Year end copy for Quicken for Mac (64 Legacy Votes)

Douglas Berg · November 2016

I would like to request this feature for Quicken for Mac. I was (am) a long-time user of Quicken for Windows, so the year-end copy ended up being important because I used Quicken for so many years. My data file would have been totally unwieldy if I couldn't do the year-end copy.

jacobs · November 2016

For what it's worth, I have 20+ years of data in my Quicken Mac data file, and the size is mostly not a problem. (Launch speed and a few searches are slower than blazing fast, but tolerable.) I love having all my financial history in one file and being able to search across all my data in one place.

There may be users who have many more accounts, transactions and data than I do, but there are many longtime Quicken Mac users here who have written on other threads that they, too, have no problem with having all their historic data in one file. It may be worth noting that the Quicken Mac database is more modern and robust than the databases used for legacy versions of Quicken Mac and, I believe, Quicken Windows.

You could try to do this manually unless/until such a feature is added:

Make a copy of your Quicken data file.
Select Banking in the left sidebar.
Select a filter for the date range you wish to delete. (I can't imagine deleting 2016 transactions for the start of 2017, because you'd lose all that data to power comparison reports and budgets, buy you could delete previous years.)
Select All transactions in the displayed register.
Press Delete.

The problem that this entails is with transactions that transfer to other accounts, like investments. You may need to exclude those from being deleted to avoid messing up your investment or property & debt accounts. This doesn't seem like a good idea to me, but if you're desperate to shrink the size of your file, this might be a stop-gap approach.

Douglas Berg · November 2016

Thank you for your reply. The only reason I worried about the Year End copy was my experience with Quicken Windows, where with large files it was pretty sluggish.

Quicken Marcus · November 2016

Doug, if you do make the switch to Quicken for Mac, let us know if you find your data file too sluggish to work with even with many years of data. We do want to bring lots of the features of Quicken Windows to the Mac that continue to make sense. We don't want to bring over the features that were only there to work around issues from a previous era. I'm hoping this is one of those but let us know if you run into issues.

Douglas Berg · November 2016

Understood. Not a problem for me at all, since I'm just converting from Quicken for Windows.

Unknown · December 2016

Please, add the feature to start a new year ..... I have used Quicken for MANY years and have liked having each year as a separate file. While there is some carryover of information from one year to the next, in most cases it is not needed and the file will become way to huge and cumbersome over time.

jacobs · December 2016

Stan, one thing to be aware of is that the modern database used for the current generation Quicken for Mac is designed to hold lots of data without it being a problem. I have 20+ years of data and don't find it much of a problem; to me, the pros of having all my past data searchable in an instant outweighs the handful of places where the amount of data slows anything down.

As Marcus, the product manager for Quicken Mac, says above: try it and see if it's really a problem for you. The developers definitely do listen to user feedback, but they're trying not to re-invent old features simple because people are accustomed to doing things in a way that made sense years or decades ago but may not make sense or be needed any more.

Unknown · December 2016

I would really like to have the Year End features like in Quicken for Windows.

smayer97 · December 2016

Then be sure to click VOTE at the top of the page.

(If you find this reply helpful, please be sure to click "Like", so others will know, thanks.)

jacobs · December 2016

Pat: And please take 60 seconds to go to the Quicken Feedback page to type in the "Something not listed? Tell us" box that you want this feature and *why* it's important to you.

This is one of those features that exists in the older, legacy versions of Quicken that the developers seem to think may not be needed in a next-generation Quicken built around a database with power to store tens of thousands of transactions. The developers know people use this feature, but it was created at a time when disk space was limited and the databases used weren't engineered for managing decades of data. so they wonder: do people want this just because they're used to doing it, but really don't need to anymore, or because there are good, bona fide reasons for it. Explaining the *why* in cases like this is more important than just voting for a feature; they're listening to users that say they want it, but they want to understand how and why people use this functionality so they don't simply re-create an old feature in the same old way for something that isn't needed any more. Or to make sure they're not creating a feature to work around something else in the program that people aren't discovering and using the way it was intended.

