Delete historical payees from dropdown list when choosing payees for a report

wpg 51
wpg 51 Member ✭✭
edited March 6 in Reports

The dropdown list for entering payees into the register is very different from the dropdown payee list that shows up when choosing payees for reports. When I am choosing individual payees for a report, I see payees that haven't been used for years and will probably never be used again. I would like to see a way to delete these old payees to shorten the list. For example, the bank used the full details of e-transfers and internet banking transactions as payees, rather than the renaming rules. Consequently, I have a long list of entries payees will never be duplicated, which means they are unnecessarily added to a list I use all the time. See attached screenshot. I want to delete these and other payees. I would appreciate it so much if you could find a way to make this happen.

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  • UKR
    UKR Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    To clean up your Payee list of unused names, I can only suggest using Edit Menu / Find/Replace to replace all these repetitive payee name variations with a single, distinct Payee Name.

    To use your example: For existing transactions
    - Find Payee contains E-Transfer
    - Review list of all found transactions, select the ones you wish to change
    - Replace Payee with E-Transfer

    Repeat for other, similar Payee Names that would benefit from renaming to a single, distinct Payee Name.

    Consider defining Renaming Rules to rename new transactions as they are being downloaded

    This will clean up and make reports by Payee Name much more meaningful.

    Note: When making changes to many transactions, it is advisable to have or create a backup of your Quicken data file before you begin. Make additional backups after having made a number of changes. If you make an incorrect change that you can't find an easy way to undo or fix, restoring from a recent backup would be a way to recover.

  • UKR
    UKR Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    I forgot to mention that, for as long as a register transaction exists in your Quicken data file, the Payee Name will remain in the selection list … that's so that you can search for and find the transaction again.

  • Don406
    Don406 Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭

    I agree - the payee selection should be the same experience as that used in the register, or at least an option to do so. There should be consistency across the product.

  • UKR
    UKR Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20542667#Comment_20542667

    AFAIK, the Payee Name selection list for new register transactions is a combination of

    • the Memorized Payee List and
    • the All Transaction Register's database index of Payee Names.

    The "cleaner" both areas are with respect to using distinct Payee Names, the better the selection results are going to be. So, a little cleanup of existing transactions' Payee Names and creation of "clean" Payee Names for new transactions will go a long way towards satisfactory results in what the selection lists show.

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