convert a bill reminder into a check pay payee

dan5

Hi I am able to create a check pay and new payee from the register. I have a bill I want to pay quarterly, so I try to add the reminder which I am able to do successfully and it shows up in bills and income tabs. Then when I try to edit that reminder by clicking the box allow paying with check pay. It puts up a popup that has the right address, but I cant save or it tells me This payee/accoun number combination is already in use. Then I cant make that reminder a check pay. If I cancel the editing of the payee, then it wont let me check the box either. I could just have it enter it and then I have to remember to enter a new check pay transaction from the register which is dumb. How do I make this work please?

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @dan5,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community with your question, and I appreciate you providing such a clear description of the issue.

What you're running into is a known limitation in how Check Pay handles payee and account number combinations. When a payee with the same name and account number already exists in your Check Pay list, Quicken prevents duplicates—even if you're trying to enable it through a reminder. This can be especially frustrating when you’re just trying to streamline recurring payments like quarterly bills.

As a potential workaround, try this:

1. Go to Tools > Payees and check if that payee already exists with Check Pay enabled.
2. If so, try assigning that payee to your bill reminder before enabling Check Pay.
3. If you're still receiving the “payee/account number already in use” message, you could try slightly modifying the payee name (for example, “Water District” to “Water District Qtrly”) to bypass the duplication restriction.

That said, you're absolutely right—having to manually remember to send the payment from the register defeats the purpose of using reminders efficiently. Because of that, I’d recommend submitting this as an Idea Post so other users can vote and help our product team see the value in making this process more seamless.

You can view our FAQ on creating an idea post for more details.

Hope this helps, and please let me know if you run into any trouble trying the steps above!