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Need to add a new quicken membership (Quicken ID) for my father-in-law

Rex Hays

My 95 father-in-law's wife passed away 6 months ago and I have taken over as Power of Attorney handling all his finances. I have extensive experience with Quicken and use it for myself, a children's camp I volunteer at, and sometimes one of my son's. All have valid licenses (Quicken IDs) with separate emails associated with their respective quicken files. When I took over my father-in-laws finances, I just opened a new file under my license (Quicken ID) and worked it to get about 1.5 years of previous spending imported just to understand his finances. I now want to purchase a separate license for him but don't want to mess up my personal license. I looked at the options and it looks like modifying the file to the new Quicken ID will do both my personal file and my father-in-laws file. Any ideas to keep this from messing up my personal file as I have 25+ years of data and don't want to lose that. Thanks

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Quicken Anja

Hello @Rex Hays,

Thanks for reaching out!

Yes, you can assign a separate Quicken ID to your father-in-law’s file without affecting your personal file. To do this, follow these steps on the specific data file you want to change:

Go to Edit > Preferences > Quicken ID & Cloud Accounts.
Click Sign in as a different user (or it may say Sign in using a different Quicken ID).
Follow the prompts to Sign Out.
Sign back in using the new Quicken ID (your father-in-law’s email and password).

Once signed in, you’ll be prompted to change the owner of that file. This will keep your personal Quicken file and license separate and intact.

Hope this helps!

All comments

Quicken Anja

Hello @Rex Hays,

Thanks for reaching out!

Yes, you can assign a separate Quicken ID to your father-in-law’s file without affecting your personal file. To do this, follow these steps on the specific data file you want to change:

Go to Edit > Preferences > Quicken ID & Cloud Accounts.
Click Sign in as a different user (or it may say Sign in using a different Quicken ID).
Follow the prompts to Sign Out.
Sign back in using the new Quicken ID (your father-in-law’s email and password).

Once signed in, you’ll be prompted to change the owner of that file. This will keep your personal Quicken file and license separate and intact.

Hope this helps!

Chris_QPW

I believe at one point (and maybe still) it was being suggested that you use a "dummy data file" as "in between file". I believe @splasher was suggesting this.

I believe the fear was that since you are logging in and out on your own file, that might accidentally cause a sync to the cloud data file when you don't want it.

The logging in is at the user level, even though it looks from the preferences as a data file option.

So, if you are logging out and in on your data file, there is the potential of it doing a sync at that point.

The idea would be to create a new empty data file. And whenever you need to switch to another Quicken Id, you open that data file, and then log out of one Quicken Id and then log into the other Quicken Id, and then open the data file for the new Quicken Id. That way at no time are you opening the opening a given data file with the "wrong" Quicken Id.

I personally haven't tried this, and I don't currently have two active Quicken Ids that I can test with, but I can see the reason for concern right in @Quicken Anja steps.

#3 you are logging out of your Quicken Id in your account. If taken literally, #4 would have you logging in to your fathers-in-law Quicken Id with your data file. At a minimum you have created a Quicken Cloud dataset for your Quicken Desktop data file in his Quicken cloud account.

At a minimum what I would do is log out of the first Quicken Id and open the other data file, and then log in. I wouldn't want to be logging in to the other Quicken Id in my data file.

The reason for the caution is you need to think of the Quicken Desktop data file and the Quicken Cloud dataset as a pair. And it is the Quicken Id that creates that connection.

The Quicken Cloud dataset holds "online information" like downloaded transactions. It needs to be in sync with the Quicken Desktop data file.

If you switch Quicken Id you are basically "paring" it with a different Quicken Cloud dataset. The first time you do that there isn't any real problem because the Quicken Cloud dataset is empty. But image if you were to switch back and forth downloading transactions under the different Quicken Ids, the two Quicken Cloud data sets can be in different states, and syncing with your data file that only knows the last state that was downloaded.

splasher

@Chris_QPW is correct, I have contended in the past, that the only way to safely work with two (or more) different Quicken Ids in the past is by changing IDs using a dummy data file. Chris explained it better than I probably ever did.

Another option is to run some Virtual Machine software that would give you a completely separate Windows environment to run your father-in-law's copy of Quicken in which will keep the two sets of records completely isolated from each other, basically like having two computers.

@Rex Hays, I second the use of a Virtual Machine (VM) as @splasher mentioned. I have setup multiple of them and use one for testing and the other [also] for my in-laws data file. If you have the "Pro" edition of Windows, it has built-in Hyper-V which allows you to easily create a VM in minutes if you are comfortable with tech.

Rex Hays

I do appreciate the multiple responses. The information provided by Quicken Anja was concise and complete and worked as described. My main concern not was messing up my file when moving the father-in-law file to a newly purchased quicken membership for him. It worked and I only had to re-import a couple bank logins for syncing. I now have access to 4 different accounts, under 4 different emails, all totally separate. It works with the Quicken Windows app, the Web based Quicken Cloud app, and the Android app on my phone.

As far as the VM (Virtual Machine) ideas, it's really overkill. I want to use this tool as is, not develop anything for it. I am retired but do have a BSEE (Bachelor do Science Electrical Engineering) and and MSCS (Master of Science Computer Science) with many years of development in various industries, including Aerospace. I may not have the experience to do the VMs but that is a development project for those with the interest to pursue it. Thanks for trying to come up with an elegant path forward, but it was not the path I was pursuing.

Chris_QPW

Just to be clear, the concern wasn't about the initial setup. It was about the switching back and forth between two (or more Quicken Ids) on the same machine.

And since you are using Sync to Mobile/Web it is easy to see what the concern is.

If you select Edit → Preferences → Quicken ID & Cloud Accounts → Cloud accounts associated with this Quicken ID (x)

This will show you which Quicken Cloud datasets are associated with this Quicken Desktop data file.

Say you are in your Desktop data file with Quicken ID 1, and you log out. Now you log in with Quicken ID 2. You have just created/synced your data file with Quicken ID 2, and that will be visible as shown in the link above.

On the surface this seems like "not a problem" what harm does it do to have a Quicken Cloud dataset in the in Quicken ID 2? But the big problem is that there isn't any documentation or indications of when the two will sync, and it is a bidirectional sync. The Quicken Cloud server that manages the Quicken Cloud dataset isn't passive. It will download transactions from the financial institutions from time to time into the Quicken Cloud dataset.

With your background I think you get the point about having one Quicken Desktop data file that "might" sync with two different copies of the Quicken Cloud dataset.

At a minimum to error on the cautious side, I would log out of a given Quicken Desktop data file/Quicken Id, and then open the other Quicken Desktop data file, and then log in to the Quicken Id that goes with it when switching between the two data files.

And just note, people have reported data file problems just using Sync to Mobile/Web and as such that is why people definitely going to be nervous about any kind of "cross syncing" of two different sets of Quicken Desktop data files and Quicken Cloud datasets.

Rocket J Squirrel

I must be missing something important. Why so much over-thinking? Why a second QID?

When I managed my late MIL's accounts in QWin, I created a QDF file for her and used the same old QID I've used for decades. It worked fine with her simple bank accounts.

Please explain the need for the extra complexity of a 2nd QID.

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20507663#Comment_20507663

Good point, that was never addressed. The only reason I can think of that would require a separate Quicken Id is if the person is using Sync to Mobile/Web and doesn't another person using the same Quicken Id to be able to see their accounts on the Mobile/Web apps.