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Isolate downloaded transactions, edit them, then import

Steve_in_NC

Hello. I'm running Quicken for Windows, R67.10. I've been using Quicken in the simplest possible way (really just checking and savings registers) for something like 30 years, all with manual entry, one transaction at a time.

I've never downloaded directly from the bank into my registers, because the categories aren't the ones I use, I don't have faith in the bank not making errors, etc. But I didn't think about the possibility of downloading transactions to some intermediate stage, then reviewing and editing them (payee, category, memo) and when I have them the way I want, importing from that intermediate stage into my registers. I think I've read that this should be possible now.

So that's what these questions are about: Quicken Help doesn't seem to be clear about downloading without immediate, automatic import into the register. What specific settings do I use to prevent that automatic import? Do I drive the download from Quicken or the bank? Does Quicken automatically download transactions each time I launch it? (And how do I stop that from happening?) What do I use to edit the transactions in this intermediate stage?

I'm ready to take small steps toward downloading data, but I just want to know how it's going to work before I do it.

Thank you all for your advice and guidance,

Steve

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Comments

Jim_Harman

To review downloaded transactions before accepting them, go to Edit > Preferences > Downloaded transactions and un-check the "Automatically add to banking registers" and "Automatically add to investment transaction lists" boxes. Then newly downloaded transactions will got to an area at the bottom of the register, where you can select them one at a time, review the proposed transaction in the register, and make any changes before accepting it.

If you don't like the Categories that Quicken automatically assigns, un-check "Automatically categorize transactions" on the Downloaded transactions preferences.

You will want to use Renaming rules to convert the sometimes messy downloaded payees to a standard form and the Memorized Payee List to assign the Categories you want.

NotACPA

Except for investment distributions, I manually input virtually all of my transactions as soon as possible after they happen.

I also download into these accounts.

By manually inputting I get the categories (and splits) that I want, and by downloading I get confirmation that I got the amounts correct and didn't miss anything.

Some years ago I was on a business trip and I had a laptop (and Q) with me. A charge came in from a local hotel that I wasn't expecting. I called my wife and she admitted that she'd lost her credit card at a gas station. I contacted the bank, who realized that there was a 2nd charge from the same hotel pending … along with charges from stores on the far side of town where we never shopped.

But because of that 2nd hotel charge, the cops knew where the crooks were going to be an arrested them.

Jim_Harman

I don't generally enter credit card charges in advance, but I download transactions from all my accounts several times per week.

A couple of times I have seen unexpected charges, and like @NotACPA I was able to notify the credit card company right away.

Chris_QPW

You seem to have a misconception about how this works.

The financial institution never sends the category.

It is up to the Quicken/user to do that.

One way would be to enter all transactions before downloading and then Quicken would just be matching your transactions to what you have already entered. Sort of redundant to me, but others like the download as "check", and possibly getting unexpected charges "visible" sooner.

Personally, I have my account setup at Chase so that I get an email for every transaction in my accounts, so that is my "heads up".

I will assume you know about memorized payees, since their original purpose was to make manual entry of transactions easier. The way that works is you start entering the Payee and then you can select the memorized payee that has the category (and maybe amount/tag) you want and Quicken fills it in.

For downloaded transactions Quicken leverages a similar flow.

One extra part is the payee renaming rules. Payee names might come down like "Safeway #4343". The renaming rules let you rename a payee like to say "Safeway" and therefore one memorized payee entry of "Safeway" will be matched and used. The one thing to be aware of is with manual entry it pretty easy to see how you pick between different "Safeway" entries that might have different categories, amounts and such. If one wants the most automatic it is generally best to only have one entry per memorized payee so that there is no question of which one will be picked automatically.

You run "One Step Update" (Tools → One Step Update, or one of the buttons or Ctrl+1) to start the downloading of transactions flow. After the actual downloading the flow goes something like this. If there is a payee renaming rule, do that first. Next if there is an existing transaction that matches (mostly based on the amount, but it takes some hints from the payee's name and date) it merges the downloaded transaction with the existing transaction in the register, basically in this case that means marking it cleared. Note that this step is a bit different between if you have "Automatically add to banking registers" on or not. If on, it does the full flow without asking and you are expected to review the transactions in the register that are marked New or New Match. If you have that option off, then the transactions go to a tab at the bottom of the register called Downloaded Transactions. And with that you click on each transaction, and it shows it in the register, and then you can change it as needed or select Enter to officially enter it into the register. It will show which ones match existing ones first in the Downloaded Transactions tab.

If there isn't a match to an existing transaction, then this when the memorized payee list will be checked and used if there is a match.

If there isn't a match this is when Quicken will try to guess if you have this option on:

Note also the "Automatically apply Quicken's suggested name to payee". In general, this usually means the same kind of clean up that one might do with the renaming rules. Renaming rules come first though. If you have one that matches that will be used not Quicken's guess.

One gotcha is going to be when you setup the account to do the downloading for the first time.

Tools → Add Account (near the end of the setup it will allow you to connect to an existing account)

The gotcha is that on the first download you probably will get duplicate transactions. My suggestion for handling that is to reconcile all the transactions in the account. Then when you download the transactions, any duplicates will have the "c" in the Clr column, and they can be easily found and deleted.

Steve_in_NC

Awesome information. Thanks go to all -