Development suggestion for the register

skeleton567 · December 2019

Since most of our time working with data is spent in the account registers, it would be very nice if the register had an 'INSERT ENTRY' ability which would create a blank fillable entry at/below the highlighted row. It is very inconvenient to have to scroll back up to see a new entry after it is added at the bottom. Focus should stay in the place in the register one is working.

UKR · December 2019

Are you talking about the Quicken Mobile app?

In Quicken for Windows you can change the register's sort order. If you change to "Order entered", the most recently entered transaction stays at the bottom of the register. The next new transaction you enter will stay right below it, and so on.
This Sort Option is available from the register's Actions gear icon, Sorting options, by Order entered.
To change back to your regular sorting option, by Date, select it from the Sorting options popup or simply click the Date column header in the register.

I don't use Q Mobile myself, so I don't know if a similar function is available in the Mobile app. Can you check?

skeleton567 · December 2019

This is about the Windows PC version. Wen I work in historical accounts with pages and pages of history over years, I have to enter a new record to be INSERTED in date sequence, which is the most common sort for a register. My investment accounts have hundreds of transactions, some over a period of seventy years that I've entered from paper records. (Can't use the export to a QIF file if your transactions date earlier than 1950, due to the stupid Y2K fix to the two-digit year). As I enter history in the register, I have to go to the bottom of the register to enter a new record, then scroll back many pages to see where it is placed in the history in date sequence, then back to the bottom for the next record. Most good software has an option to INSERT a row where you are viewing data

volvogirl · December 2019

You can do Ctrl+I to insert a transaction. But don't know if that works in investment accounts.

See Keyboard shortcuts
https://www.quicken.com/support/tell-me-about-keyboard-shortcuts-quicken

UKR · December 2019

I'll see if I can get a moderator to fix the category to Windows, Investments.

To clarify, we're discussing an issue with Quicken for Windows and working in investment account registers.

To the best of my knowledge, unlike in banking account registers, there's no sorting in investment account registers other than by Date, by Security, by Clr, or by Action.

To enter a number of transactions, one right after the other, have you tried the Enter Transaction dialog? It allows you to fill out the form for one transaction, press the Enter/New button to save the transaction and start a new one right away.

As to QIF files ...
dates using US format mm/dd/yyyy with a 4-digit year should work fine, 19yy, 20yy or any other century.
Ditto for dates with mm/dd'yy (with a quote) to indicate a 20yy year

Dates with mm/dd/yy are supposed to follow your Windows Date format settings for the sliding 100 year rule, if programmed correctly. No guarantees.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/0m/1s4uqta48nl3.png

In the example above, a 2-digit year between 60 and 99 is converted to 1960-1999, and 00 - 59 is converted to 2000 - 2059.
If you must work with 2-digit years for 19yy dates, try this option set to 1900 and 1999.

Bob_L · December 2019

Suggestion by @UKR to use Enter Transaction is a good one, even for just one transaction as it returns you to the date entered in the register when your click done.

skeleton567 · December 2019

> @volvogirl said:
> You can do Ctrl+I to insert a transaction. But don't know if that works in investment accounts.
>
> See Keyboard shortcuts
> https://www.quicken.com/support/tell-me-about-keyboard-shortcuts-quicken

Nice try, volvogirl, but it didn't work for investments. As per usual, it's the old 'There is no register for investment accounts' excuse, I expect.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

By the way, someone on here 'spilled the beans' about the file structure they use. I read somewhere that Q uses a 'data base' system called SQLite-3 which I've never heard of. It's a freebe, and I'm going to download and install it on a different machine from my good working one, and then see if it will handle a copy of my .QDF file. I did both hierarchial and relational database design for many years, so maybe I can get an inside look. I use Msft SQL Server on my good machine and have about 10 different databases in it for various personal use, like 95k rows of Q data from .CSV export, and 80k rows for my digital music collection, 10 years of email archive, etc.

More to come on this!

skeleton567 · December 2019

> @Bob_L said:
> Suggestion by @UKR to use Enter Transaction is a good one, even for just one transaction as it returns you to the date entered in the register when your click done.

Guys, I know the enter transaction forms quite well, and use them lots. There are just times when it would be great to be able to see the transactions around the one you are entering. For instance, I have existing transactions in an investment account that record INT and DIV incomes for many years. In order to avoid building up cash balances and to keep the two separate, I'm entering two more 'BOUGHT' transactions which use the cash to purchase shares at $1.00 in Policy1-Int and Policy1-Div 'securities' for ongoing income. This then shows up in investment reports with the balances on deposit for the two income types. If and when I withdraw balances, I record a 'sale' of the $1.00 shares and a withdrawal.

This is my best attempt at getting Q to track my life insurance as an investment instead of just an asset. So far it works pretty well for whole life. Then I have history for four whole life policies with cash value additions. That will be the net attempt.

Development suggestion for the register

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