Add preferences to prevent closing and deleting accounts

Rocket J Squirrel

Closing and deleting accounts can have bad, irreversible effects in QWin, of which some users may be unaware.

I suggest adding 2 new Preferences, both with default OFF:

• Allow closing accounts
• Allow deleting accounts

If the user tries closing or deleting an account and the preference has not been set to ON, the operation should be refused with an explanatory warning message. Then the user must think about whether they really want to perform that action.

This is not to suggest that the commands to close and delete accounts should be removed or disabled, just that the commands are refused unless the preferences are set to allow them.

Chris_QPW

I'm voting for this, but frankly I feel that if one does either of these, they didn't do it by accident.

For deleting account, you first have to find it, which isn't that obvious since it is in the Account Details dialog, then you have to select Delete Account and then you get this dialog:

For closing an account:

Tools → Manage Hidden Accounts → select Close Account… on the account in question (again not obvious) and then you get this dialog:

Chris_QPW

Note that I feel for the second one, the real fix is allowing reopening of the account. Quicken Mac allows this, and there isn't really anything that Quicken Window's "close" does that the user can't do (and undo), so it isn't like this is really a requirement.

EDIT: I notice that this idea has got the required 50 votes, but has yet been marked as sent to the developers for evaluation:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7881854/you-should-be-able-to-reopen-a-closed-account

Rocket J Squirrel

Understood and agreed. I just thought maybe it should be a little harder to shoot oneself in the foot as @Gary R did here.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20481559#Comment_20481559

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20481593#Comment_20481593

I've occasionally seen others who have moaned that they accidentally deleted or closed an account. There are so many opportunities for people to just blow through a change in a file without really paying attention to what they are doing. It happens quite frequently when adding accounts and not taking the time to properly Link or Add the accounts. So, I'm all for putting in this extra step that forces one to think about what they are doing before they delete or close accounts. Got my vote.

Jim_Harman

Currently, closing is irreversible. It permanently disables downloading and hides the account in transaction entry lists. You can still transfer to or from the account, but you must type in the account name. It also sets the cash balance to zero and for investing accounts, Removes all the current holdings. You can still add, edit, and delete transactions in a closed account.

Closing may be a convenient way of disabling an account, but I see no reason why it needs to be permanent. My preference would be to allow users to re-open closed accounts. I think re-opening should un-hide the account but leave it disconnected and not affect the cash or share balances.