I personally have more than 20 years of data in my Quicken file, and I love that I can search for old transactions quickly and in one place. When did we buy that drippy faucet in the kitchen? How old is our hot water heater? When was the last time we went to that restaurant? How much did I pay the last time I renewed that magazine subscription? Questions like this come up all the time in my life, and I can happily answer them opening my one and only Quicken data file to quickly find the transactions I'm looking for. But that's me -- you may have reasons why this doesn't work for you, and that's what the developers need to hear.

Unknown · December 2016

I am a windows quicken use for 30 years and now I am on Mac and I would like to have this feature to I like to start my year fresh with only the new year transaction. The same when we do manual accounting we use new ledger and general ledge . I am sure that we are not the only one that would like this feature to be add to Mac
Thank you

jacobs · December 2016

Chantal, I'm not sure whether you're aware of this, but you can set any reports or transaction registers in Quicken Mac to only show the current year's data, without the need to purge data from prior years. To me, this is the best of both worlds: when I want to see only the current year, I just set the register or report for the current year -- and when I want to search for some older transaction, I can easily do that as well because all my financial history is there. Perhaps I am not understanding the advantage you feel there is in removing all prior data.

I see two downsides to making a separate data file for every year: (1) If you need to look up some transaction from the past, you have to open a separate data file... and if you're not sure which year it was in, you might have to hunt through several data files. (2) Each time there is an annual Quicken software update, and sometimes for mid-year software patches as well, the data file format changes and your data file must be updated; if you have data files from past years and ever want to open them again, you have to convert them to the current version just to be able to use them. (And if you don't update all your past data files every few years to the latest version, you may end up with old data files that the current software will no longer open.)

Unknown · December 2016

1- Jacob I din't know that I can set per year is their a way this can be safe and every time I open my quicken It is set by default to the year I set?

2- Thank you for pointing out the stuff about update it make a lot of sense and the search for pass year to. I am use to work with the windows version for the pass 29 years and just convert in January 2016 to Mac. I still have stuff to learn and really appreciate your comment. Happy new year 2017

Looking forward for the instruction to set to 2017 as default. Cheers

jacobs · December 2016

Chantal: in Quicken Mac 2017, both registers and reports have filters you can set. In any register, just above the columns headings, you'll see the row of filters for dates, types and status. Click where it says "All Dates", and in the dropdown menu, select "This Year". That way, your register will only show transactions from the current year. This setting remains until you change or clear it, so you don't have to set it every time you launch Quicken. However, you do need to set it on *each* register -- but only one time for each.

Reports are almost the same. If you select a report, such as Category Summary, after the report loads, click the Customize button on the upper right. On the Customize Report window, for Date Range select "This Year" and you'll be set. (If you want, you could manually enter dates each year, and then at the bottom of the Customize Report window, click Save As Custom Report, and name it for the year -- e.g. Category Report 2016, Category Report 2017, etc.)

Hope that helps.

Unknown · January 2017

@jacobs I am not sure what Tab you're talking about regarding "Banking". In Quicken for Mac 2016, no such tab exists. Are you using a Windows version of the software? Unfortunately, these instructions you've provided much like the ones in the knowledge base all seem to be geared towards Windows environments.

To partly answer the curiosity, what it boils down to is that folks often are looking for a fresh start at the beginning of the calendar year (myself included). Rarely, if ever, do I go back to a prior year to view transactions (partially due to deficiencies at the bottom of this post). If I need to do that, I will contact the bank for statements or utilize their online banking interface to gather that data.

Not to mention most banks, at least the six (6) I've had over the course of the last 30 years, do not provide data more than a few years back. The filters, often, do not work in Quicken for Mac as I suspect they're intended, so occasionally balances will be off regardless of a date range entered--that issue is compounded because each account listed being a separate account in the ledger has to have the date ranges reset (for example, starting the ledger at 01/01/2017). I have fifteen (15) such accounts and this is an annual (or more often) nightmare! There should be the option to set ALL accounts to one beginning date (if there is, I haven't found it and find myself having to go into each analysis tab and account tab to establish those.

As well, there are still also file corruption and/or connectivity issues with banks--as an example, beginning this year, I can no longer sync my liabilities (i.e. loan, insurance, etc.) with my file. I've been using this product on Mac since 2007 (previous it was Microsoft Money on Windows), and I have never had the amount of issues as I have had towards the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017.

