Another importing question

PeteKelly
PeteKelly Quicken Mac Other Member ✭✭
in Download, Add/Update Accounts (Mac)

My bank, M&T Bank, offers only QIF, CSV, and Direct Connect. I chose CSV because I don't want to connect my bank account with Quicken. Personal preference.

I'm able to manipulate my bank's CSV format into the one Quicken wants, and import it.

Some of the transactions I'm importing I have previously entered by hand; they're already in Quicken.

My questions:

When I import the CSV into Quicken, a Credit Card account is created, not a Checking account. Is this a problem? I don't see that it gives you a choice.

Am I right in thinking there's no transaction-matching feature when you import, rather than download, transactions? If that's true, is there a best practice for matching existing transactions to imported ones other than by hand pair by pair?

Thanks for any help.

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Comments

  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    When I import the CSV into Quicken, a Credit Card account is created, not a Checking account. Is this a problem? I don't see that it gives you a choice.

    You have an existing account in Quicken defined as a checking account, right? And when you import from CSV, each time it creates a new credit card account? I would do the import, Select All transactions, and drag them onto your exiting checking account to move them; then delete the now-empty credit card account. You'll need to do this every time, as Quicken isn't designed for continual imports from a CSV file.

    is there a best practice for matching existing transactions to imported ones other than by hand pair by pair?

    You drag one on top of the other to manually match them. I don't know of any other method when you're doing it the way you are. Auto-matching is built into direct downloads and imports from QXF files.

    If you're committed to staying away from Direct Connect (which has been the "gold standard" for secure and reliable connectivity for many years), you might also look into (paid) third-party utility software which will convert a CSV to a QFX file, which you can them import into Quicken. And that would save you having to do the spreadsheet editing of the CSV into Quicken's import format. We're not allowed to discuss other software products here, and I have no personal experience with them other than knowing that they have existed for many years, but if you do a google search for CSV to QXF converter, you'll see what's available.

    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • PeteKelly
    PeteKelly Quicken Mac Other Member ✭✭

    Thank you for the help. Unfortunately it won't let me drag one transaction onto another. I can reorder transactions as long as they have the same date, but that's it as far as dragging.

    I guess this is because I imported rather than downloaded?

    I think I need to start using Direct Connect. :)

    Thanks again.

  • jacobs
    jacobs Quicken Mac Subscription SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta

    Ah, yes, I should have realized that wouldn't work. Importing transactions form a CSV file are probably treated as manually-entered transactions, and you can't match one manually-entered transaction to another.

    you might want to create a new, empty Quicken file to use asa a test to connect to M&T bank and see what the downloads look like. If you're satisfied that it will work for you, then you can go back to your live data file and connect your account for downloading.

    Be aware that it will probably download the last 90 days of transactions, so you'll have a bunch of duplicates to delete the first time you download; after that it shouldn't be an issue. you'll be abel t to see which transactions are downloaded because they'll have blue dots in the first status column; that should make it easier to identify the duplicates, but if you have a lot of transactions each month, this might take you a little while to clean up. There is a way you could avoid that, if you want…

    • Create a new account in your Quicken data file for the M&T checking account.
    • Set this new account up for downloading via Direct Connect.
    • After it downloads the past 90 days of transactions, select and delete the ones which will duplicate ones you have already imported or entered manually.
    • Also delete the opening balance transaction Quicken created.
    • Go to your old M&T account in Quicken, Select All, and drag all the transactions in one swoop on top of the new M&T account.
    • So now all your transactions old and new will be combined in the new M&T account.
    • Delete the old M&T account after verifying that it is empty of all transactions.
    • Verify that your balance is correct.
    • Now you can continue downloading into the new (only) M&T account for transactions over time.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993

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