Online account access from 2 different computers

"Ed Sowell" wrote in news:P_0Nl.32789$ snipped-for-privacy@nlpi067.nbdc.sbc.com:

I am not really recommending this, since the possibility of corrupting the files exist if you access them simultaneously. But here goes if you really want to do this.

In my opinion, it would be best to use one and the same set of files on both computers. In other words, somewhere between the 2 of you there would be one Quicken fileset. You both would be entering, downloading and reconciling etc. MAKE VERY DARN SURE YOU ARE NOT using the same file set at the same time.

I suggest you make rules who takes care of which accounts within that Quicken data set.

I would put the file set on a shared fileserver or external drive.

Make very sure you have sequential and frequent backups!!!

That's an interesting thought, Hans. I'll think about it more, but there would problems other than simultaneous usage. I would be concerned that she would do something that would cause me greif to straighten out, for example.

The idea reminds me of what I do when we go away for a month or two. I do a backup on my desktop and then load the backup into Quicken on my laptop. When we get home, I reverse the process. Works just fine. It would be too much trouble to do at home.

Ed

"Ed Sowell" wrote in news:P_0Nl.32789$ snipped-for-privacy@nlpi067.nbdc.sbc.com:

If the idea is to teach her (or have her teach herself) the use of Quicken, then by all means have her use Quicken. I would start out perhaps by letting her just do her own accounts. However, it is just like keeping 2 sets of books the old-fashioned paper way. The 2 sets of books - your combined accounts and her separate set on just her accounts

- will have to have the same entries. Everyone who has 2 people using 1 account runs into these problems; you both need to know what the other has done. I just see that my wife purchased something at Office Depot, so I have to ask her what's it for. In cases like this it is often easier to wait until the culprit transactions download, rather than entering them beforehand.

Why you get duplicate transactions in her system, I can't figure out from the symptoms you described, or rather, you didn't describe. If properly matched between entries and downloads, duplicates should not happen, I think. But that is a separate problem. Isolate it, examine it, and solve it. I would suggest to make sure there is 1 set of Quicken data that is the authoritative set. You can print reports from both machines to see what and where the problems are. That is really a minor but irritating thing.

Sorry if this didn't help either ...

Are your two computers networked? That would be the easiest solution....one computer would hold all the data on the hard drive and the other computer would be able to access it. At least that's the way I do it at work ..... my computer has the data stored and the boss's computer can access it, work with it, download to it, etc. etc.

I've always been told that Quicken does not support networked access to the data files. Aren't you concerned with data corruption?

It hasn't been a problem for 5 years, so no, I don't anticipate any data corruption. You just have to "path it" correctly. In our case, we use a fictitious "Z" drive.

Thanks, Hans. I have now disabled online access of her accounts from my Quicken installation, just to see if I can get them straight on her installation.

I realize my explanation was kind of vague... a perfect reflection of my understanding of the problems.

Ed