Ideally, when I am setting up a new account, I would like to establish the date (and opening balance) of the transactions I want to begin the new account's ledger at, just as I would in my professional career for the annual fiscal year (GLA-certified BA). Now, clearly, it will be up to the banks as to whether they will provide data beginning from that date (or even up to the most current transactions as my particular main bank has a 3-5 day lag on posting those), but it at least gives me a starting point at the beginning of the calendar year.

Lastly, the most infuriating issue I've found is the lack of support for .csv's from the financial institution not being capable of being entered for transactions downloadable from their site, but outside of the date range(s) offered for transactions in the web, direct or quicken connect methods. The shoddy third-party products that attempt to bridge the gap do more harm than good in my experience, requiring hours of work to get the transactions correct and categorized. Why is this important? Simply because very often, we may have an account that has old data which was closed out, but we seek analysis for and/or an account may only have data for a certain date range from the institution and we need to download a manual product based on the exported statement data to merge the two into a cohesive asset or liability picture.

I understand you're trying to help, and my irritation is not directed at you particularly, I only think that the manufacturer signaling they don't think it is important enough when clearly their customer base does is the wrong answer.

Concordman · January 2017

End of year copy was something I always implemented in QW; Doesn't appear to be much of a concern with QM's ability to hold the quantity of transactions. Old habits are however hard to brake; I ran a backup of my QM file on 12/31/16:). I have been a user of QW user for too many moons. So running a yr end backup made me feel normal

.

In general I like the fact that I can have all my data in one file so if I ever need to see an "oldie" transaction its right there for me.

jacobs · January 2017

JAL, responding to your issues point by point...

I'm strictly a Mac user; I don't have Windows and have never used Quicken for Windows. In my post a month ago, I didn't say anything about a tab, I said click on "Banking" in the left sidebar. In Quicken 2017, that's the main heading for cash, checking and credit card accounts. Since you're using Quicken 2016, it's called "Cash & Credit"; they renamed it in 2017.

I think it's problematic to think you can count on your financial institutions to look up data from prior years. Most don't let you access online statements or transactions more than 18-24 months ago, and if they offer statements from years ago, there's often a charge to get them. (By contrast, I have 20+ years I can access in my Quicken data file.)

Once you get your account balances correct once, you shouldn't have problems with them moving forward. I haven't seen any instances where date filters in Quicken Mac fail to properly display the date range a user selects.

I'm sorry I don't understand all the issues you're citing with .csv's from financial institutions, nor what this has to do with wanting to have less data in your Quicken file by starting over each year. If there are issues with .csv files from your financial institutions, I'd think this would create more of a reason to maintain your permanent data in your Quicken file?

Finally, the comments I've seen from the Quicken product manager are definitely *not* saying they don't think this is important -- they're saying he wants to understand *why* people want to purge data each year. Some users have commented they've asked for such a feature simply because they've done it that way for many years or decades in Quicken Windows. What the Quicken product manager has said is that they don't want to simply create features to match the way people are used to doing things that may have been necessary or desirable many years ago but may not be any more. For many users, starting with a fresh data file each year is a carry-over practice from an era when data file size was an issue, and/or the underlying database wasn't as robust as the modern SQL database in Quicken Mac, and/or it was't easy to restrict registers to show only data from the current year. But if there are other reasons users have for wanting such a feature, they're interested in learning why.

jacobs · January 2017

While I get your point, I'd say that it takes less than 10 seconds per account to set the date to "This Year" -- and you only have to do it once, ever. So even if you have more than 10 accounts, it might take 2-3 minutes to set all your registers the way you want. to me, that's not a major problem that rises to the level of terming the software "deficient." (It takes a longer to set up the columns you want, in the order and width you want, for each account; I find that annoying, but again, it's a one-time-only set-up issue.)

jacobs · January 2017

I agree 100% that it's wise to make periodic backups for permanent retention. The question users are considering in this thread, though, is whether there's a need to purge out prior year data to have separate files for each year. I'm in the same camp as you, where it's a real positive to be able to look up any old data at any time in one place, without searching through multiple old data files (let alone needing to carefully keep all those old files updated to work with the current version of the program).

