Renaming rules in Quicken

Looking at the dialog in Q2016, the only options that I see are "If payee contains" and "If Quicken name is". I have no idea what that latter option means.

"Gary" wrote

Is there a way to enter a renaming rule in Quicken that renames Payees using information from the transaction's memo field, or can renaming rules only rename the Payee field using the information from the downloaded transaction's payee field?

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In current Quicken versions, no special option is necessary for that to occur. Quicken always examines the combination of downloaded-payee and downloaded-memo (basically, the downloaded memo is suffixed to the downloaded payee, creating one long field) to compare to the payee specified in your renaming rules.

Thank you. Is there some reference that I could look at that would give me a broader perspective on how I can create renaming rules that could take advantage of that information? I am experiencing my banking accounts (at a Credit Union) coming up with many erroneous payees that I would like to create renaming rules to correct. I have the Q2015 User Guide, but it doesn't seem to present even a small fraction of what you kow.

"Gary" wrote

Thank you. Is there some reference that I could look at that would give me a broader perspective on how I can create renaming rules that could take advantage of that information? I am experiencing my banking accounts (at a Credit Union) coming up with many erroneous payees that I would like to create renaming rules to correct. I have the Q2015 User Guide, but it doesn't seem to present even a small fraction of what you kow.

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I don't have much knowledge of other sources of Quicken info. But Quicken Help is often a good source. When you bring up the Renaming Rules dialog, there is a yellow button with a question mark in the middle in the lower left; click that button to see quite a few Help articles on renaming rules.

Hi Gary, did you ever get this figured out? I am having the same issue, also from a credit union.

I never figured it out.

I have found that most credit unions, banks, etc., are doing a less-than-adequate job communicating back to their clients the details of transactions. I have tried to change myself and am entering my transactions manually when they happen. Then, when I do an update, Quicken is able to do a better job matching with the already entered ones.

"Gary" wrote

I never figured it out.

I have found that most credit unions, banks, etc., are doing a less-than-adequate job communicating back to their clients the details of transactions. I have tried to change myself and am entering my transactions manually when they happen. Then, when I do an update, Quicken is able to do a better job matching with the already entered ones.

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You have found the most reliable way to get accurate payee names: manually enter the transaction, with the correct payee name, before you download; then Match the downloaded transaction to the transaction you manually entered.

But as I noted when you first asked the question (and as Quicken Help clearly states), Quicken is already designed to use the contents of the downloaded Memo field (in conjunction with the contents of the downloaded Payee field) to rename payees.

What I forgot to mention (even after danbrown mentioned it in this discussion) is that in order to have Quicken rename based on the combination of downloaded Payee and downloaded Memo, you must select the renaming option, "If payee contains".

If, instead, you select the option, "If Quicken name is", Quicken will look in a data base of merchant names that it maintains (after it looks at all your other renaming rules) to see if your rename text "exactly matches" a merchant name stored in that database.

Banks are not obliged to, nor are most willing to, take on significant added costs to satisfy the needs of the small percentage of the customers who use Quicken.

Having said that, I have no problem (that renaming could address) getting correct payee names for my downloaded transactions (though my only credit union transactions are interest income transactions - and none of my downloaded transactions have anything useful in the downloaded Memo field). Here's an example of the downloaded payee from my bank for a purchase at Subway, CHECKARD 0608 SUBWAY: Quicken uses my renaming rule to give me a Quicken Payee name of "Subway". [Note that the downloaded payee name field has a max size of 32 characters, where the Quicken Payee name field has a max size of 64 characters.]

"John Pollard" wrote -------------------------------------------------------------------

If, instead, you select the option, "If Quicken name is", Quicken will look in a data base of merchant names that it maintains (after it looks at all your other renaming rules) to see if your rename text "exactly matches" a merchant name stored in that database.

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That information came from Quicken Help.

I have since found an old discussion in the Quicken Community on the subject of problems with renaming