This is the same problem that's been discussed multiple times (and for multiple Q versions), most recently in 2008, with a comment tagged on in May '09, under this verbatim subject:
I'm seeing the same problem: upon [Enter]ing a transaction, the application still has focus, but the transaction register doesn't, preventing one from adjusting the date, tabbing to fields on the next entry, etc., without clicking the mouse into it first.
The "change your start page to something other than setup" was no help on my setup (WinXP sp3).
I do note that SOME keyboard commands work, e.g. Ctrl-I, to insert a new transaction in the register. But in that case, after the insert, the focus for non alt- and ctrl- commands is in a nether region. Things that DON'T work include the arrow keys...
And while bouncing back and forth between Quicken and composing this message, I see that when focus is taken from the whole app, and then returned with alt-TAB, the keyboard focus RETURNS to the current item in the transaction list.
Fascinating. Definitely a bug in their UI implementation, and annoying one for sequential data entry. I'd love to find a workaround.
Tom von Alten