locked
Memorized payees don't include categories RRS feed

  • Question

  • I'm trying to transition from Quicken 2017 to MS Money Sunset, but having some confusing moments. 

    It appears that although Money has a "memorized Payees" list similar to Quicken's, Money doesn't remember the category associated with the payee. 

    For instance, when I import transactions from my bank via OFX in Money, my grocery store appears as ALDI, but I have to go and add the Grocery category for every entry; unlike Quicken, which memorized the category with the payee and automatically entered 'Grocery' whenever the payee 'ALDI' appeared.

    Have I missed something, or is there any way to have MS Money behave as Quicken does? 

    Thanks In Advance

    Tuesday, August 18, 2020 10:33 PM

All replies

  • Money too will remember the category for future transactions as a best guess, and perhaps if you imported sample transactions to start, filled in the categories, saved the file, and then imported the rest, it may have performed as expected.
    Tuesday, August 18, 2020 11:41 PM
  • Money Sunset remembers the category for me. I don't find a setting that would control that.

    Are you sure the Payees are the same, and not variants?

    Try ticking Tools->Setting->Online Services->ShowStandardizedPayeeNames 

    and Tools->Options/Settings->OnlineServices->ReplacePayeeNames...


    Wednesday, August 19, 2020 2:01 AM
    Moderator
  • That's always worked for me. If you create a brand new transaction (not import one) and make the Payee Aldi, does it put Grocery for the Category automatically?

    Wednesday, August 19, 2020 2:46 AM
  • Thanks for the responses - You're correct, it does now fill it in if I create a new entry manually for ALDI. I did a small test and it also appears to fill it in if imported.

    However, it doesn't seem to work for all payees so far. Some that I've entered before and selected a category for, do not automatically fill in when I enter a new transaction. 

    Does a payee have to be entered a certain number of times before Money determines the category? 

    Is there any page or setting in Money where it shows the payees with their automatically associated category? 


    • Edited by byslexic Wednesday, August 19, 2020 1:45 PM
    Wednesday, August 19, 2020 1:44 PM
  • Money Sunset remembers the category for me. I don't find a setting that would control that.

    Are you sure the Payees are the same, and not variants?

    Try ticking Tools->Setting->Online Services->ShowStandardizedPayeeNames 

    and Tools->Options/Settings->OnlineServices->ReplacePayeeNames...


    Thanks Cal, I have now checked those boxes, and I'll see if it makes a difference next time I can import new transactions. 

    Meantime, related question regarding variants?

    For example: LYFT charges always download in the format LYFT *Ride Day Date Time DriverPhone#.  

    It's impossible to enter every variant of this payee, as it will always be unique. How does one get Money to recognize that all these are the same payee?

    TIA!

    Wednesday, August 19, 2020 1:57 PM
  • Another strategy is to massage the data prior to importing it into Money.  I have a self-built tool that will

    • monitor the Download folder for new *.qfx files
    • run cleanup script
    • then call Money to import

    If there is enough interest, I will clean it up and make it available for other to use.

    Best,

    Wednesday, August 19, 2020 3:44 PM
  • Is there any page or setting in Money where it shows the payees with their automatically associated category? 

    No.

    Take a look at the Preferred Payee names and the Payee Rules Manager. They are not what you are asking for, but they still might be useful. Also consider combining categories.

    To help navigating, I suggest that you use the Shortcuts icons at the top to add your favorite places. Mine are Account List,Portfolio,  Reports, Categories, Payees Capital Gains, Tax Estimator, and Watch.

    Wednesday, August 19, 2020 6:21 PM
    Moderator
  • Another strategy is to massage the data prior to importing it into Money.  I have a self-built tool that will

    • monitor the Download folder for new *.qfx files
    • run cleanup script
    • then call Money to import

    If there is enough interest, I will clean it up and make it available for other to use

    I'd be very interested in this. When I download from Capital One, I get a QFX file. I rename it to OFX, but the transactions always import with the payee in the Memo field. Having some way to correct that prior to importing the data would be terrific! Please let me know if you would like to share, or have any tips. 
    Wednesday, August 19, 2020 11:13 PM
  •  When I download from Capital One, I get a QFX file. I rename it to OFX, but the transactions always import with the payee in the Memo field. Having some way to correct that prior to importing the data would be terrific! Please let me know if you would like to share, or have any tips. 

    For the QFX name thing, see https://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/87919ad9-5d1b-4ce9-9450-c167768fc106/changing-extension?forum=money

    Do you use PocketSense? It does not download Capital One bank or credit card directly, but maybe you use it for something else. 

    Wednesday, August 19, 2020 11:32 PM
    Moderator
  •  When I download from Capital One, I get a QFX file. I rename it to OFX, but the transactions always import with the payee in the Memo field. Having some way to correct that prior to importing the data would be terrific! Please let me know if you would like to share, or have any tips. 

    For the QFX name thing, see 

    Do you use PocketSense? It does not download Capital One bank or credit card directly, but maybe you use it for something else. 

    Thanks Cal, I don't have any problems renaming QFX to OFX, and I think I've solved the Payee in the Memo field using the MT2OFX tool. It has a "swap Memo and Payee field" checkbox built right in. 

    Also, I do have Pocketsense, and had limited success setting it up. Citibank credit card works fine with pocketsense, but Chase credit cards don't, so far. It seems little advantage to use Pocketsense as these are my only two credit card accounts, and both banks allow me to download QFX files using custom dates, rather than have to adjust the default interval if I should forget to run Pocketsense on a regular schedule.   

    Friday, August 21, 2020 10:43 PM
  •  When I download from Capital One, I get a QFX file. I rename it to OFX, but the transactions always import with the payee in the Memo field. Having some way to correct that prior to importing the data would be terrific! Please let me know if you would like to share, or have any tips. 

    For the QFX name thing, see 

    Do you use PocketSense? It does not download Capital One bank or credit card directly, but maybe you use it for something else. 

    Thanks Cal, I don't have any problems renaming QFX to OFX, and I think I've solved the Payee in the Memo field using the MT2OFX tool. It has a "swap Memo and Payee field" checkbox built right in. 

    Also, I do have Pocketsense, and had limited success setting it up. Citibank credit card works fine with pocketsense, but Chase credit cards don't, so far. It seems little advantage to use Pocketsense as these are my only two credit card accounts, and both banks allow me to download QFX files using custom dates, rather than have to adjust the default interval if I should forget to run Pocketsense on a regular schedule.   

    Because Citicards do it right with the FITID, you can set defaultInterval: (global) or mininterval: (in the sites.dat Citicard descriptor) to something significantly longer that how often you download.  For example, I have PS download 5 days per week with the Windows Scheduler running a batch file.  Duplicates are ignored, so no problem with overlap. If I downloaded less frequently, I would set the interval much longer.

    For my other credit card and for Citi banking, I use OFX or QFX web download. For the banking, I specify the interval as you do. I bring those in via web maybe once per month or even less frequently. I use them less than the Citicard.

    Saturday, August 22, 2020 12:52 AM
    Moderator