QMac doesn't execute QuickFill rule on download

t34hansen

I have a bunch of 'Renaming + associated QuickFill' rules… many of them work as intended (i.e. payee XYZ gets renamed to ABC and now the correct category & tag for payee ABC gets assigned). Unfortunately, I have some Quickfill rules that do not execute on DOWNLOAD (works fine when I input a transaction). I have to manually click the payee field for those transactions and then pick the QuickFill rule that has the correct category & tag. What is the issue here? How do I debug & fix it?

jacobs

Without seeing it, it's hard to guess. I would make sure the Payee is truly identically named — even going so far as to rename a Payee to itself to name sure it's exactly right. (e.g. "If Statement Payee name contains "McDonald's" Set Payee name to "McDonald's"). Sometimes there are different types of space or apostrophe characters which might look right but aren't an exact match.

t34hansen

Thanks for your input @jacobs… I'm pretty sure the payee is correct (incl all characters not displayed) for multiple reasons. One major reason being that I added the QuickFill rule by finding the payee in the 'Payees & Rules' window then I clicked Add in the QuickFill column so the payee field is filled out by Quicken (I have been redoing a bunch of QuickFill for the exact reason you are alluding to). I understand it is hard to say w/o seeing. Any other ideas how to debug this would be greatly appreciated…

jacobs

You addressed making sure the QuickFill rule uses the intended Payee, but what we don't know is if the downloaded Payee name is identical to the existing Payee in Quicken which you're using for the QuickFile rule.

Maybe try this to debug: create the Renaming rule to change the name to something that would clearly indicate it had been renamed. So:

If Statement Payee name contains "McDonald's" Set Payee name to "McDonald's (renamed)"

…or "McDonald's XXX" or whatever you want. Then set your QuickFill rule for the Payee called "McDonald's (renamed)".

This way, the next time the Payee has a transaction which downloads you'll be able to conclusively see if Quicken is renaming it per your rule, and if the QuickFill rule for that Payee is or isn't being applied. You can always change the Payee name back to what it should be after a few successful downloads.

t34hansen

» You addressed making sure the QuickFill rule uses the intended Payee, but what we don't know is if the downloaded Payee name is identical to the existing Payee in Quicken which you're using for the QuickFile rule.

Oh… I left out an important detail here (sorry)… I should have mentioned that the renaming rule runs on download, i.e. renaming the payee from XYZ → ABC does happen but the assignment of category and tag do not. And, yes, my payee names are quit different from the downloaded statement names so I'm pretty sure that part works.

t34hansen

Also… when I click in the payee field (w/o changing anything) and use the arrow down (to the QuickFill rule that has category & tag… usually, the 2nd entry after the bare payee name proposal), press enter then the transaction gets tagged/categories as intended. Another reason I believe my payee is correct…

RickO

I pre-enter most everything, so I don't have much experience with rules applied to downloads, but here's a thought: what if you make the QuickFill Rule based on the payee name as it is downloaded, rather than the one it's changed to by the Renaming Rule?

t34hansen

Thanks @RickO but I don't think that will work… the downloaded names are all over the map (varies from store to store of the same chain and depends on what credit card you used etc). Renaming allows you to unify the payee name for a particular chain/store , eg. the payee "Trader Joe's" is exactly that irrespective of what TJ store you went and what credit card you used (if you rename it and if you didn't rename it you would need a QuickFill rule for each slightly different instance of the payee).