How can I create End Of Year backup and reset register to new year (Q Mac)

Question

Up until 2020 (when Quicken fundimentally changed), I could do an EOY save that would save all the cleared register transactions from 1/1/(last year) to 12/31/(last year) and clear all of those from the active register which I could rename (Current year) i.e. End of Year 2024 - 1/1/2024 to 12/31/2024, Active register 1/1/2025 renamed 2025 with only 2025 transactions and uncleared previous transactions from pre 2025.

Since January 2020 I have no longer been able to do this and every time I've contacted Quicken support they have been less than helpful.  I don't like having 4 years of trans actions in one register file without making yearly backups.

It is beyond comprehension why this functionality was removed and why any requests on how to do it with current versions are basically ignored.  Has anyone found a method that doesn't involve basically redoing the register or doing a restore/rewrite.

I currently run Quicken Classic for Mac, 8.0.1. MacOS 15.1.1on a M1 Mac.

jacobs · Answer

@SSTOUT49@OUTLOOK.COM  When the modern Quicken Mac was first created a decade ago, and it was lacking this feature, I believe we gained some insight that the developers — who had hundreds and hundreds of features yet to implement — viewed this as something most users were asking for because "I've always done it that way" as opposed to something they functionaly needed. The new SQL database under the hood of the new Quicken Mac made the amount of data in the file mostly irrelevant compared to the old databases in the legacy Quicken Mac 2007 and Quicken Windows.

Since then, users have continued to ask for this functionality, and I think have presented some very legitimate use cases for purging some old data. What we don't know is whether the current development and management team is actually averse to implementing such a feature, or if they have just prioritized over features as more pressing needs. I would guess the latter, and I'd further guess this will eventually get built. But there are still lots of important features the developers have marked as "Planned" which will likely be implemented over the next year or two which will probably come before this one.

We all use Quicken differently, so while this may be a top feature wish for you, for others it is unimportant — and their top features may be things you don't really care about. Until the developers have fewer big feature requests, it will always be like this: they will always have to make judgment decisions about which features are more needed or more beneficial for the largest number of users. And however they order the priorities, they will end up pleasing some users and disappointing others.

SSTOUT4 · Answer

I am one of the users who do not wish to clog up my computer with data beyond the current year and 7 years previous! So why is Quicken so adverse to coming up with a way to do this efficiently instead of making its users do it manually, spending hours if not days or weeks in order to clean it all up????

jacobs · Answer

From my perspective - little to do with performance, and everything to do with risk management. The IRS requires taxpayers to keep 7 years of data for audits - however, if you have more, they will happily audit more; so, it is in a tax payers best interest to only keep 7 years of financial data.

Actually, according to IRS, you generally only need to keep records for 3 years from the date you filed your original return (or 2 years from the date you paid the tax, whichever is later) for IRS audit purposes. You only need to keep up to 7 years of data if you file a claim for a loss from worthless securities or bad debt deduction, or if you do not report income that you should report, and it is more than 25% of the gross income shown on your return.

In any case, in the event of a detailed IRS audit (which seems increasingly unlikely as employees are slashed), you always control what documents you share with IRS. They will not come into your home and access your Quicken file to look back into the past! 😉 An IRS audit would specify what time periods and data they want to look at. The only time they would request to look further into the past would be if they find proof of false information on your returns indicating taxpayer fraud.

Bottom line: unless you're committing tax fraud, or not filing tax returns, there is no increased risk of maintaining a Quicken data file with decades of data.

That said, this functionality would help users in certain cases, so I do believe it should be built.