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Edit transactions window Transfer pre-checked

JoeyMaggard

Is there any setting to change this behavior? When I want to change something in the memo field of multiple transactions, the Transfers box is pre-checked. So if I am not paying attention and just hit Enter, the transfer info is deleted. I feel like the user should be in control of which fields are changed, but I can't seem to find any setting for this.

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Add/Edit Transactions

Mac

Comments

Quicken Laura

Hi @JoeyMaggard,

Thank you for sharing what you're experiencing.

I tested this behavior on my end and noticed that the Transfer to checkbox is selected only when you are modifying the Category of a transfer transaction. If you select multiple transactions and then go to Transactions > Edit Transactions, the Transaction Info window opens with no options preselected. For example, if you choose to edit the Memo/Notes, only that checkbox is selected. However, if you edit the Category, the corresponding transfer is updated as well, so the Transfer to option is selected.

Could you please share the exact steps you use to reproduce this behavior? That will help me better understand what you're seeing and compare it with my testing.

I look forward to your response.

JoeyMaggard

I just tried a few different things to isolate the problem. It only seems to happen when I edit multiple transactions that ARE transfers AND have the same category. The box is checked when the window opens. It doesn't matter which field I edit.

JoeyMaggard

Sorry, Accidentally posted twice. No delete post option so I edited it.

Quicken Laura

Thank you for letting me know what you found.

Could you please confirm whether this is happening with all of your accounts or only with certain accounts?

Also, when did you first notice this behavior? Has it always worked this way, or did the issue begin recently?

jacobs

We've been told in the past that Quicken shouldn't support a category and a transfer on the same transaction. In the rules of accounting, a transaction is either income/expense or a movement of funds between asset or liability accounts, and cannot be both. Several years ago, the product manager said they were going to remove the capability to assign a category to a transfer, but for some reason, the developers have not yet taken this step. And there can be unexpected consequences from putting a category on a transfer transaction. My suggestion is to not do so — and the problem you described above wi go away.

JoeyMaggard

@Quicken Laura Not sure about ALL of my accounts, but it has happened in multiple accounts.

@jacobs Thanks for the perspective. Nobody ever told me that. Quicken never put up a warning or anything. I have been categorizing credit card payments as credit card payments for over twenty years. I just wanted to batch change something in the notes field and it deleted all the transfers for a given account. It was too late to Undo by the time I noticed my checking account was all out of whack. Quicken lets me put categories in, so they shouldn't arbitrarily delete the transfer. What is the "correct" way to keep track of credit card payments? And will there be a way without categories to get a report of credit card payments? If I have to go back to 1997 and change literally thousands of CC payments, will that cause more unexpected Quicken behavior?

PS: Reading this back, it looks a little more snarky than I intended. Not throwing shade, just honestly would like to find a way that works. It looks like if I delete the category field, Quicken replaces it with the transfer account name. Will that also cause unexpected consequences or do I need to leave the field blank?

jacobs

And will there be a way without categories to get a report of credit card payments? If I have to go back to 1997 and change literally thousands of CC payments, will that cause more unexpected Quicken behavior?

My guess, and it's only a guess, is that the reason they haven't implemented the change to prevent categories on transfer transaction is because they'd need a smooth, automated solution for all of that type of transactions which already exist in users' files — and that's probably not easy to design and program.

Here's what the former Quicken Mac product manager said about categorized transfers back in 2020:

Quicken Mac theoretically does support transfers on categories but we're going to remove that capability in the not too distant future because it's not supported by the Quicken Cloud and Quicken Windows… Our leadership team has decided that categories on transfers violates core accounting principals that our products should be based on and we are slowly removing this functionality from the Mac, but haven't done it yet because we needed to add the advanced transfer, adjustment and cash flow capabilities we just added in 5.13 and 5.14. We're now working on improving Transfer and mortgage payment support in budgets. Once this is complete, we will start the process of removing the ability to add a category to a transfer… This decision was made at the highest levels of our company so it's not going to be revisited.

Well, they didn't follow though on that… yet. Whether they will eventually do it or not is anyone's guess. Maybe it's still on the to-do list, but is a lower priority than adding other features.

What is the "correct" way to keep track of credit card payments?

The "correct" way is to record every credit card transaction in a credit card account. Those individual transactions have the category of the transaction, and the date it occurred. When you pay your credit card bill, it's a simple (un-categorized) transfer from your checking account to your credit card account. It's not an expense; you've already documented the expenses with the individual credit card transactions. It feels like an expense when you pay the credit card bill, but it's a cash flow movement; if you want to see this in your reports or budget, that's why they added the ability to selectively show such transfers in reports and budgets.