Community Discussion: How do I replace text WITHIN Payee?

How do I replace text WITHIN Payee?

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While it is not possible to do a single-step mass replacement of Quicken payee names by specifying a subset of the characters in Quicken Payee "field", it is possible to accomplish that end, using as many "steps" as there are unique contiguous characters in the Payee name field.

The approach consists of using Find/Replace to locate and modify the payee names. If the transactions are all in a single account, the Find/Replace can be done in that account register. If the transactions (for a given payee) are in more than one account, use the "All Transactions" pseudo-register.

First: Backup. Then go to Edit > Find/Replace (or hold down CTRL while left-clicking the letter h).

In the resulting Find and Replace dialog (*):

- Make sure the "Find" field contains "Payee"

- Make sure the word "Contains" appears in the next dropdown to the right

- In the next dropdown to the right, key the Payee name text you want to Quicken to use to "find" (select) the desired transactions (if the "incorrect" payee names contain "Debit Card Purchase Amex", for example; you could locate them by keying "amex" in the field)

- Visually examine the found transactions and remove the check mark in the Select column for any undesired transactions - only transactions with a check mark in the Select column will be altered

- Near the bottom of the Find/Replace dialog, make sure the "Replace" dropdown says "Payee"

- In the "With" dropdown, key the new Payee name (perhaps "American Express", for the above example)

- Click "Replace All"

Repeat the Find/Replace process for each unique payee name to be changed.

[(*) NOTE: the Find/Replace dialog column widths can be widened or narrowed and the Find/Replace dialog window itself can be widened or narrowed. Also the "found" transactions in the Find/Replace dialog can be sorted (ascending or descending) by clicking in the appropriate column header ... each click in a given column header switches the sequence between ascending and descending. An arrowhead to the right of the column header text will indicate which column the dialog is sorted on, and whether the sort is ascending or descending.]