Memorized Transactions or Renaming Rules by Account (2 Merged Votes)

Jan Burch
Jan Burch Member ✭✭

Memorized Transactions and Renaming Rules are based solely on the Payee or "Quicken Name". Sometimes, the same Payee should have a different settings depending on the Account.

Suggestion: Add a criteria to Memorized Transactions and/or Renaming Rule for Account. Allow user to select one, multiple or All accounts. Default is All Accounts, as it works today.

Example: Say there are multiple accounts that all get transactions from Payee1. The transactions are categorized differently based on the Account. In one Account, it is categorized as a Business Expense, and in another as a Personal Expense and in a third as Rental Expense. If Memorized Transactions and/or Renaming Rules allowed for the Account number, the transactions could be automatically categorized correctly in new downloaded transactions.

32
32 votes

Under Consideration · Last Updated

Submitted for review 13 Feb 24 CBT-264

«1

Comments

  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Probably a good idea. Thank you for posting.
    Until somebody comes up with a better solution, how about using distinct Payee Names for these purposes, e.g.,
    • Top Notch Restaurant {Business}
    • Top Notch Restaurant {Family Dinner}
    • etc.
    You can use a different notation other than enclosing the "{Business}" part of the name in curly brackets. "- Business" or "(Business)" would also work, as long as you make a unique Payee Name for each purpose.
  • Jim_Harman
    Jim_Harman SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Also you can have multiple entries in the Memorized Payee list for a single payee, each with its own Category.

    When you are reviewing downloaded transactions and it has matched to a Payee, you can click on the Payee dropdown and select the the one with the correct category from a short list rather than having to scroll through the categories to pick the correct one. I think it defaults to the first category alphabetically or something; it would certainly be nice if you could specify a per-account default.
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  • JustMeHere
    JustMeHere Member ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2020
    There are times where you have the same downloaded payee names downloaded into two different accounts, but you need to give them different categories/tags and such.

    If a user can restrict a renaming rule to a given account (or set of accounts) then they can rename the payee based on the account and have those two or more renamed payees flow into two or more memorized payees.

    Note this request applies to all versions of quicken, ... Quicken Windows and Quicken Mac, and Quicken Canadian.
    Using Quicken Subscription Premier (and have a copy of Starter to test things on)
  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    For the record:
    There's a lengthy discussion about this Idea here:  https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20066613#Comment_20066613
    I've added "Windows" to the title of this Idea post to make it easier to differentiate between Mac and Windows Ideas
  • BRETTB
    BRETTB Member ✭✭✭✭
    es by account register then to make it even more refined, by date. Why by date for those reoccurring entries with same name? This would fix almost all possible issues.

    So you have say one account where where you may pay the same vendor for a different property - Example Electric Bill different properties being paid out of the same bank account - but are paid on different dates of month.

    So Auto Name on register level>vendor>date (look at previous month recurring entry and maybe off 1 or 2 days) would be the best one can do and for whatever reason if say had pmt to same vendor, same register, same date - quicken would mark those like they do to match.
  • BeckyOK
    BeckyOK Member
    I agree. I have rental properties, but pay my own home utilities to the same company as my rental property utility bills, although from different bank accounts. I wish Quicken would allow us to differentiate the renaming rules based upon BANK ACCOUNTS, at least. That would help immensely!
  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    How about ...
    Set up and use Scheduled Reminders to pay the utility bills for each of your properties. Use distinct Payee Names so you can easily differentiate between
    • GSP&L {13 Elm St}
    • GSP&L {15 Elm St}
    • etc.
    Pay those bills on or before due date. When the check clears your checking account a few days later, Quicken will see the existing register transaction and match the download to it. No more need for special renaming rules.
    The use of {curly brackets} in the Payee Name field was specifically invented so that you can print checks from Quicken with a correct Pay to order of ... printed on the check, without the text in {brackets} printing on the check, but showing everywhere else in your records. Of course, you can use any other method of creating distinct Payee Names, if you wish.
  • dchooker99
    dchooker99 Member, Mac Beta ✭✭
    I can't believe a LOT people don't separate their personal and various business-related expenses by having separate accounts/cards for each. Just add an account field to the renaming rules and allow me to tweak it from there.

