How do I automatically send a bill payment without using Quicken Bill Pay

I want to pay a recurring bill though my bank automatically (not using Quicken Bill Pay) but when I set it up, it always says To Send and I have to remember to go through the step of sending it manually. This is VERY FRUSTRATING!

Answers

  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited April 2020
    There is no option to automatically send a Direct Pay bill payment without initiating a connection to the bank. With the account selected, hitting Command-U on the keyboard will initiate an update.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Steve Sweitzer
    Steve Sweitzer Member ✭✭
    Thanks for the quick reply but this doesn't solve my problem. I had a mortgage payment that was supposed to be payed on the third. I update with the bank several times a week but it was still listed as To Send. It made me late on my payment. NOT a happy camper.
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited April 2020
    Are you saying you had a transaction that was in "To Send" status after which you updated (connected to the bank) and the transaction did not send. If so, that should not happen and it is something you would need to contact Quicken Support about.

    That said, you do have to manually initiate a connection after the To Send transaction has been entered. If you don't do that, it will not be sent. That's the way it works and there's no alternative to that I'm aware of.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Steve Sweitzer
    Steve Sweitzer Member ✭✭
    Thanks. So it sounds like I'm doing things correctly but it didn't send automatically. I'll keep an eye one it but it freaked me out so I went through the future payments and selected "Pay now" and that assigned a "check number" and it now indicates that they will pay on the expected day. This is an extra step I shouldn't have to go through.
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Again, it does not send automatically. When you connect, you should get a popup window to confirm that you want to send the payments.

    Make sure you're connecting the account that the payment is coming from, not just the mortgage account that the payment is going to.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    If you want to fully automate the process of paying your mortgage every month, why not authorize the mortgage company to direct debit the payment from your checking account on due date?
    Now the ball's in their court. Nothing for you to remember except to set up the scheduled payment reminder in Quicken to auto-enter a couple of days before due date, as a local transaction that does not get sent to the bank. And to make sure that you have enough cash in the checking account to cover the payment.
  • NotACPA
    NotACPA SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    There's 2 interlinked issues here:
    1. Initiiating the transfer/payment in Q, or
    2. Recording a previously established transfer/payment.
    The 2nd is easy, just set up a scheduled transaction for the amount and date and let Q handle it.
    The 1st requires a billlpay service of some sort.  Either Quicken's, your bank's or your lender/card/etc.  Also required is that you access the bank via Direct Connect as "Express Web Connect' is a "receive only" process and can't send instructions to your bank.
    All of my utilities and my mortgage and my credit cards are set up using either Direct Debit OR the automated Billpay facility of my bank.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • Steve Sweitzer
    Steve Sweitzer Member ✭✭
    Sure... and I could set it up to have my bank do it but I miss the old days when I could do this from within Quicken. Three steps forward and two steps back. Still a major disappointment. I hate it when software tries to force me to do it "their way" when I want to do it my way.
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