Newbie question: Applying categories to imported data?

Hi all,

I've looked for the answer to this problem but can't seem to find it - any help would be greatly appreciated.

I've just started using Quicken 2005, and have imported about two years of checking account information that I'll need to sort out my '05 taxes. I'm using a combination of Direct Connect for recent transactions and imported files for older ones.

I understand how to set up categories, but here's what doesn't make sense to me: Suppose I come across a transaction from "Joe's Restaurant", and I assign it to the "Dining" category. Fine. But let's say I've eaten at Joe's 50 times in the last two years. Once I've established that "Joe's Restuarant" belongs to "dining", Quicken doesn't seem to be able to apply that category to all of the "Joe's Restaurant" instances automatically. It seems like I have to manually change all 50 instances. I see that it automatically make these assignments for transactions that are downloaded via Direct Connect, but I need to categorize about two years of back (imported, not downloaded) data as well.

Is there something I'm missing here, or can Quicken not apply "restaurant" automatically to all the other instances of "Joe's Restaurant" once I assign the first one?

Happy New Year and thanks for any advice or guidance!

PQ

Reply to
PetQuality
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What you are observing is correct - QW does not automatically alter transactions that have been entered in the register. This is a good safety measure if you stop and think about it. You would not want QW recategorizing historical transactions every time you needed to make an exception to the norm.

The 'Find/Replace' function will be a great help in what you are doing

- can knock out those 50 entries for Joe's Restaurant in a single stroke or two.

Reply to
JM

Aha, find and replace - I didn't realize I could do that. I'll give it a shot - thanks for the help!

PQ

Reply to
PetQuality

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