Introduction

All of your accounts contain transactions that need to be managed. Whether you download your transactions or enter them manually, they require your time and attention. Using alerts, you can monitor and manage when your transactions and bills are due, which you can review and update from each account center. You can manage your account transactions from several places in Quicken: from the Quicken Home page, from the account centers, and from the individual account registers. For example, the Scheduled Bills & Deposits section of the Cash Flow Center allows you to view all of your bills that are due, enter them in your account registers, edit the transaction information, and choose to skip individual instances of transactions. In addition, you can add new transactions and paychecks .

Using the account centers to manage your bills and transactions is beneficial because all your bills and transactions for your similar accounts (cash flow, investment, or property and debt) are listed in one place. Therefore, you don't have to open individual account registers to view and manage the bills or scheduled transactions that are due for each of your accounts. Each account center provides one-stop access to all your bills and account transactions that are due for the accounts in that center.

You also have the option of managing your account transactions by going into each individual account register. In the account registers, you can add, edit, or delete transactions; add downloaded transactions to the register; set up scheduled transactions; search for transactions; transfer funds between accounts; and balance your account. In addition, you can view spending averages for transactions and reports for each of your accounts.

This chapter covers everything you need to know about transactions to help you manage and take control of your bills and transactions.

Managing Alerts

The first section of each of the account centers is Alerts; for example, Cash Flow Alerts is the first section of the Cash Flow Center. This is where your alerts that are associated with your cash flow accounts are listed. You should review the alerts to ensure they are working for you. Is the timing good? Are there too many or too few? Remember, alerts are only as current as the information in Quicken. Therefore, it is important to keep Quicken up-to-date with the latest transactions and quotes using One Step Update or if you manually enter information, with your latest statement information. You can review, update, or remove alerts from any of the account centers. The process is the same. The example provided here shows you how to review and update your cash flow alerts from the Cash Flow Center.

Manage Cash Flow Alerts

From the account bar, select the account center for which you want to review and manage alerts.

To take action on an alert, click the links within the Message column.

To see a list of all alerts that are currently active, click Show All Alerts .

To remove an alert, select the box next to the alert and click Delete . A message appears, asking if you want to delete the alert; click OK .

To make changes to alerts, click the Setup tab.

Review and change all alerts as needed, and then close the window when you are finished.

As your bills and scheduled transactions become due, you can add them to your account registers, unless you indicated when you set them up for Quicken to automatically enter them in your account registers. You can also edit them or skip an instance of a transaction. When you enter account transactions from the Scheduled Bills & Deposits section of the Cash Flow Center, they are automatically added to the appropriate account register. If you download transactions, the transactions appear on the Downloaded Transactions tab in the account register. You can then add the transactions to your register. You designate when bills and scheduled transactions show up on the list when you set up the account.

Record Transactions Using Bills and Scheduled Transactions

From the account bar, click Cash Flow Center and then scroll down to the Scheduled Bills & Deposits section.

To record a transaction in the account register, click Enter .

Review the transaction information to ensure it is correct and make changes, if needed. For example, if you make online payments, click Add a Web Page Address to enter the web address. You can then go online to make your payment by clicking the address.

Click Enter Transaction or Enter (what you click depends on the transaction type). Any changes you make apply to only the current transaction, not to all future transactions.

Click Cancel to take no action. The transaction remains on the list until you are ready to record it.

Click Skip to remove a transaction from the list for this period. It reappears the next time it is due.

Repeat steps 15 for each bill or transaction you want to add to your account registers.

Edit Future Instances of Transactions

To edit all future instances of a transaction, from the Scheduled Bills & Deposits section of the Cash Flow Center, click Edit next to the transaction you want to update.

Make any changes needed; for example, adding a web address for a bill that is paid online.

To add or change scheduled transaction options, such as changing from calendar days to business days for the number of days before you are reminded the transactions is due, click Options .

To disregard any changes you made, click Cancel . The transaction remains as it was before you opened the Edit All Future Transactions window.

To save changes you made, click OK . Quicken applies the changes you made to all future instances of the transaction you edited.

For Your Information

To delete a transaction, you use the Scheduled Transaction List window. Refer to the task "Manage All Your Scheduled Transactions," later in this chapter, for more information.