    I order Domino's for my family and pay for it with my personal card. However, I will often times buy my ER nurses lunch / dinner and have pizza delivered and pay from my business account. I even made a different payee name to try to help it distinguish (Domino's vs Dominos MD Exp) and it still wants to rename everything based on one or the other.

    I've seen the suggestions using brackets (haven't tried that yet TBH), but it seems like a lot of work on my part when such simple thing as adding that field to the renaming rules would take care of it. I've upvoted. Thanks for the thread!!
  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    I can't believe a LOT people don't separate their personal and various business-related expenses by having separate accounts/cards for each. Just add an account field to the renaming rules and allow me to tweak it from there.

    I order Domino's for my family and pay for it with my personal card. However, I will often times buy my ER nurses lunch / dinner and have pizza delivered and pay from my business account. I even made a different payee name to try to help it distinguish (Domino's vs Dominos MD Exp) and it still wants to rename everything based on one or the other.

    I've seen the suggestions using brackets (haven't tried that yet TBH), but it seems like a lot of work on my part when such simple thing as adding that field to the renaming rules would take care of it. I've upvoted. Thanks for the thread!!

    Until the programmers get around to implementing this change, may I recommend you enter at least your business expense transactions (Dominos MD Exp) manually with a correct category before your next transaction download. That takes care of your problem. Quicken will recognize the already existing correctly categorized register transaction and match the downloaded transaction to it (and not create a duplicate or some other problems)
  • jlevonius
    jlevonius Member ✭✭
    Please enhance Quicken to allow account specific renaming rules. For example, if Credit Card Acct #1 downloads a transaction called "Payment Received - Thank you" then allow me setup a renaming rule specific to the Credit Card Acct #1 account. Credit Card Acct #2 will also likely download a transaction also called "Payment Received - Thank you" and I'd like to rename that transaction differently, and specific to the Credit Card Acct #2 account.

    Also, allow a renaming rule option to automatically add the downloaded transaction to the register if all conditions of the renaming rule are met.

    Basically, look at how QuickBooks does renaming rules. Their renaming feature is very powerful. Copy it!
  • pdxmaven
    pdxmaven Member ✭✭
    I have the same problem as DCHooker99 and others. It would be SO helpful to be able to separate categories by accounts. Or to restrict the naming rule by account.
    Having to name the categories differently to differentiate (for example) a business transaction from a personal transaction, when the payee is the same, is a big hassle with much room for error.
    And Quicken keeps trying to "help" me by categorizing things in my personal account the same as in my business account, when the payee is the same, even when the whole way I want and need to categorize them is the different, depending on whether or not I am using the payee for a business use vs a personal use.
  • oldngrmpy1
    oldngrmpy1 Member ✭✭✭✭
    I believe the renaming rules worked fine until they were 'Made Better" about 5 yrs ago. They worked  perfectly back then, and never been the same since. I'm sure some long time user remembers the good ol' days!
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    TJ102 said:
    I believe the renaming rules worked fine until they were 'Made Better" about 5 yrs ago. They worked  perfectly back then, and never been the same since. I'm sure some long time user remembers the good ol' days!
    I never remember a time where renaming rules weren't "global" as I have never seen any where they were you could specify the account(s) they should work in, which is what this request is for (one that at this point no one is voting for, which is too bad).

    What I do remember about the old one was that there were more options, than "contains".  There was "Start With" and "Contains".

    On the other hand the current version of "Contains" is different than what I remember the old "Contains" did.  With the current "Contains" is seems to be more "aware" of "words" and as such some thing like this "This Thing"  will match "Not This Thing", but not "NotThis Thing".  Where as the old one would match both.

    At least that is how I remember it.  I have in fact not had much problems with any of this in a long time mostly I guess because my use cases is simple.

    But I sure could have used selecting by accounts back when I was dumb enough to want to import my interest values into TurboTax.

