Seeking Advice - Consolidating financial reports from committees

I took the liberty of moving one of your questions to follow another as I think now 2 and 3 are directly related questions.

I think importing QIF files is the only approach available (excluding manually entering the transactions yourself.)

Quicken doesn't provide any sort of "consolidation function", so that should affect your choice of approach ... but may not be conclusive. The best you can do here is export/import using QIF.

If you maintain 6 Quicken files, you could be faced with some extra effort. You could import the 5 individual group's QIF files into their respective Quicken files, then, depending on how you plan to consolidate, you could import those same 5 QIF files into the master Quicken file.

If you plan to carry the data from the 5 groups and the parent group in one "consolidated" file anyway, it might be better to just have the one file. Have a separate account in that file for each group and an account for the parent. Import the qif file for each group into the Quicken account for that group.

When you do reporting, you can Customize the reports to include any combinaction of Quicken accounts that's appropriate. If your groups use the same "categories", creating a report for all

Yes. But you don't have 100 percent control of the default.

If you are now doing any downloading, you're familiar with the "Accept transactions into register" window. When you import a QIF file, you get the same window. But the rules for determining a "Match" for a transaction in a QIF file are more liberal than the rules for determing a "Match" for downloaded transactions. Depending on the characteristics of the incoming data, you may have to "Unmatch" or "Make New" to insure that you get New transactions for some of the imported transactions. (And a "Match" doesn't overwrite what's already there, all it may do is change the "Cleared status".)

But that brings up another related point: Q2005 has restrictions on the import of QIF files. Though Intuit wished to prevent the import of QIF files into certain Quicken account types altogether, they finally had to leave a back door, or two, open which allows the import into any account type ... with some extra labor.

The simplest way to import to non-investment account types in Q2005 is to import into a Cash, Asset, or Liability account; then use cut/paste (or "move") to move the transactions into the desired account. This is a fairly simple and fast process. If all the imported transactions are intended to be "new" transactions, this works fine since you will not be given any opportunity to "match" them to any existing transaction with this method.

If you want to import into an investment account, or directly into a non-investment account, there is a more cumbersome method available.

I don't know of one, but that's the great thing about groups like this. If there is one, someone likely will post it.

I took the liberty of moving one of your questions to follow another as I think now 2 and 3 are directly related questions.

I think importing QIF files is the only approach available (excluding manually entering the transactions yourself.)

Quicken doesn't provide any sort of "consolidation function", so that should affect your choice of approach ... but may not be conclusive. The best you can do here is export/import using QIF.

If you maintain 6 Quicken files, you could be faced with some extra effort. You could import the 5 individual group's QIF files into their respective Quicken files, then, depending on how you plan to consolidate, you could import those same 5 QIF files into the master Quicken file.

If you plan to carry the data from the 5 groups and the parent group in one "consolidated" file anyway, it might be better to just have the one file. Have a separate account in that file for each group and an account for the parent. Import the qif file for each group into the Quicken account for that group.

When you do reporting, you can Customize the reports to include any combinaction of Quicken accounts that's appropriate. If your groups use the same "categories", creating a report for all

Yes. But you don't have 100 percent control of the default.

If you are now doing any downloading, you're familiar with the "Accept transactions into register" window. When you import a QIF file, you get the same window. But the rules for determining a "Match" for a transaction in a QIF file are more liberal than the rules for determing a "Match" for downloaded transactions. Depending on the characteristics of the incoming data, you may have to "Unmatch" or "Make New" to insure that you get New transactions for some of the imported transactions. (And a "Match" doesn't overwrite what's already there, all it may do is change the "Cleared status".)

But that brings up another related point: Q2005 has restrictions on the import of QIF files. Though Intuit wished to prevent the import of QIF files into certain Quicken account types altogether, they finally had to leave a back door, or two, open which allows the import into any account type ... with some extra labor.

The simplest way to import to non-investment account types in Q2005 is to import into a Cash, Asset, or Liability account; then use cut/paste (or "move") to move the transactions into the desired account. This is a fairly simple and fast process. If all the imported transactions are intended to be "new" transactions, this works fine since you will not be given any opportunity to "match" them to any existing transaction with this method.

If you want to import into an investment account, or directly into a non-investment account, there is a more cumbersome method available.

I don't know of one, but that's the great thing about groups like this. If there is one, someone likely will post it.

John, thanks for all the advice, info, and ideas. Regards, RL