Importing credit card data into quicken-import qfx file into split transaction?

[dan steinberg]

Hi there everyone. I am hoping someone may be able to help me with a (hopefully) common use case I am stumped on, using Quicken Essentials for Mac (I just bought the upgrade from Quicken 2006 after getting a 10.7 machine)

I pay my Chase visa bill every month from my checking account. In Quicken, any bill I pay from checking (paper or EFT) is represented as a single line item (transaction) in the "checking account" register.

Up until now, I have been:
-Making that single transaction a "split" transaction
-Taking the paper visa statement, and hand-entering in all the individual visa transactions as sub-categories of the "split" transaction

This method, although tedious, has always made sense to me. The visa payment is a single check I send each month, so it belongs as a single line item in the Quicken checking account. However, it's also very important to "itemize" the individual charges that make up that check that is sent to visa, so they can all be categorized and thus give my year-end report actual meaning on where the money went.

So, in my goal to make things more automated, I downloaded a .qfx file from Chase, that represented the time period of my September visa statement. The problem is, when I import it into my quicken checking account page, there does not seem to be any way to import the qfx data into the lines of a "split" transaction. The imported file can only import into separate transactions of the checking account itself.

This is not ideal for 2 reasons:

-It clogs up my checking account window with every single individual visa charge, they can not be hidden/collapsed like when they are hand entered into a split transaction

-All the individual items make reconciling the checking account, within quicken, frustrating, because now there are all these tiny charges that are not on my bank statement.

Any thoughts? I am not clear on what other folks must be doing. If chase is offering download of qfx files to use in programs like quicken, then the idea must be to save you the trouble of entering in visa charges by hand,. But, if all the visa charges are showing up as individual entries in the account that PAYS the visa bill, that's not really right here. Maybe I am going about it all wrong?

Thanks in advance!

[Robert M]

Dan,

Typically, people using Quicken (or other personal finance package - I use MoneyDance) have a separate account configured for each of their credit cards and bank accounts. Credit card transactions are entered and categorized in the credit card account. Checking transactions in the checking account. As you pay your credit card bill, rather than splitting the transaction in the checking account, you simply make the category for the payment the credit card account. A transaction is made into the credit card account for that payment.

For example:

In Checking account

10/1/11 Cash $40.00 Personal:misc
10/1/11 Paycheck $1000.00 Personalalary
10/5/11 Credit Card $500.00 [Credit card account}

In credit card account...

10/1/11 Apple Computer $1000.00 personal:electronics and computers
10/2/11 Five Guys $19.20 personal:dining
10/2/11 Auto Insurance $150 Personal:insurance:auto
10/5/11 Payment $500.00 [Checking Account]

So, instead of doing a split in the checking account, you're actually doing the "split" categorizing in the credit card account and your payment becomes a single transaction in both accounts.

Each time you get a credit card statement, you reconcile it just like you would a checking or savings account statement.

Robert

[laarree]

I do what Robert described. I have a separate account set up in Quicken 2007 for each kind of account and categorize transactions in great, customized detail. It makes it easy to generate reports with category breakdowns too.

[dan steinberg]

That makes sense, I was wondering if that was one way of going about it. I will give that a try, thanks!

[Robert M]

Dan,

I think you'll be very happy with the results. It's the system I used in Quicken and the system I use in Money Dance. Never a problem.

Robert

[GGD]

I have always done as Robert M described, with an account for the credit card and a transfer when paying the credit card bill. The other advantage to this over what you have been doing is that you'll see all of the credit card purchased on listed on the date of the purchase rather than on the date the credit card bill was paid. This can be helpful when trying to figure out when you bought an item.

BTW: I'm pretty sure this is the method described in the Quicken user manual back when I first started using Quicken in 1998.

[Robert M]

GGD,

I believe you are correct. I remember reading about in the manual of the an ancient version of quicken. Even without the manual, it never occurred to me not to configure my accounts this way. It just seemed to make sense to me.

Robert

[dan steinberg]

I did some more messing around with the separate visa account I just set up in Quicken, and it turns out Quicken Essentials can actually directly connect to the Chase servers on an ongoing basis, so it will be able to download new visa transactions as they come in, on an ongoing basis.

So, no need to even go to my account on the Chase web page and download qfx files, which is even easier. I will still have to massage the categories it guesses for the downloaded transactions, but still much, much quicker.

I wish my bank (Navy Federal Credit Union) could directly talk to Quicken that way, but it does not seem to. So for transactions for my bank accounts with them, I will still need to go download qfx files every month or so.

Thanks!