    For that I found out the way they divided the amount between each financial institution was by the payee on the transaction.  So of course I setup renaming rules to have the interest transaction be the financial institution.  Only one problem, more than one of my financial institutions used the exact same payee for the interest payment!
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  • Treetops
    Treetops Member ✭✭
    Wife and I each get a monthly social security deposit of a different amount. I want each under a different category and to auto categorize correctly. I'm not aware of any way to do this now. Please add capability. I'm open to suggestions. Anyone?
  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Treetops said:
    Wife and I each get a monthly social security deposit of a different amount. I want each under a different category and to auto categorize correctly. I'm not aware of any way to do this now. Please add capability. I'm open to suggestions. Anyone?

    Simply set up Scheduled Reminders for you and your wife's deposits, each properly categorized. Execute the Scheduled Reminders a couple of days before the deposit shows up in your bank accounts. Quicken will then be able to match any downloaded deposit data to the already existing register entries.
    There's no way that Quicken will be able to do this automagically for you
  • Eastwezt
    Eastwezt Member
    It could be useful to distinguish charges to Amazon based on account. My Amex Platinum Amazon charges are Shopping. My Amex Blue Cash Amazon charges are Groceries from Whole Foods. Being able to have these automatically categorized based on card used would be helpful.
  • John Gh
    John Gh Member
    Often times downloaded transaction details are indentical for different accounts at the same bank except for the amount. In these cases, I need to manually adjust the memorized transaction attached to the saved rule (i.e. for Acct A - "Dep-Jane", for Acct B - "Dep-Joe). It would be convenient to have the rules chose an action based on the quicken account that the transaction was download into.
  • ialsup
    ialsup Member ✭✭
    edited April 2022
    The absence of this feature adds tons of confusion to my bookkeeping. It impacts my PayPal accounts
     user since '94
  • Bob@45
    Bob@45 Member ✭✭✭✭
    Yes, this would be good.  I'd also like the ability to do the same with the memorized transaction's category
  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    Transaction download problems with matching and adding new transactions correctly

    First please ensure that all optional settings in Quicken pertaining to recall, memorization, automatic categorization and renaming of payee names are enabled. You find those settings in Edit / Preferences / Data Entry & Quickfill and Downloaded Transactions. Additional settings for the detection and processing of transfer transactions can be found in Edit / Preferences / Transfer detection.

     

    Are you automatically accepting downloaded transactions into your registers?

    If you are relying on Quicken to "automagically" fill your account registers from downloaded transactions, you may run into problems. Despite all efforts by the Quicken programmers, the "Autopilot" (that's my name for the part of the Quicken program which processes downloaded transactions and converts them into new register transactions) is not infallible. For that process to work 100% of the time one would need a crystal ball because the information downloaded from the banks often is just too terse and cryptic.

    You should, at least for a while, turn off the "automatically accept downloaded transactions into registers" setting to gain better control over what is downloaded and what to do with it. Click on and review each downloaded transaction, make changes if necessary (e.g., to get a payee name = "Starbucks" instead of "POS TRANS 070119 STARBU", "POS TRANS 070219 STARBU", "POS TRANS 070319 STARBU" or to assign a category) before you click to accept each transaction.

    Any changes you make to downloaded Payee Names are remembered in Renaming Rules.

    Any other changes you make (add/change Category or Memo text) are remembered in the Memorized Payee List.

    Next time the same transaction for this Payee comes along, Quicken should remember and give you a better new register transaction.
    Paper checks you write should be recorded in Quicken as you write the check (and BEFORE you download transactions which might contain the cleared check). That gives you a register transaction with correct check number, payee name and category. No matter what information is downloaded from the bank, you already have a correct register transaction which the downloaded data cannot mess up.

     

    In case you have issues with transfer transactions not being generated correctly:

    For best results manually enter transfer transactions into your register BEFORE you download transactions from the bank which contain the transfer confirmations. For recurring transfers use scheduled reminders and enter them a day or two before the due date. Be sure to use distinct Payee Names for each transfer / credit card payment to avoid confusing Quicken - memorized payee entries.
    That takes the guesswork out of the Autopilot's process. Because a correctly entered transfer transaction already exists in your account registers, the Autopilot should just match the downloaded transfer transaction to the existing one in both accounts.

     

    Where are the "Auto-accept downloaded transaction" settings?

