Statement Payee error

The "Statement Payee" in Quicken (as opposed to "Payee") reflects what Quicken has received from the bank with no alteration. If fact, if you add that column to a register, you will see that it cannot be edited. So the issue here lies totally with the bank: they are transmitting one thing to Quicken and putting something different on the statement they generate.

That said, you can probably resolve this by creating a Renaming Rule in Quicken. Click menu Quicken > Payees & Rules, then Renaming Rules. Click the plus sign at the bottom to create a new rule. In the "If statement name contains" field, put "FARM", "FLT", "OF". In the Set Payee Name To field, put whatever you'd like the Payee to become. 

Just to clarify: Statement Payee is the info the bank transmits. It is a one-way flow of info and cannot be edited nor is it modified by Quicken. The Payee field is separate. The Payee field is the one that you can modify and the one you'd use when searching, generating reports, etc. Make sure you have both the Payee and Statement Payee columns displayed in the register so you can see the difference.

Yes, the Statement Payee seems to be being transmitted incorrectly by the bank according to your description. Quicken doesn't interpret it. It just accepts it into the Statement Payee field. In the absence of a renaming rule, Quicken will copy the Statement Payee into Payee field for a downloaded/unmatched transaction. Also, if in Preferences > Connected Services you have the box checked for Automatically Improve the Quality of Downloaded Payee Names..., Quicken may modify the Statement Payee as it copies it to the Payee field. It's a bit of a mystery how this actually works. You may want to try unchecking that box if you have it checked.

But, as I said, the Renaming Rule should be able to fix this for you. With the Statement Payee totally wrong, the renaming rule will allow you to make it totally right when it gets copied to the Payee field. The Statement Payee will remain wrong, but that doesn't matter. It's only the Payee field being correct that you should really care about.

Are you saying you have two different payees on the bank's end: "Farm & Fleet" and "deposit@mobile" which are correct. But when they come into Quicken they both show up with Statement Payee "Farm & Fleet". If that's the case, then you're right, a renaming rule is going to mess up the correct Farm & Fleet transactions and you wouldn't want that. 

Do you have the preferences box "Automatically improve..." checked? If so, I'd try unchecking it and see if that corrects the issue. If that doesn't do it, then I think the only recourse is to get the bank to transmit the correct Statement Payee.

One more question: Is this bank connected by Quicken Connect or Direct Connect? If Quicken Connect, then possibly changing to Direct Connect if available and the bank doesn't charge for it could affect this situation.

jacain956 said:

Why would I change a renaming rule for information that is wrong from the bank?

If the information is wrong from the bank, then your best course of action is to try to get the bank to see their problem and correct it, or you could be fighting uphill against wrong data in Quicken indefinitely.

But just to go back to what Rick has asked, I want to make sure we're all taking the same language in understanding the difference between "Payee" and "Statement Payee" in Quicken. Statement Payee is, verbatim, what the bank transmits to Quicken. If that information is wrong, it's something you should pursue with the bank. Renaming rules in Quicken can help clean up or normalize Statement Payee names, but if they are truly erroneous, rules may not be able to help. You can see the Statement Payee as downloaded from the bank either by making the Statement Payee column visible in your register or by clicking on a transaction and opening the Transaction Inspector (View > Show Inspector) and looking near the bottom for the Statement Payee in the From Your Financial Institution section.