Do I need to re-enter all payees after being forced to move from Quicken Bill Pay to Bill Manager?

monarch50 · August 2020

Hello!
I have unfortunately waited until the last minute to migrate from Quicken Bill Pay to Bill Manager. I have over 15 years of payees in Bill Pay. I was hoping to be able to export this data / import to the new Bill Manager tool. I have been unable to find any documentation on 1) how to do this and/or 2) if this is possible. Would love some help!

If I need to re-enter them all, I would like to know asap so I can start copying them before Bill Pay is shut down tomorrow.

Mayday! SOS! Thanks for the help!!

Sherlock · August 2020

The online payees should persist in the Online Payee List (select Tools > Online Payee List) and may continue to be used to pay bills from within Quicken using one of the more than 500 financial institutions that support online bill payment using the Direct Connect connection method.

If we do choose to migrate payments to Quick Pay, we must create online bills which are used to authorize access to the online billers by the new third-party payment service provider. There isn't any way Quicken could automate this process. Quicken is able to migrate online payees to Check Pay payees.

Note: As the number of Quick Pay and Check Pay payments we're allowed to issue each month is limited, migrating a large number of online payees isn't beneficial: https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-bill-manager-how-many-payments-can-i-make-each-month

If you haven't already, you may want to review:
https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-bill-manager-how-set-quick-pay-and-check-pay
https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-bill-manager-how-make-payments-using-quick-pay-and-check-pay
https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-bill-manager-windows-frequently-asked-questions

Boatnmaniac · August 2020

@monarch50 - I've never used Quicken's bill pay services because it doesn't really offer me anything of what I need that I can't very reliably get from my bank for free and without some of the limitations (like the number of checks each month). Obviously, there are people who feel that they get real value from using Quicken's bill pay services so it does meet a need/want niche.

Taking a good hard look at what your bank (or other banks) offers and bouncing that off of what the Quicken services offer is a good idea. If they offer Direct Connect bill pay you can still pay your bills directly from within Quicken without needing to go to your bank's website to do that. Not all banks offer Direct Connect bill pay service but many do. Of those that do, some will charge a flat monthly connection/service fee for Direct Connect but others do not.

If you do go the route of using a bank's Direct Connect or online bill pay service you could then also consider downgrading from Premier to Deluxe saving yourself some money on subscription costs. Deluxe offers most of the same functionality and features of Premier without the free Quicken Bill Pay service and a loss of only some of the investments reporting and analysis features. You can try downgrading to Deluxe at anytime to see if it meets your needs/wants and if you don't like it you can then upgrade to Premier at any time. Quicken will refund/charge only the difference in subscriptions cost so you don't need to be concerned about paying for a whole new subscription to do this. And downgrading/upgrading doesn't require new software downloads. It is all the same software with only some features being turned off or on.

Boatnmaniac · August 2020

Perhaps you will find this helpful: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7880155/with-the-new-version-of-quicken-do-i-have-to-reenter-all-the-addresses-of-my-bill-pay-checks#latest.

monarch50 · August 2020

Thank you for the link. I have one more question. It looks like I can only copy them over once a bill has been entered. Do you know if there is a section where I could just enter all the payees and not have to put bills in at the same time?

Sherlock · August 2020

The online payees should persist in the Online Payee List (select Tools > Online Payee List) and may continue to be used to pay bills from within Quicken using one of the more than 500 financial institutions that support online bill payment using the Direct Connect connection method.

If we do choose to migrate payments to Quick Pay, we must create online bills which are used to authorize access to the online billers by the new third-party payment service provider. There isn't any way Quicken could automate this process. Quicken is able to migrate online payees to Check Pay payees.

Note: As the number of Quick Pay and Check Pay payments we're allowed to issue each month is limited, migrating a large number of online payees isn't beneficial: https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-bill-manager-how-many-payments-can-i-make-each-month

If you haven't already, you may want to review:
https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-bill-manager-how-set-quick-pay-and-check-pay
https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-bill-manager-how-make-payments-using-quick-pay-and-check-pay
https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-bill-manager-windows-frequently-asked-questions

monarch50 · August 2020

I have purchased Quicken Premiere and the more I uncover about the switch the more disheartened I am. Thanks for the heads up on the limited number of payments I can make. I liked that with Quicken Bill Pay, if I needed more, they just charged me more. That worked for me. I still got the service I needed.

Now, I think I will instead set up payments through my bank so I don't struggle with the payment # limit. I do wish Quicken had more upfront about the differences between Bill Pay and Bill Manager. (And I honestly wish I wasn't such a procrastinator & didn't wait until the last minute!)

Boatnmaniac · August 2020

@monarch50 - I've never used Quicken's bill pay services because it doesn't really offer me anything of what I need that I can't very reliably get from my bank for free and without some of the limitations (like the number of checks each month). Obviously, there are people who feel that they get real value from using Quicken's bill pay services so it does meet a need/want niche.

Taking a good hard look at what your bank (or other banks) offers and bouncing that off of what the Quicken services offer is a good idea. If they offer Direct Connect bill pay you can still pay your bills directly from within Quicken without needing to go to your bank's website to do that. Not all banks offer Direct Connect bill pay service but many do. Of those that do, some will charge a flat monthly connection/service fee for Direct Connect but others do not.

If you do go the route of using a bank's Direct Connect or online bill pay service you could then also consider downgrading from Premier to Deluxe saving yourself some money on subscription costs. Deluxe offers most of the same functionality and features of Premier without the free Quicken Bill Pay service and a loss of only some of the investments reporting and analysis features. You can try downgrading to Deluxe at anytime to see if it meets your needs/wants and if you don't like it you can then upgrade to Premier at any time. Quicken will refund/charge only the difference in subscriptions cost so you don't need to be concerned about paying for a whole new subscription to do this. And downgrading/upgrading doesn't require new software downloads. It is all the same software with only some features being turned off or on.

monarch50 · August 2020

Great info. Thank you for the quick advice. Much appreciated!

Sue C · August 2020

I also procrastinated, and I am so disappointed in this offering. It removes all the features I really liked. I will also be seeing what my bank has to offer instead of this, and I am a LONG TIME Quicken bill pay user.

alfried3 · September 2020

I've been using Quicken since its inception, in the mid 80's or so. [removed-rant] As far as Bill Manager, I have deleted all my accounts and will be using Bank Billpay and using Quicken just as a check register. It will be a two step process, but well worth the time.

Do I need to re-enter all payees after being forced to move from Quicken Bill Pay to Bill Manager?

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