nowhere to be found. However, I do see that Paychex allows you to download transactions in Quicken format.

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Answers

  • Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    What Q product are you actually running? And what BUILD of that product? You can view both via HELP, About Quicken.

    And you can find the Paycheck Wizard via HELP and searching for Paycheck. The Wizard can be used to setup your paycheck in any banking type account … it doesn't need to be either offline or online.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • Quicken Windows Subscription Moderator mod

    Hello @like2count,

    To better assist you with this, please clarify. Is Paychex a financial institution that you're trying to connect to your Quicken file? If it is, please provide the URL that you use when logging into your account(s) directly through the financial institution website, and I can check to see if there are any connection options in Quicken then may work with that financial institution.

    I look forward to your reply!

    Quicken Kristina

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  • Quicken Windows Other Member ✭✭

    Yes, Paychex is our payroll provider that offers a 401(k) platform. It's the Paychex Flex platform. I contacted the 401(k) division, and they are looking into for me. I tried adding my account as a non-linked account by adding the funds from my from my 12/31/24 statement, then downloading the current transactions for January, however, it came out weird. I don't see how I can get accurate information that way, when Quicken doesn't know which fund to apply the transaction to.

  • Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭

    I do see that Paychex allows you to download transactions in Quicken format.

    What format would that be?

    QFX (also called Web Connect) or QIF?

    As you said:

    Paychex was nowhere to be found.

    I don't see Paychex in the official list of financial institutions. Unless it is under a different name Quicken will not be able to connect to it, and even if they generate a QFX file, Quicken will reject importing that.

    A QIF file is the only format that Quicken would allow you to manually import if not on the official supported list.

    Note though if Quicken accepted a QFX import then Paycheck is official supported, but with a different financial institution name. If you edit the QFX file with a text editor and find the INTU.BID number, then that can be used to find the exact entry in the official list (it is the first number on the line in this list) https://ofx-prod-filist.intuit.com/qw2800/data/fidir.txt

    As for this statement:

     I tried adding my account as a non-linked account by adding the funds from my from my 12/31/24 statement, then downloading the current transactions for January, however, it came out weird. I don't see how I can get accurate information that way, when Quicken doesn't know which fund to apply the transaction to.

    If this is a QFX file, then there is a list of the securities in it with their CUSIP numbers, which is what Quicken uses to keep track of securities. If it is a QIF file, Quicken just imports it based on the security name given, and to actually connect it to prices for downloading from the Quicken third-party quote service you would have to go in and edit the security to put in the correct security symbol.

    But another reason, it might be "weird" is because it has no past information. In case of a QFX, import though in that list is how many shares each security has and Quicken should have added a placeholder for any shares that are accounted for in the transactions downloaded. In the case of a QIF file, Quicken wouldn't have any record of the past transactions and it would be up to the user to provide transactions to add shares.

    Also note that if when you setup the offline/manual entry account you told Quicken how many shares of each security you had, it would put in placeholders/add shares for each of them.

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  • Quicken Windows Other Member ✭✭

    The transactions file I downloaded, was a QDF file. My other brokerage accounts downloaded pretty well, with placeholders that I filled in. All of my bank accounts downloaded fine. I think I'm just going to have to figure it out. I really want my 401(k) on Quicken though. Maybe I can try Empower/Personal Capital to track it. Maybe even Yahoo Finance will do it. On another note… I used Quicken when it first came out, until 2014 when it starting requiring you to register and other hoops to jump through. If you were familiar with the old register layout, is there any way to get back to that?

  • Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭

    It couldn't be a QDF file. The QDF file is the file format that is the "Quicken Data File". It is what hold all of your Quicken information. Most likely it was a Quicken Web Connect/QFX file. Another way to see what the financial institution name used for the import is after you have imported it is to right click on the account name in the Account bar on the left and selected Edit/Delete account, the Financial institution name will appear on the Account Details/General tab. Knowing what financial institution this is can help if finding a solution to the other problems.

    You will need to give more details on what seems to be wrong with the import for anyone to help you on that.

    As for the format of the investment register. I suspect that you are in the "Simple investment mode", it might be the default for new users. If you use the same instructions, I gave above to get to the Account details, at the bottom of that dialog you will see an option to switch to the Complete - Positions and Transactions, which should be what you are expecting. It is also probably what will allow you to see what went wrong with the import since you will be able to see each transaction that was imported.

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  • Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    @like2count, is Paychex an actual bank/financial-institution, or just a payroll processing company? Only Financial institutions can offer download into Q.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 3

    @like2count - I suspect that the file you downloaded that did not work was for QuickBooks, not for Quicken…two totally different programs for different markets and applications from two different companies. QuickBooks is supported by PayChex but Quicken is not. The file extensions look somewhat similar but they are different and the downloaded files are not cross-compatible.

    It's been a few years for me (I retired from a company that used Paychex) and back then Paychex did not support Quicken at all. From what I am seeing on the Paychex website now it appears that they still do not support Quicken.

    For the payroll side of the company that really isn't an issue because they are not a bank and the payroll data would be added to Quicken via a Paycheck Reminder which is entered into the checking account each pay period and then when the bank would download the paycheck deposit to the checking account Quicken would match it to the Paycheck Reminder.

    But Paychex is also a 401(k) plan manager. Back then their lack of support for Quicken meant that I needed to manually download the 401(k) transactions and pricing data in QIF formatted files (at least I think it was in QIF format). Then I needed to modify the QIF file in Notepad so that it could be imported into Quicken. I don't remember exactly how I did that but I've been told that particular file modification process I used back then can no longer be used with Quicken.

    @Chris_QPW - Do your think ImportQIF might work if the 401(k) data can be downloaded in QIF, OFX, Excel or CSV file formats?

    Quicken Classic Premier (US) Subscription: R61.16 on Windows 11 Home

  • Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭

    The "simple answer is" yes, but for Excel and CSV format that conversion much more complicated and the user will have to "work harder" to provide the right information the conversion.

    If the data is in QIF format, there isn't anything special needed. Quicken Subscription removed the restriction of what accounts that a QIF file can be imported into. With that being said, they gave that and took away several things like the ability to match existing transactions. I have a full write up of this here:

    How Quicken Processes Imported Transactions - QuicknPerlWiz

    So, it isn't ideal but certainly works and it is one of the two possible formats that Quicken will accept and ImportQIF will generate, QFX being the other. ImportQIF will not do a conversion between QIF and QFX, but it will do it for the other formats. OFX would be the easiest since that doesn't require the user to tell it what the input format is.

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