How to correct downloaded Memorized categories

Jktressler · August 7

I've been a quicken user since 1995. I'm a book keeper for 40 rental properties. I've never posted or asked questions in this community before. However, when nearly 50% of my downloaded transactions' were mis categorized in July, I need help. How did a toy store show up as a hospitol? How did a garden center show up as a utility company? How come rent deposits made by zelle is showing up from one tenant's name, instead of the 40 different zelle deposits with the correct individual names? I've followed the instructions to clear all memorized transactions and then set it to not memorize payees. Still, why are the downloads showing up with the wrong names and how do I get the same/accurate names to transfer from my bank, credit cards, etc the way it use to?

Jim_Harman · August 7

Welcome to the Community!

Check the settings at Edit > Preferences > Downloaded transactions for "Automatically categorize transactions" and "Automatically apply Quicken's suggested name to Payee." If your Renaming rules and Memorized Payees don't apply, Quicken tries to clean up the Payee names and/or apply Categories, but it often guesses wrong.

It sounds like you want want both of these to be un-checked. Also, under Your renaming rules, you probably want Automatically create rules when I rename Payees to be un-checked. Sometimes these settings get changed unexpectedly.

Also go to Tools > Renaming Rules and make these are set correctly. For example, look for a rule for the problem tenant's name that changes all Zelle transactions to that.

Please let us know what you find!

Jktressler · August 7

Thank you. I had already unchecked both the 'automatically categorize transaction' and 'automatically create rule', however, I did uncheck the 'Automatically apply quicken' s suggested name to payee'. I'm not sure how they even get some of the new rules that were popping up, but hopefully, that will stop it. I just wish it was as intuitive as it use to be. With 20-30 downloads a day, I now have to enter every transaction manually. I suppose it is better to do it correctly than to have AI do it incorrectly.

Also helpful was your tip about the renaming rules. I did not know where to find that before, so thank you.

Jim_Harman · August 7

To clarify, there is no AI involved, renaming and Category assignment is based on a strict set of rules and settings, although it can be confusing.

The "Automatically apply Quicken's suggested name to Payee" setting is separate from another setting on that page, "Use my existing renaming rules."

When a transaction is downloaded, if "Use my existing renaming rules" is checked, Quicken first looks in your renaming rules and if one applies, it uses that.

If "Use my rules" is not checked or none of your rules applies but "Automatically apply Quicken's name" is checked, Quicken looks for the downloaded Payee in an internal list of renaming rules and uses uses that if it finds a match.

The automatic renaming can be useful, but some of the choices it makes are overly simple and thus not very useful. For example, I bought an item from a company called Discount Marine. This downloaded as DISC MARINE and Quicken changed it to "Disc."

In case you are interested, here are the details of how renaming and the Memorized Payee List work:

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Here are the factors and settings that control how a downloaded transaction is matched to an existing transaction and automatically renamed, categorized, and tagged:

If an uncleared transaction is already in your register for the same amount and within 15 days before and 1 day after the downloaded transaction, Quicken declares a Match and retains the Category and Tag information that is in the register. This could be a manually entered transaction or a Reminder you have accepted. It is important to review each transaction to make sure the match is correct. If you have another transaction for the same amount and close to the downloaded date, the match may be incorrect.

If no matching transaction is found, the next step is to standardize the Payee name using your Renaming Rules, so that for example Starbucks is always Starbucks, not STARBUCKS #12345 or whatever was downloaded.

When applying Renaming rules, Quicken looks at both the downloaded Payee and Memo (if any).

If none of your Renaming Rules applies, Quicken can try to automatically rename the Payee, This is enabled by the settings in Edit > Preferences > Downloaded transactions. The automatic renaming works pretty well, but it sometimes makes mistakes. For example, it renames “BROWN DOG COFFEE CO BUENA VISTA CO” to “Dog.com”.

If the Payee after any renaming is found in your Memorized Payee List, the memorized Category and Tag information is applied.

If the Payee is not found in the MPL and “Automatically categorize transactions” is enabled in Edit > Preferences > Downloaded transactions and Quicken recognizes the Payee in its built-in list after automatic renaming, it will use the Payee name to assign one of its built-in Categories unless you have deleted that Category. If you have renamed the built-in Category, it will use the name you have assigned.

The automatic categorization is not foolproof. For example, it categorizes Christmas cards purchased through Unicef Market as Groceries.

I review each downloaded transaction and make any needed corrections before accepting it. Thus the only transactions that appear in the register are ones I have already reviewed and there is no need to tag the ones that have been reviewed.

If you auto-accept transactions, it puts a blue dot next to the ones you have not reviewed. I do not use this.

Chris_QPW · August 7

My feeling on this is that it is nice when starting out to have Quicken try to guess at what the cleaned-up payee name should be and the category, but it quickly becomes less and less useful. It is much better to fill out your renaming rules and categories. Provided that you don't get a lot of new payees of course.

In my case, since I very seldom have a new payee, I do leave the "Automatically apply Quicken's suggested name to payee" on. But I have Automatically categorize transactions and automatically memorize new payees off. For the renaming preferences I have Automatically create rules when I rename payees on, but I also have Let me review/confirm the automatically created rules on too.

As for reviewing the transactions when using the setting that puts the transactions directly into the register the blue dot is on the Account, which is basically the same kind of indicator that you need to look at the transactions in that account like the red flag is when not in this mode.

The individual transactions shown to need reviewing by looking at the Blue dot/Status column. There are various icons that show a transactions status. Blank is one that has been reviewed. There are various other icons, but by widening the Blue dot/status column you see the text after the icon and as such it is easier to see the uncleared, New and New match statuses.

How to correct downloaded Memorized categories

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