Unknown · January 2017

@jacobs I don't cite a deficiency without a cause (taken in aggregate and context with the earlier points, the software can be considered deficient), so before you start throwing quotes around a word, I'd recommend taking the time to explore the possibilities that you haven't personally experienced which would lead users(s) to form such an assessment.

In this particular case, I've done this three (3) times since August 2016 (approximately several months, recently) thanks to Quicken's poorly implemented update mechanism that either A) deletes the data file alongside the app/support by moving it to the Trash Bin (I caught on to what it was doing finally the third time and recovered it), or

corrupts the one that is 'active' in the first place.

Their software, although more refined in many areas than their competitors, has had hiccups like this since I've owned it (such as the funky database structure of Essentials which poorly compacted, occasionally failed to backup, or lost register entries), but this year has been especially rough (for me).

As for doing something in 10 seconds (not sure why mention the red herring regarding the columns; clearly the argument is that it is taking an abnormal amount of time and what I perceive as your attempts to minimize the impact is irritating), I recommend you outline your method to do so, because that hasn't been my experience.

While you may have 20+ years worth of data, I might have more account/transactional data than you in one (1) year than you might generate in three (3) to five (5). You appear to be considering this from a linear perspective, which would assume all situations are created equal--that's the wrong way to look at this. Needless to say, no, it has not been a one-time setup issue.

Unknown · January 2017

@jacobs Point-by-point:

Understood, and how long ago the post was posted seems irrelevant. Moving forward, I see... you assumed the user(s) were utilizing the 2017 version and didn't provide the breadcrumb back to the previous terminology in 2016. Got it, good to know that was changed.

You seemed to have restated what I said, but view it as a negative. Personally, I view it primarily as a non-issue outside of special circumstances (which I alluded to before). Not many portfolios have relevance beyond six (6) years (in the US, IRS audits only that timeframe) and haven't since the early seventies prior to the dissolution of the precious-metal standard. It seems unnecessary for most users to keep so much data on file. Your explanation also is confusing, as you're stating that your financial institutions won't normally allow you that much data (or without cost) so many years back... yet somehow you've managed to collect just that much from them (perhaps you've compounded this year-by-year from previous compilations/downloads). If you've spent that much time what one would assume is manually inputting transactions into the register, that seems to defeat the purpose of the software in the first place.

No, that's not necessarily correct. Sometimes, this is not the case, especially is some sort of hiccup occurs in the connectivity with the financial institution or the the update mechanism itself, as mentioned in another post. As for the date range, it can reset upon update with the financial institution for any number of unknown reasons.

In regards to the .csv file, I'll table that because I believe it's going to require its own thread to outline the problem and the derivative impact.

Having no exposure to them, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on intent. Simply, as a why, a lot of people use the product as a year-to-year evaluation tool, each year of it's own accord. There is no need for the PM to know why for the sake of argument--some behavior(s) is/are good practice and others are not, but it is not the PM's place to decide that or force the user's hand. It is the user community's place to determine what works for them, and the PM attempt to accommodate.

When one creates any product, to innovate and/or invent, one does so to solve a problem, not create a new one. Generating an unnecessary learning curve where most people don't really care about big data style analytics of their bottomline is an asinine approach to both financial/wealth management and software as a whole. Having cut my teeth in both industries, I believe I'm probably qualified to say that. I think there is a reasonable, middle-ground approach to this and it may go so far as a couple of extra thousand lines of code to give the user the ability to do so, but a quick search on this site and Google tells me it is a large enough concern to be addressed.

Unknown · January 2017

While it may or may not create a logistical issue for managing data, multiple files are advantageous for one particular reason--if one file corrupts, for instance calendar year 2006 of an archive of 20 years of data, only that file typically was corrupted (and in the case of backups, typically the same). In an apples comparison of sorts, this is particularly the reason why I save my career's Microsoft Outlook PST files full of data gleaned from Microsoft Exchange Server in four (4) PSTs annually, separated by quarter--partly due to file size/overhead, but mostly due to establishing non-destructive timelines. Now this argument may be attempted to be countered with tales of filesystem integrity checks, multiple backups, data recovery software, or hardware revisions such as HDD versus SSD, but the reality is that the majority of folks don't monitor that stuff. They just want something to work, and they want it to work in the way that accommodates often their own inability to flex or re-learn. I'd be willing to bet a large portion of the Quicken community does create a new file every year (or would prefer to).

