Still manually entering all my transactions - has automatic downloading improved?

OldTimeUser1

I tried auto-downloads from banks a few times, but it seemed more complicated than old-school manual entries, ie, changing names of inconsistent downloaded names, recategorize properly, duplicates, and correcting download errors. So, I've been entering transactions manually for 30 years. With auto-fill on names and categories, it isn't that much effort - it's more the principle that I'm manually entering in a digital world.

I've read a few recent topics, eg, a discussion on the inability of Mac to hold downloads in a sandbox before I approve adding to my register, and dragging downloads on my manual recurring transactions. And, I noticed a whole lot of discussions on specific download problems.

My simple question, is downloading better now, and worth trying again. (most of my transactions are visa, checks, transfers, and a few stock-related moves). If so, is there an educational thread you could refer me to? Thanks in advance.

John_in_NC

"Improved" is hard to say as you didn't give a reference as to when, issues, etc.

That said, Quicken is continually improving/tweaking algorithms to make the process work better for most users. To the developers credit, I think they have improved the download process. That said, I think you have already made your decision.

I personally manually enter all my transactions and allow the download to "match" what I entered. I find this far faster than setting up/tweaking renaming rules for every possible payee/category, and 2) I don't feel I am living fast and loose by basing my finances solely on cleared transactions. (And that is assuming they got downloaded correctly.) And the download does help me in the rare event I forget to manually enter a transaction.

Do as you like, but I wouldn't fret if you feel comfortable manually entering transactions even with zero connectivity. I wouldn't lose sleep over it, and I am all for tech when appropriate. But, sometimes old school methods are faster and just work.

Edit: My comments are mainly in reference to cash & credit accounts. As far as investment accounts-oh, yes, I definitely prefer the automated downloads for account activity.

jacobs

There are specific issues with financial institutions all the time. Quicken deals with 10,000+ financial institutions and it's inevitable that some of them are making changes every week, often temporarily breaking Quicken connectivity. It's also clear that financial institutions make Quicken connectivity a low priority in their overall scheme of online services and security for customers, which means that some outages last weeks or even months — but most tend to get resolved within a week or two, and even sometimes faster.

If you tried downloading before Quicken Mac had the current Payee renaming rules and QuickFill rules, you might find they can alleviate misnamed Payees and mis-categorize transactions. But as @John_in_NC alluded to, it does take some time to set up the rules for your frequently-used Payees.

I personally still enter transactions manually for the most part. I found that I spent almost as much time cleaning up downloaded transactions as it took me to enter ten manually, although I think if I set up renaming and QuickFill rules well, I might find otherwise nowadays. I largely do it the way I always have due to inertia… it works, so why change? I don't find it useful to enter transactions manually and then download them to match up, as John does. I do monthly reconciliations with every account, and that process doesn't take me long and catches any missed entries or incorrect amounts I may have entered. Downloading transactions is particularly helpful in accounts where you have a lot of activity each month. (Everyone might define "a lot" differently, so I won't put a hard number on it.)

You might want to try it with one account to start with, and see how it goes after a few months. (You need to give yourself a little time to create the renaming and QuickFill rules for them to be effective and cleaning up most of your downloaded transactions.) After that, you can add other accounts… or disconnect and go back to manual entry.

OldTimeUser1

Thanks, I appreciate y'alls comments. Hit the nail on the head. I wonder what percentage of Quicken's 'experienced' users load our transactions manually. It really isn't that hard, keeps me in tune with transactions, helps keep my payees/categories consistent, and probably eases monthly reconciliation. I haven't tried downloading for ten-ish years, so my complaints really are dated. Thanks again.

mmpunch

I very rarely enter manually. I have used Quicken (mostly Quicken Deluxe) for over 35 years. I have Checking, Savings, Credit Cards, and Investments at multiple financial institutions, and auto-download from all of them. I do not have them automatically entered into the registers, so I review and accept them accordingly. That is the best thing about Quicken, not having to manually enter transactions. There are occasional hiccups due to the thousands of institutions, but they typically get corrected within a few days. You can also go to most Financial Institutions and download what is called a QFX file, and then import that into your register(s), but I only use that when the other method(s) are unavailable. I also use Quicken to generate several reports to assist me with preparing my tax returns. Although my header may say that I am a Quicken Mac User, I actually use Quicken on a Windows computer.