Check Register Much Too Large

A lot of us have information going much further back than that.

Yes.

Did you read "Archive Quicken Information at Year's End" in the HELP file?

To save what you have now, just make a Quicken backup.

To delete transactions dated prior to 2004 from your checking account register: make sure the register is sorted by transaction date, select all the transactions with dates earlier than January 1, 2004 (using the same technique you would use to select a group of contiguous files in Windows Explorer), click "Edit > Transaction > Delete".

Omicron:

I have 2 check registers that go back to 1986.

One has 5,500 transactions, the other has 7,500.

I don't see any difference in speed accessing those accounts and scrolling through them vs. smaller registers.

Bob

2003. I would, however, like to keep (archive; move to another location; whatever), this original lengthly register.

Is there some way to propelyr perform this type of procedure? Any help or step-by-step guidance would be much appreciated. Regards.

In q2006, at least, the year-end copy option lets you specify the cut-off date so that anything before that cut-off date will be deleted. I haven't done a year-end copy in YEARS so I don't know if there are any drawbacks to that method. John, the problem I see with your method is that he would have to go through every account and do the same process, or else he'd have some orphaned transactions, such as a payment to a credit card from checking where the transaction would have been deleted from checking by not from the credit card account. Wouldn't it be easier just to do the year-end process? Seems like it would take care of everything in one fell swoop.

"DP" wrote

Copy (file) and delete transactions have the same effect on transfers; they eliminate both sides of the transfer. If a user wants to save one half of a transfer (?), they would have to make some special effort in either case.

But the user spoke of wanting to clear only one account. A file copy does not offer that capability; it clears all qualifying transactions from all accounts as of the same date.

Hence, my suggestion to work with only one account.

It's true, I did not address related issues - such as the change in the balance of the account after records have been deleted. I was prepared to cross that bridge if I came to it.

First, let me thank everyone for their responses and suggestions. But, to be candid, I feel just as confused as when I posed my question. I do not know if I should use John's (Pollard) concept or whether that will create some hidden (or not so hidden) catastrophy. Maybe I should just leave it be. Seems, however, that sooner or later, one would want to shrink down the file size a bit and not have a need for records that are 10 or 15 years or more older. See, my wife is correct - I am a trouble maker! :) Happy holidays to all.

- omicron -

Bob Wang wrote:

Omicron - At the risk of being yelled at by others, did check out the HELP file pointer I gave you? Granted I've done this many times, but the words aren't that difficult to read and understand. If they are, ask for help!

To invoke the services, go into FILE-->FILE OPERATIONS-->YEAR END COPY and read about the two different ways you can 'archive' your records and shrink the size from your current Quicken file if you decide you really want to do that. I think that they made the words in the pop up box a little more explanatory since I last looked at them several years ago.

(As always, you might wish to create a backup copy BEFORE you do anything so you can recover if what you get isn't exactly what you thought you were going to get!)

Hello Andrew, Nahh...no one is going to yell at you. I've answered questions for folks on chemistry forums, computer forums and usenet in general for over 25 years (since the days prior to the GUI on CompuServe). Sometimes, this media just doesn't get the point across. I certainly did read the HELP file. In fact I read the section you referenced even before I posted my first original message. It is just that I am uncertain as to whether what I read will do what I had in mind. I was just looking for a sanity check and another's point of view. I've now received several angles from several folks. I thank you and all who responded. And don't let 'em scream at ya! Take care.

- omicron -

Andrew wrote:

Yes it will. You asked to do two things in your OP:

(1) "I'd like to be able to truncate this register at , perhaps, the year

2003."

(2) "I would, however, like to keep (archive; move to another location; whatever), this original lengthly register."

First of all, as I mentioned, simply use normal Quicken file copy facility to make a copy of your original Quicken fileset. That easily takes care of item (2). (It also creates a backup of your Quicken datafile in case something else goes wrong in the process!)

Then use the FILE-->FILE OPERATIONS-->YEAR END COPY dialog, and choose the option labeled "CURRENT DATA FILE", and put in your date (1/1/2003) as the cut off date. Quicken will create yet another archive file, as well as make the CURRENT file only contain transactions AFTER the specified date ) (1/1/2003 in this case) with the exception (and they don't say this in the dialog box) that transactions relating to securities used for price history will remain in the new file even if they occurred before the specified date. There might be some others too such as unreconciled transactions I think that might not get deleted as well, but those are minor, we would hope!)

But the resultant file will be considerably smaller if you choose to do the process.

Good luck!