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A Simple Solution To Accurate Categorization [Edited]

barrymcdon

Payee data is getting longer all the time, but Quicken appears to examine only the first 15-20 characters. Yet I find that when I right click on a payee and select 'Review Downloaded Payee,' there is almost always enough information to select the right category.

If Quicken would examine, say the first 36 or more characters, it'd make we user's job a lot easier.

Thanks, Barry McDonnell, [personal info redacted]

I am using Quicken Classic Premier for Windows, version R69.53

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Comments

Chris_QPW

As far as I know it looks at all the characters in the payee's name. But note that it isn't "character based" it is "word based".

For instance, if your renaming rule is looking for "Safe" it will not find "Safeway". "Words" are separated by any white space and characters like commas, periods, colons, …

barrymcdon

Here are the exact character strings it doesn't distinguish:

Des Moines DES:DES MOINES ID: IND

Des Moines DES:DM MC ACH ID:11026

It categorizes them both as "Rent:Wesley Homes", where the second one should categorize as "MEMORY CARE:Room & Care"

Chris_QPW

And what do you have for the renaming rules?

The renaming rules are what you use to separate the two off to different payee names and then use two memorized payees to give them the correct categories.

From the looks of you downloaded payee names the first renaming rule should match:

DES DES

And second should match:

DES DM

You could spell out more of them but those two would give unique matching "words" for each.

UKR

If all else fails, I recommend setting up and using two Scheduled Reminders with useful Payee Names and Categories as needed.
Record these reminders into the register a couple of days prior to the due date.
When the downloaded transactions arrive in Quicken, match them to the already existing register transactions.

barrymcdon

I have put both of these payee names as downloaded into the DO NOT RENAME list and saved each of them to the memorized payee list. About this time next month I'll be able to confirm it worked.

Thanks for your help.

barrymcdon

Thanks UKR for the suggestion. I've never used scheduled reminders, but will try that plan next month if my implementation of Chris_QPW solution doesn't work.

Chris_QPW

Note that for scheduled reminders to work you have to know the amounts beforehand. Quicken mostly matches the amounts, at best case it uses the payee as a "hint". You can consider a scheduled reminder as the same as a manual pre-entered transaction that Quicken is going to try to match to a downloaded one.

Chris_QPW

Not renaming them is certainly a way to go if you don't mind the given payees. My preferences would be to clean up the payee's name, but that isn't what is important for categorization, as long as they are unique and you create a memorized payee for each, that should work fine.

Sceptic

@barrymcdon I find that scheduled reminders work best if they are posted to the account before the transaction is downloaded. You don't necessarily need to know the amount beforehand. I set up all recurring (non-discretionary) transactions as reminders. If I don't know the about exactly, I set up the reminder with an estimated amount. When the scheduled transaction actually posts, I match it to the posted reminder transaction already in the account register. This way there are never any surprises, and it also a verification of the transaction being downloaded.

I use memorized payees for discretionary spending. The important thing for me is getting payee names consistent, and I find that memorized payees is a great way to accomplish this.

I have over 130 reminders for non-discretionary transactions set up for recurring bills, investment income, transfers, buys, sells.

I have about 100 memorized payees set up for discretionary transactions.

Almost every transaction I post to any account is in one or the other group.

Chris_QPW

I will add a bit to what @Sceptic said because there is an underline assumption being made that might not hold for everyone. And that is that you aren't downloading your transactions directly into your register.

My statement about Quicken's matching existing transactions was about automatic matching. @Sceptic was talking about manually matching when the amounts aren't the same and you are using the Downloaded Transactions tab "manual match" selection. It allows you to match, to amount a transaction that doesn't have the same amount, but the more I think about that, that isn't a good thing to do because it will change it to a split with an extra line item for the difference in amounts. Instead you need to change the amount in the transaction that was pre-entered into the register first and then Quicken's matching will kick in and you can accept the match into the register.

If you are importing transactions directly into the register then the manual match for it has to be the exact amount. To do a manual match that didn't match because of the amount difference you would first change the amount of the pre-entered transaction and then click on the status (blue dot column)of that transaction and select the manual match option. It only allows exact amount matches so it won't do the splitting like in the other mode.

And yes, it very important that the pre-entered transaction get into the register before the downloaded one to have any chance at an automatic match.

The value of using reminders really depends on just how you manage your finances so it will vary a lot between people. They are very good for people that are using the project balances and budget features because they can be included in those for predicting what you are going to spend. They are also very helpful for making sure transfers get recorded correctly.

Sceptic

Quicken's versatility is both its greatest strength and the source of much of its complexity. The abundance of features and options allows users to customize the program to fit their individual needs, but no one needs to use everything. Success with Quicken often comes from finding the right balance, your own "sweet spot" of features and settings that delivers the information you need while keeping things manageable.