I have just taken over the banking for my elderly parents. They have been using Quicken Classic for Windows for years, but I just recently realized that they have been making reconciled adjustments, corrections, mistakes, wrong categories etc..for over two years. It's a mess and I want to start over from scratch for 2027. Additionally, my mother had her own quicken file and my father had his own quicken file, that created a lot of incorrect entries too. I want to combine their 2 files into one Quicken file, starting with statements that will be coming in 2027.
I need to keep Quicken so my parents still can access and feel some autonomy. I will just be monitoring more closely and more often. I use QuickBooks for my home and business so I am somewhat familiar with the structure.
I have tried to create a new file, but after I download from the bank, too many old transactions come up in the register. What are the steps I should be taking to create this new combined file before the December2026-Jan2027 statements start coming in the mail? Do I wait until I have the statements and enter Dec as the beginning balance and the beginning date of transactions to download? Will that keep old transactions from showing up? Should I manually enter the accounts with no balance or transactions and then download the Dec-Jan statement? Can I copy their categories into the new combined file, or is that manually entered? Thank you, step by step procedures would be helpful
