How do I enable Pending Transactions?

PhilD1960
PhilD1960 Quicken Mac Subscription Member

The Windows forum says it is easy, but I do not see the same items on the screen.

There is no register row, and no "hourglass"

Answers

  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭

    There is no such option in either Quicken Mac or Quicken Windows.

    The history of Quicken has always been not to include pending transactions because Quicken/the download system can't properly handle them, for instance if one was to not go through there isn't a system to remove a transaction automatically.

    What you see in the Quicken Windows threads are an "attempt" on making pending transactions options. Actually, it was at least two attempts. Both failed and were pulled almost immediately.

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  • PhilD1960
    PhilD1960 Quicken Mac Subscription Member

    I am converting from Mint, and this was a feature I had gotten used to for more than 12 years.

    Darn.

  • vmiheer
    vmiheer Quicken Mac Subscription Member

    now I feel stupid for paying the yearly subscription price. 😅

  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    Aside from being used to it, why does seeing your pending transactions make a big difference in tracking your finances? You've been used to it for 12 years, while I've been used to not seeing them for three decade with Quicken. We all come up with personal workflows that work for us, so I'm not saying one is better than the other — only that's it's quite livable either way.

    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭

    My take on this has always been that there are the people that like to live on the edge. They need to see their pending transactions because at any given time they are about to overdraft their accounts.

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  • PhilD1960
    PhilD1960 Quicken Mac Subscription Member

    Understood. I just wanted to see an up to the minute analysis.

  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭

    For what it is worth, just to be on top of fraud and such, I have notifications setup at my financial institution for any purchase/deposit/withdraw (I get email but could also be a text). And when in doubt I use the financial institution's App/Web site (but even that can be inconsistent, see below). But on the subject of fraud, you really have a lot more time to catch it because of the way the laws are set (which were created when monthly reconcile was the norm).

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  • Raventotem99
    Raventotem99 Quicken Windows Subscription Member

    I too would like to see the "pending transactions" get updated from all of our institutions, including Quicken. Basically, its now outdated. Things used to have to be "verified" and "finalized" at the end of every day, and week. That is no longer the case. Everything is verified and finalized almost immediately. I don't run my balances close to overdraft, but I like to have accuracy, and nothing "up in the air". If there is a problem, I like to handle it as quickly as I notice it. Waiting a day or two before it even shows where a charge is processing is a delay that doesn't need to exist. I have been the victim of fraud and had my account numbers stolen several times, and the faster you get it on record, cancel the card associated, and get a new card shipped to replace it, the better and less there is to clean up and reverse. Why does there need to be a 24-48hr delay before I see any transaction data? Real reason: there doesn't need to be any delay.

  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭

    @Raventotem99 Chase typically takes 24 hours to clear pending transactions, so what you have stated isn't correct for all financial institutions.

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  • QuickUserPSP
    QuickUserPSP Member, Windows Beta Beta
    edited February 12

    @Raventotem99 Whether or not to have pending transactions is certainly a polarizing topic. I personally do not want pending transactions downloaded from any of my financial institutions.

    Pending transactions are not accurate a lot of the time. If you go to a restaurant, they only initially put through the amount not including the tip. That is because they are only checking if you have enough money to cover the bill. If you travel, rental cars and hotels put though an estimated amount that is usually much larger than the actual amount to cover "incidentals". I have seen other places put through a token charge of 1.00 just to check if the card is active. I have also seen pending amounts drop off and not get charged.

    I think it's a no-win situation for Quicken, if they allow for pending transactions and any of these "bogus" charges get posted, users are going to complain, if they don't allow for pending transactions, users want it. Usually if anything doesn't seem right, Quicken gets blamed, when the problem really is there is not a standard way for a business to enter pending transactions. And thus, there is no way that anyone can guarantee accuracy when pending transactions are involved. With pending transactions there will always be a mismatch of the online balance reported, and the actual transactions that posted to Quicken.

    They did add the ability for pending transactions not too long ago, but within an update or two, it was removed. If and when they this feature again, I for one will be turning it off.

  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭

    If you go to a restaurant, they only initially put through the amount not including the tip.

    The first time that happened to me I was worried that somehow my tip had gotten lost and was worried I did something wrong, and they didn't get the tip.

    When they attempted this in Quicken Windows (twice) the reason it was pulled back twice was because the in different places the balance weren't correct. They did evidentially know which transactions were pending, and they treated them sort of like how reminders are in the register where they can be shown or not and aren't "really in the account". That allowed them to remove them if they didn't go through. But one has to remember that Quicken gets it data from multiple connection types that may not have such information. Also, along with the balance problems were reconcile problems. The Online Balance has always been "unstable" in some cases. Even when it shouldn't include pending transactions some financial institutions include them in the Online Balance, but don't send the transactions. And it can even be that the Online Balance is wrong for some duration of time like overnight or on a weekend.

    This sort of reminds me of the debate on whether Quicken Mac should have the mode where downloaded transactions are reviewed outside of the register (and then accept them into the register).

    Quicken Windows started with this mode and didn't have the mode where transactions go right into the register. But just about the time when Quicken Mac was rewritten and Intuit bought Mint which worked that way, Intuit made that the mode for Quicken Mac and added it as an option to Quicken Windows. In the Quicken Windows world there are people that think that the mode where downloaded transactions go directly into the register is somehow "error prone" or such (without ever using the mode), but I have found it to be even better because I can use the full power of the register. But one thing that is perfectly clear is that by having both modes there are more bugs and just trying to explain to people what they should do for a given situation gets harder because you have to first determine what mode they are using.

    Bottom line is that an application that always has pending transactions will have an easier time than Quicken trying to maintain both, and there just isn't anyway that Quicken users are going to accept downloading pending transactions as a requirement.

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