Unlink Transfer while preserving both entries

MDD
MDD Member ✭✭
Recently I have been getting a problem where Quicken is incorrectly identifying downloaded transactions as transfers. If I manually remove the entry in the category field from one account, the corresponding transaction is deleted and I have to re-enter it.

Three questions

Is there a way to simply unlink the two transactions (removing the category field entry from both transactions) but leaving both transactions present in Quicken ?

Any idea why quicken is linking the transactions in the first place.

Any way to stop quicken from linking the transactions in the first place

Answers

  • Quicken Anja
    Quicken Anja Moderator mod
    edited June 2022
    Hello @MDD,

    Thank you for reaching out to the Community and telling us about your issue, though I apologize that you are experiencing this.

    Unfortunately, when there is no way to unlink the 2 transactions by changing the category field without losing one. The only way to revert this would be to restore a backup that was saved prior to the issue occurring, or by manually correcting them in your current file which would include manually re-entering the lost transaction after a category change.

    However, you can prevent this issue from reoccurring going forward by changing your Transfer Detection settings. To do so, you would navigate to Edit > Preferences > Transfer Detection (see example below).



    You can either leave the checkbox for "Scan downloaded transactions for possible transfers" checked and select the option to "Confirm possible transfers before entering in register", or you can turn transfer detection completely off by unchecking the top checkbox.

    I hope this helps!

    -Quicken Anja
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  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    If Quicken incorrectly assumed a transaction was a transfer, let's say, from Checking to your VISA credit card account and put a linked pair of transactions into both registers ... ask yourself which account should the transaction remain in? The Checking account? If so, go to the checking account register, edit the transaction and change it from Category = [My VISA] to what the correct category should be, e.g., "Auto:Gasoline". This will make the 2nd half of the transaction disappear from the VISA account. No need to delete both halves of the transaction and reenter it from scratch.
    If the transaction also contains the word "Xfer" in the Check# (or Reference#) field, blank it out. There is an issue with some banks incorrectly downloading regular charge transactions flagged as transfers ... which causes Quicken to build an incorrect transaction.
  • MDD
    MDD Member ✭✭
    UKR - The problem is that I want both transactions in the register. They are both valid. They are simply not a valid transfer between accounts
  • MDD
    MDD Member ✭✭
    I think the real cuplrit is here is Zelle. Typically, when this happens one of the transactions is a Zelle to my checking account. Quicken is erroneously then matching the Zelle transaction with a credit card transaction from the same day for the same amount, even though they are not related. Which comes down to the fact the Zelle transactions are coming into Quicken as transfers, even though 99% of the time when a Zelle sourced transaction arrives the other account will be a third-party account that does not exist in the current Quicken File
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    MDD said:
    UKR - The problem is that I want both transactions in the register. They are both valid. They are simply not a valid transfer between accounts
    Once the transfer detection changes the two transactions into a linked transfer, there isn't any way to get the two transactions back except breaking the connection and manually entering the side of the transaction that is removed.

    Given that there isn't any undo for this in on reason to be very careful about letting Quicken make this "is it a transfer" guess.  You should at least have the option on that make Quicken confirm that it is in fact a transfer.  Quicken is just making a guess based on the amounts and approximate date.
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  • MDD
    MDD Member ✭✭
    I guess I what I am looking for is an enhancement to unlink a transfer
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    MDD said:
    I guess I what I am looking for is an enhancement to unlink a transfer
    To post it is an idea, go to the home page and select New Post -> New Idea.
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  • Sherlock
    Sherlock Member ✭✭✭✭
    An approach that works today is to copy and paste the transfer transaction, reset the category in one of the transactions, go to the matching transaction of other transaction, and reset the category.
  • WCCharles
    WCCharles Member
    Helpful comment by the moderator to switch to 'Confirm' transfers setting. However, this has been an issue I've experienced on nearly a monthly basis for YEARS. Please add an option to unlink transfers without deleting one.
  • MDD
    MDD Member ✭✭
    Please upvote or comment on https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7914352/add-an-unlink-transfer-option-to-the-right-click-register-menu#latest
This discussion has been closed.