Can transaction payee field size be increased?

herbert0
herbert0 Member ✭✭
My bank recently was merged with a larger bank. The transaction description provided by the new bank has more detail, but when I import it into Quicken part of the detail is cutoff. It's impossible to create a renaming rule because if the transaction is a POS/PIN transaction with a debit card, the first 33 characters are the same, so I'm having to manually lookup each transaction online to determine who the actual payee is. Is there a way to increase the size of the "Payee" field in my Quicken file or to modify the delimiter to it gets the entire line of data?

Best Answer

  • WindowFinance
    WindowFinance Member ✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    > @Chris_QPW said:
    > You are certainly welcome to put in a request for the memo field to be enlarged, go to the Home web page and select New Post -> New Idea.

    I just wanted to get things off my chest. For me to take the time and effort to submit a new idea to Quicken through the proper channel, Quicken would need to pay me :smile:
    Refugee from Microsoft Money. Now resident of the latest Quicken Premier for Windows.

Answers

  • Quicken Jasmine
    Quicken Jasmine Moderator mod
    Hello @herbert0,

    Thank you for contacting the Quicken Community with this question. 

    I have located a couple of discussion threads that may be of use to you in regards to the payee field. I have posted links to these threads below:

    https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7899675/enlarge-size-of-registers-payee-dropdown-window

    https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7888591/payee-field-length

    I hope you find these to be helpful. 
    Please do not hesitate to reach out with any further questions or concerns. 

    -Quicken Jasmine

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  • herbert0
    herbert0 Member ✭✭
    Thanks Jasmine. The first thread you provided is simply changing how the data looks in my Quicken view, which I had already done, so no help there. The second thread indicates I should inquire my bank about the issue, which I have also done and waiting for a response. I was hoping there was a config file that Quicken uses that could be modified to increase the field size. We'll see where all this leads.

    > @"Quicken Jasmine" said:
    > Hello @herbert0,
    >
    > Thank you for contacting the Quicken Community with this question. 
    >
    > I have located a couple of discussion threads that may be of use to you in regards to the payee field. I have posted links to these threads below:
    >
    > https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7899675/enlarge-size-of-registers-payee-dropdown-window
    >
    > https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7888591/payee-field-length
    >
    > I hope you find these to be helpful. 
    > Please do not hesitate to reach out with any further questions or concerns. 
  • Quicken Jasmine
    Quicken Jasmine Moderator mod
    Hello @herbert0,

    Thank you for your response. 

    Please let us know when you hear back from your bank. 

    Enjoy your weekend!

    -Quicken Jasmine

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  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2022
    Note that Quicken adheres to the OFX standard which says that the payee field is limited to 32 characters and the memo field is limited to 255 characters.

    EDIT.  Note the OFX standard is for the transferring of the information from the financial institution to Quicken.  Quicken's payee field actually has a limit of 65 characters, so that isn't what is limiting this.
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  • WindowFinance
    WindowFinance Member ✭✭✭
    edited April 2022
    The character limit in the Memo field in Quicken is very annoying. Regardless of what the bank says or what the OFX standard is, once the transactions are imported into Quicken, the software should allow me to put more in the memo line, which is all local on my computer. How else can I record more details about a transaction? Sometimes, I want to write a few sentences about an event, a memory or something associated with that financial transaction in Quicken. It's all plain text.
    How much space can it take! This should be trivial to implement. Failure to do so is inexcusable.
    Please fix this Quicken!
    Refugee from Microsoft Money. Now resident of the latest Quicken Premier for Windows.
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    The character limit in the Memo field in Quicken is very annoying. Regardless of what the bank says or what the OFX standard is, once the transactions are imported into Quicken, the software should allow me to put more in the memo line, which is all local on my computer. How else can I record more details about a transaction? Sometimes, I want to write a few sentences about an event, a memory or something associated with that financial transaction in Quicken. It's all plain text.
    How much space can it take! This should be trivial to implement. Failure to do so is inexcusable.
    Please fix this Quicken!
    You are certainly welcome to put in a request for the memo field to be enlarged, go to the Home web page and select New Post -> New Idea.

    But be aware of the fact that some people might not agree with your request.  Databases have fixed sized records.  So, every byte that they increase for your memo will be applied to every transaction in every customer's data file.  Some might not like having their data file size increased for this purpose.
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  • volvogirl
    volvogirl SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    In my Quicken 2013 I can right click and add a Note or go up to Edit -> Transaction.  Or you can add an attachment.  

    I'm staying on Quicken 2013 Premier for Windows.

  • herbert0
    herbert0 Member ✭✭
    @volvogirl I'm already doing this, but I have to manually lookup each transaction online, so it's double work. Thanks
  • herbert0
    herbert0 Member ✭✭
    > @WindowFinance said:
    > The character limit in the Memo field in Quicken is very annoying. Regardless of what the bank says or what the OFX standard is, once the transactions are imported into Quicken, the software should allow me to put more in the memo line, which is all local on my computer. How else can I record more details about a transaction? Sometimes, I want to write a few sentences about an event, a memory or something associated with that financial transaction in Quicken. It's all plain text.
    > How much space can it take! This should be trivial to implement. Failure to do so is inexcusable.
    > Please fix this Quicken!

    The memo field is not the field I'm asking to increase. It's the payee field.
  • herbert0
    herbert0 Member ✭✭
    > @Quicken Jasmine said:
    > Hello @herbert0,
    >
    > Thank you for your response. 
    >
    > Please let us know when you hear back from your bank. 
    >
    > Enjoy your weekend!

    Well, I did hear back from my bank today, but the answer they gave was bogus. It was obvious they didn't understand what I was asking. Their recommendation was to categorize my transactions online and eventually their system would start auto-categorizing them for me. smh :(
  • WindowFinance
    WindowFinance Member ✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    > @Chris_QPW said:
    > You are certainly welcome to put in a request for the memo field to be enlarged, go to the Home web page and select New Post -> New Idea.

    I just wanted to get things off my chest. For me to take the time and effort to submit a new idea to Quicken through the proper channel, Quicken would need to pay me :smile:
    Refugee from Microsoft Money. Now resident of the latest Quicken Premier for Windows.
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