This discussion was created from comments split from: Two versions of Quicken on one laptop [Edited].
Is it possible to have one file for US based accounts and one file for CA accounts?
I think this question should be posted on its own thread because it isn't actually the same as what is being discussed in this thread. I'm going to flag the moderators to move it to its own question thread.
Hello @Badger51,
Thank you for reaching out! To answer your question, yes, you can create separate files to manage different accounts. Are you subscribed to the US version of Quicken, the Canadian version of Quicken, or both? Are you having trouble setting it up? If so, what specific problems are you encountering?
I look forward to your reply!
The first thing to be aware of is that Quicken Windows US and Quicken Windows Canada are different subscriptions. You have to have both to create/open them.
At one point, because I did beta testing of Quicken Windows Canada while I already was using Quicken Windows US. So, my Quicken Id got associated with both. When I would go to create a new data file it would ask me if I wanted to create the US or Canadian data file.
I could never really fully check it out because I have no real Canadian accounts, but it seemed to work. At one time the tax information was wrong between the two but some years ago they changed that.
BUT, and this big thing. Even though most of this seems to work and the two have different release cycles and versions. And as such I wouldn't take for granted that I could just say install Quicken Windows US and keep it up to date and also open the Canadian data file on the same machine and everything would work right. It might, but I'm sure this isn't a "supported configuration". Instead, I think it would be recommended to install the two different versions of Quicken on two different machines or in a virtual machine to keep them separated.
I have the US version. Some years ago, I was told I couldn't have two versions of Quicken on the same Windows computer. I did try running Quicken Canada with a virtual WIndows machine, but it was a bit complicated.
I've used Quicken for years but am now living in Canada, with both US and Canadian bank accounts.
I may try adding a file in my US quicken and experiment a bit. I wonder if I would have problems downloading from Canadian institutions.
I'm currently using another personal finance program for my Canadian accounts, but using two different programs is a bit frustrating, at times.
Thank you for your reply,
If you are using just the US version, you would most likely need to track most of your Canadian accounts manually.
The Canadian subscription would add support for more Canadian financial institutions. If there are specific financial institutions you want to check, I recommend posting in the Community to ask about other customers' experiences. Based on discussions I've seen, it appears that many of our Canadian customers primarily use QFX/Web Connect to update their accounts.
I have both US and Canadian Quicken subscriptions, and I run both on my work computer. It doesn't seem to cause any problems, but I don't have any Canadian accounts to test with.
I hope this helps!
It has definitely got better than it was a number of years ago. In the past things like the tax line data was loaded in the same folders and as such there was no way it was going to work for those features for both at the same time.
But a few years ago, Quicken Inc merged the two better and now that kind of information is installed for both no matter whether you installed the US or the Canadian version, like this:
That is the folder were the files that purely Canadian are stored.
So, now it is the subscription that really determines whether it is US or Canadian when you create the data file, and then after that it is dependent on the data file "type".
This also means that that the "data type" determines which list of financial institutions you are going to get. In this area they work the same except for the fact that they look at two different lists.
For the US:
For Canada:
Like @Quicken Kristina I have never had any Canadian accounts to test with, but there really isn't any difference except for the list of financial institutions.
What you can't do is have one data file that will be able to access both US and Canadian accounts. It would have to be in separate data files.
At one time there was an idea for allowing to download from both countries no matter which version/data file you had that I thought was even in the "planned" stage, but I can't find it and it hasn't been implemented yet. Quicken Mac can download from both but not Quicken Windows.
I should also point out that the Canadian financial institutions that support Quicken is very limited. And the only thing they support is Web Connect (import QFX file) or Express Web Connect (very limited ones do this and some have had problems that don't get fixed for years). No Express Web Connect + support and I pretty sure not Direct Connect either.
Quicken Windows Canadian has the best multiple currency support of all of the version though but is definitely gets far less support than the US version.
You should probably check out the Windows Canadian section on this forum:
