One other problem when paying bills, or getting paid...

[Doobie-Doo]

Hi again....

I already posted this question, but the answer I got didn't really help me
out. I'm trying to figure out how to link up my scheduled bill payments
with my actual online payments. For example, I make a scheduled bill
payment for my phone bill for about $50 (which is usually is, most of the
time) and I actually pay the bill online on my bank's website. The problem
is that when I actually pay the bill, I download the transaction after,
categorize it, and everything seems fine. The only problem is, I still have
that scheduled bill reminder telling me that the bill is still overdue, even
though I paid it. I need some way to tell Quicken, "Hey, that bill, I paid
it. Here is that transaction." (even though the amounts might not always
match)

The previous advice I got was telling me to go into the calendar view, click
on the bill payment and then click "Pay now". All that does is enter a new
transaction into my register and debit my account twice! Even with my
payroll deposit. You'd think that would be the easiest since it rarely ever
changes (unfortunately).

Could someone please throw me a bone here? or do I have to get rid of
scheduled billing completely?

Thanks,

D

[John Pollard]

Doobie-Doo wrote: I already posted this question, but the answer I got didn't
really help me out. I'm trying to figure out how to link up my
scheduled bill payments with my actual online payments. For example, I
make a scheduled bill payment for my phone bill for about $50
(which is usually is, most of the time) and I actually pay the bill
online on my bank's website. The problem is that when I actually pay
the bill, I download the transaction after, categorize it, and everything seems fine. The only problem is, I still have that scheduled bill reminder telling me that the bill is still
overdue, even though I paid it. I need some way to tell Quicken, "Hey,
that bill, I paid it. Here is that transaction." (even though the amounts might not always match) The previous advice I got was telling me to go into the
calendar view, click on the bill payment and then click "Pay now". All
that does is enter a new transaction into my register and debit my account twice! Even with my payroll deposit. You'd think
that would be the easiest since it rarely ever changes
(unfortunately).

It sounds to me like the previous advice you got was just about
right, it seems like you are having a timing problem. (Not sure
why you need the calendar view; you can have your scheduled
payments prompt you on the My Finances screen, or even in the
registers themselves).

You should be insuring that the first transaction to be entered
in your account is the scheduled Quicken transaction. Then when
the actual transaction is downloaded it will "match" the
transaction already in the register and will *not* create a
second transaction.

For example: you schedule the Quicken phone bill to prompt you 3
days before you will pay it. When the prompt appears -
actually, anytime before you download the actual payment - you
click "Pay Now", you modify the amount of the transaction to be
the amount on your current phone bill, then "Enter" the
transaction. If you are doing this while you are writing the
check, so much the better, you can enter the check number in the
scheduled transaction before entering it, otherwise you can add
the check number later.

(And the way to tell Quicken that you "paid it" would be to
click "Skip"; only doing this every month would kind of a waste
of time).


--
John Pollard
j underscore pollard at mindspring dot com
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