Why is Tools | Recategorize Disabled When an Investment Account is Selected?

Question

If I click on one of my Investment accounts and then click on the Tools menu the Recategorize menu item is greyed out (and so cannot be used).

If I click on one of my Banking accounts and then click on the Tools menu the Recategorize menu item is enabled.

If I use the Recategorize menu item to search for a category used in Investment accounts it finds those transactions, and I can replace those categories with others.

So, why make me move over to a banking account to recategorize Investment account transactions?

NotFrankB · Answer

Thanks for the reply, Chris.  I agree transactions in Investment Accounts are quite different from transactions in non-Investment Accounts.

That said, if I open a banking account and then use Tools | Recategorize to look for transactions with 'Category = Invest Exp' I will find transactions that are in Investment Accounts as well as transactions in non-Investment Accounts.

If I then select some of those search results, fill in the Recategorize as box, and click on 'Recategorize all', I can edit those transactions selected - both transactions in Investment Accounts and transactions in non-Investment Accounts.  So, despite their differences, it seems Investment Account transactions with categories can be recategorized - you just have to start from a non-Investment Account.

I'll also observe that some non-Investment Account transactions also do not have categories (transfers between accounts for example, where the category field is used to specify the other account).

Chris_QPW · Answer

That is interesting that is account type sensitive given that recategorizing isn't "account dependent".

Probably some hold over from when it was setup differently.  As for "why investment accounts"?  I would say it is because there are many differences between them and non-investment account on what can and can't be done.

At this point, I think I would just use Help → Report a Problem, to make them aware of the problem.

EDIT:  My mistake, this is "account dependent".  It allows you to select the transactions to work on.  The transactions in and investment account are vastly different than in a non-investment account, including the fact that there are transactions without categories like buy/sell.