Unknown · January 2017

For me, it isn't a matter of it being sluggish. And I don't get rid of my year-end copies; I open them with the newer version of Quicken so they can still be accessed if I need them. I just don't want to have them in there when I do a search for a particular transaction. Also the number of transactions affects the way the scroll bar works. It jumps back too far when there are a lot of transactions. Quicken 2017 may have fixed that; I only installed it this afternoon and can't say for sure yet.

Unknown · January 2017

Hi Jacops

I am done the setting you recommend it took me not much then 2 minutes to do all my account. I see only the 2017 year. I like that and I understand now what you are explaining if I what to see when I did a major change on the house I just chose all years and do a search and everything is their no need to go from one files to the other .Then when I have found my answer I just returned to the year I what to see. Thank you I really appreciate your help on this.

Kay Arnold · April 2017

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Migrating Q for MAC files.

When woking on auto back up create an option to separate the file and Archive/Backup a specific date i.e. (1st date of your current file Transaction profiled) XX/XX/XXXX last date XX/XX/XXXX what is left is a couple of years worth of information then every account every transaction within these dates deletes from the current file and saves where you would like a CD, flash drive etc. That makes the current file smaller reports work better who needs old stuff anyway but you have it the only other issue is if how would I be able to access the info if needed. 1. You might want to put a date stop if you had done this in the future your couldn't go back. The windows version back in 2010 had this process. not sure how it the program worked but think the Q for M could work same way.

Unknown · April 2017

I have used Year End Copy for Years from Window and with the older version for MAC. I have found that 2017 verses is VERY sluggish now that I keep copy of all my receipts in quicken. as of late it takes Quicken 3 to 5 minutes to safe a backup when it shuts down. I am assuming because of all of the attachments that I have in quicken over the years. having the ability to have the year end copy would make the files smaller as now it would only have the attachments for that year. I see a BIG need for the year end copy to come back to Quicken for MAC.

Pilotbum · May 2017

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Separate Idea.

I'd like to see a way to integrate multiple data files into one session of Quicken. For example, I've been a quicken user since 1992. At one point in time to keep my data file at a smaller size (at the recommendation of a quicken help adviser) I would do a year end copy of my quicken and keep each year in a singular file and keep my current file only going back 3-5 years for reporting & budgeting reasons. However, one of the things I like about using quicken is being able to track my progress and successes over a much larger span of time, i.e., back to when I first started using Quicken.

Why can't quicken automatically break data files up into smaller subsets such as by fiscal year and have the ability for the software to open or use multiple files for reporting purposes the way other database programs do?

Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: List of Requests for Data and File Management Features.

Unknown · May 2017

At one point in time to keep my data file at a smaller size (at the recommendation of a quicken help adviser)

Unless your Quicken data file is unwieldly large...NO ONE in this forum who is a Quicken "power user" would recommend that you split up your data file.

And the reason is what you have already pointed out...you can't open multiple files to retrieve info, make comparisons etc.

I have been using Quicken since the mid 1980's. I have one data file. Never did a Year End Copy, or split the file using Copy and specifying what dates I wanted in that copy.

I don't think this is a feature Quicken needs.

Just don't do a Year End Copy and you'd have been just fine.

And your Quicken help adviser was just plain wrong to suggest what you wound up doing.

Concordman · May 2017

+! @gmailis1..Performed year end copies ad Nauseam as a QW user. Definitely not a needed item in QM

Unknown · September 2017

20 year Quicken user. For about 10 different reasons I just don’t want a lot of old data hanging around to complicate things. I just want to keep things simple and delete old, irrelevant data.

Perhaps the real reason the Project Manager is insisting on keeping old data in a file that is never purged is so when it is all in Quickens cloud the data can be “mined” ala Google.

I don’t deal with Google for that reason and that is reason enough to quit Quicken.

smayer97 · September 2017

Actually the Quicken Cloud only syncs the last 2 years of transactions plus new transactions. All is cleared and reduced to last 2 yrs if you reset and resync. So this is not the reason.

Year end copy for Quicken for Mac (64 Legacy Votes)

Not Planned · Last Updated October 2020

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