    There are two places where this is controlled in Quicken for Windows:
     - Globally, for all accounts, in Edit / Preferences / Downloaded Transactions
     - For each account individually, the global setting can be overridden from the Edit Account Details screen, Online Services Tab. Look for blue text "Automatic Entry is: ON / OFF". Click the text to change the setting.

  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    @UKR you don't seem to understand what this feature request is.  In fact, it has been asked for many times.  This has nothing to do with automatically entering transactions into the register.

    Here is one of those requests, that the people in this thread should vote up:
    Memorized Transactions or Renaming Rules by Account (1 Merged Votes) — Quicken
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  • Quicken Jasmine
    Quicken Jasmine Moderator mod
    Hello @John Gh,

    Thank you for reaching out to the Community with your request.

    I went ahead and merged your Idea to this active Idea thread regarding this topic.

    Ideas are reviewed by our Development and Product teams to see what features people would like to have available in the future. Please, be sure to add your own vote as well by clicking the up arrow (see example below).


    Thank you!

    -Quicken Jasmine

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  • NABATO
    NABATO Member ✭✭
    Memorized payees generally work well, but here's a use case where they could be better: My spouse and I each have an account that we use for personal purchases such as lunches. It would be nice if a purchase from, e.g., Panera Bread could automatically be assigned to the correct person's personal-purchase category based on the account in which it was downloaded. (I don't enter small purchases like that manually.) Perhaps memorized payees could be marked "use for all accounts" or assigned to a specific account.
  • Scott Alcaide
    Scott Alcaide Member ✭✭✭
    I track interest by each bank (to match up with IRS 1099). So, Fidelity downloads "Interest" as does BofA and Wells Fargo, etc. I have separate categories for each bank, and I would like to memorize transactions so that BofA "Interest" ends up in the Interest Income:BofA Category and not "Interest Income:Wells Fargo"
  • TTSguy
    TTSguy Member ✭✭✭✭
    Several possibilities for me, IF it can be implemented WITHOUT screwing something else up in Quicken!
  • cageyo
    cageyo Member
    edited October 2023

    There are cases where the same "statement name" (or keyword pattern) appears in transactions in more than one account, but where the desired renaming rule differs. Currently, this case is not addressed.

    One could imagine adding a checklist of accounts to which a rule will apply, possibly with accounts appearing greyed out where a conflicting rule already exists.

    [Merged Post]

  • Quicken Jasmine
    Quicken Jasmine Moderator mod
    edited October 2023

    Hello

    @cageyo

    Thank you for taking the time to reach out to the Community with your request.

    I went ahead and changed your post to an Idea so other users who have the same or a similar request can vote on your idea by clicking the up arrow (see below).


    Ideas are also reviewed by our Development and Product teams in order to improve Quicken and implement new features requested by customers.

    Please, be sure to add your own vote as well.

    [Merged Post]

    -Quicken Jasmine

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  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2023

    cageyo

    said:

    There are cases where the same "statement name" (or keyword pattern) appears in transactions in more than one account, but where the desired renaming rule differs. Currently, this case is not addressed.



    One could imagine adding a checklist of accounts to which a rule will apply, possibly with accounts appearing greyed out where a conflicting rule already exists.

    Just to make this clear to everyone of us, what specific name patterns do you have and what kind of translations / renaming rules would you need?What type of transactions are these? Transfers? Other?Are you relying on downloaded transactions to create all your register transactions for you?

    [Merged Post]

  • q_lurker
    q_lurker SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2023
  • SkyDoc
    SkyDoc Member
    TO QUICKEN PROGRAMMERS: Implementing this change is not rocket science folks. The Quicken program's **name** is Home, Business & Rental Property. The concept of renaming or categorizing based on HOME, BUSINESS, or RENTAL PROPERTY expenses or income is IN THE NAME. Yet more than three years of these requests/complaints and there **still** isn't an improvement? The **simple solution** to include the choice of an account number/name in rules for renaming, categorizing, etc. to assign the correct parameters (e.g., business expense vs personal expense vs rental, etc.) has been stated explicitly in most of these folks' comments. You folks (at Quicken) are a real disappointment. It's a computer program for gosh sakes. One or two lines of coding. What? Are you waiting for your users to send you the coding to insert into the program? Please...do your job!