Quicken post dates by one week when I try to send a check

R Bernard

As the heading says, I entered a 'send' transaction today, 7/21/2026, and received a pop-up that says, "It is too late to make a payment to XXXXX by 7/21/2026. The Date will be changed to 7/28/2026." The tech support rep at my bank says they've notified Quicken of this but nothing has been done to correct it. I entered the transaction at my banks website with no problem. What is the point of having Quicken if it won't pay send payment instructions on the date I ask it to?

Boatnmaniac

Which payment method are you using? Quicken Bill Manager's Check Pay or Quick Pay? Or Direct Connect Bank Bill Pay?

With DC Bank Bill Pay many banks (not all) require that the date entered into Quicken is to be the "deliver by" date, not the "send by" date. The bank then determines which payment method is the best they can do:

• For ACH bill payments most banks require a 3 days lead-time which is the default standard amount of time it takes so send the ACH payment, for the Payee to receive it and for it to then post at the bank. So, if you try to set up a payment to be sent on 7/21 you will get a message that they cannot deliver it on 7/21 and the earliest they can deliver it is 7/24 so they change the date accordingly.
• For payments that cannot be made by ACH, the bank will print and mail a check to the payee. Depending on the bank, the standard lead-time for this is 5-7 days (because of the amount of time it takes the USPS to deliver it). So, if you set up a payment to be sent on 7/21 you will get a message that they cannot deliver the check on 7/21 so they will schedule it out by 5-7 days (7 days in your case) because of this.

Again, most banks (not all) want you to enter "deliver by" dates, not "send by" dates. They will calculate the processing date according to the lead time they have established for each type of payment method. And the date that will be entered into the account register in Quicken for the payment is the deliver by date, not the send by date.

It's a different way of thinking about how to do bill pays: Focus on the delivery due date instead of on the send date.

A big advantage of doing it this way: Most of these banks then guarantee that the payment made will not be deducted from your checking account before that scheduled deliver by date.

Here is a Help Article that talks about this a little more: https://info.quicken.com/mac/adding-online-bill-pay-transactions .