Rename Category based on downloaded memo field
Much thanks in advance!
When Quicken downloads a credit card transaction, I would like it to auto categorize it based on what is downloaded in the memo field. Is that possible?
Answers
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Not all credit cards provide useful information in the downloaded Memo, but if yours does, you should be able to create a Renaming Rule that uses the information in the memo field to standardize the Payee name and then memorize the Payee to provide your desired Category.
Here are the factors and settings that control how a downloaded transaction is matched to an existing transaction (if any) and automatically renamed, categorized, and tagged. This may be more information than you wanted, but here goes:
If an uncleared transaction is already in your register for the same amount and within 15 days before and 1 day after the downloaded transaction, Quicken declares a Match and retains the Category and Tag information that is in the register. This could be a manually entered transaction or a Reminder you have accepted. It is important to review each transaction to make sure the match is correct. If you have another transaction for the same amount and close to the downloaded date, the match may be incorrect.
If no matching transaction is found, the next step is to standardize the Payee name using your Renaming Rules, so that for example Starbucks is always Starbucks, not STARBUCKS #12345 or whatever was downloaded.
When applying Renaming rules, Quicken looks at both the downloaded Payee and Memo (if any).
If none of your Renaming Rules applies, Quicken can try to automatically rename the Payee, This is enabled by the settings in Edit > Preferences > Downloaded transactions. The automatic renaming works pretty well, but it sometimes makes mistakes.
If the Payee after any renaming is found in your Memorized Payee List, the memorized Category and Tag information is applied.
If the Payee is not found in the MPL and “Automatically categorize transactions” is enabled in Edit > Preferences > Downloaded transactions and Quicken recognizes the Payee in its built-in list after automatic renaming, it will use the Payee name to assign one of its built-in Categories unless you have deleted that Category. If you have renamed the built-in Category, it will use the name you have assigned.
The automatic categorization is not foolproof. For example, it categorizes Christmas cards purchased through Unicef Market as Groceries.
I review each downloaded transaction and make any needed corrections before accepting it. Thus the only transactions that appear in the register are ones I have already reviewed and there is no need to tag the ones that have been reviewed.
If you auto-accept transactions, it puts a blue dot next to the ones you have not reviewed. I do not use this.
"Contains" in Renaming rules refers to words (technically “tokens”) separated by white space or punctuation and in the given order, not substrings. So for example, Contains Home Depot will not match to HOMEDEPOT or DEPOT HOME SUPPLIES.
=====================I hope you find this useful. If you provide an example of the downloaded Payee and Memo and the Category you would like to assign, we should be able to provide a solution you can use as an example for other transactions.
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If you want Quicken to trigger a renaming rule based on the memo you need to make sure it is set to "if payee contains" instead of the default "if the Quicken name is":
Even though it says "payee" it looks in both the payee and the memo fields.
If you select the ? icon on the Renaming Rules dialog (Tools → Renaming Rules) it will give the help on this:
Once you get it renaming the payee correctly then that can flow into your Memorized Payee list that will do the actual categorizing based on the payee's name matching one in the Memorized Payee list.
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Thank you Jim and Chris. In following both of your wonderfully detailed descriptions, I still can't find where to auto-categorize based on the memo field. I've tried to do it through the renaming rules, but that only auto renames the payee. That's not an option because then I can't see the real payee.
Maybe I'm being confusing with my question so I'll try to be a little more specific.
Three additional credit card users who have their fractional account number that downloads in the memo field.
Person A - Bob: XXX055
Person B - Jennifer: XXX089
Person C - Tim: XXX12
I'm trying to get the transaction to auto input their name in the category based on their account number in the memo field. I also want to keep the real payee in that transaction.
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but that only auto renames the payee
But that is exactly what you want, to rename the payee based on the memo. Look at my post, and the part of the help I outlined. You need three renaming rules: Bob, Jennifer, and Tim, each using "Payee contains".
After that, you will need three Memorized Payees one for each person and what category you would like for that person. BTW you might want to consider using different tags for different people.
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Actually it is not quite that simple, because the Bob, Jennifer, and Tim are not the Payees, they are the cardholders. The Payees are the places where they bought stuff.
If you want to divide up the credit card bill by user, one way to do it would be to run a Spending report, Itemized Categories for example, and on the Categories customization tab enter XXX055 under Memo Contains. This will capture all of Bob's expenses, assuming you did not edit the Memo field when you accepted the transactions.
Unfortunately none of Quicken's reports will subtotal by Memo, so you would need a separate report for each cardholder.
Another alternative would be to run a Banking Transaction report including the Memo field, export it to Excel and subtotal there.
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Oh, I see, that I didn't really follow what was being requested. Yeah, you can't have it both ways with just using renaming rules.
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Thank you again, but I don't want to run any report. I just want quicken to assign the category "Bob" when the memo is Bob's credit card account number xxxx055 after the transaction is downloaded (before I accept it).
I'm thinking at this point that it can not be done…
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Then what I suggested should work. It is two steps. A renaming rule that uses " Payee Contains" to rename the payee to something unique like "Bob" and then use a Memorized Payee of "Bob" with the category set to Bob. But note if your goal is to leave the original Payee name unchanged and only get the category to be changed to "Bob", that can't be done.
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If you enter this as you described, you will be tracking what Bob, Jennifer, and Tim's total charges were on the cards, but not where they spent the money or what it was for. If that is all you want, then fine.
For reference, another way to do this without losing the transaction details would be to use 3 Find and Replace operations after accepting and Categorizing the transactions. You would only need to do this when you want to split up the charges.
You would find all the transactions with XXX055 in the Memo field then replace the Tag with "Bob". Repeat with Jennifer and Tim, then you can use the Itemized Tags or Cash Flow by Tag report to see each person's spending.
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Thanks so much for your help. I'm going to try both of your solutions! You guys ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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