Add known categories to individual QIF import transactions.?

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Roger Mayhew
Roger Mayhew Member Posts: 3 ✭
edited April 2020 in Personal Plus and Home & Business
Is there any way of setting up Reckon Accounts Personal Plus so that it automatically adds category to QIF transactions. E.G. If payments to "Coles" are always categorised as "Groceries" can this be added automatically?

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  • Les
    Les Member Posts: 34 ✭
    edited April 2020
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    Once you have done 1 transaction to 'Coles' then the next time it will default to the category you use the last time. When I put "Woolworths' it defaults to "Groceries", "AGL' defaults to "Utilities - Gas" etc
  • Karl Baker
    Karl Baker Member Posts: 18 ✭✭
    edited December 2016
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    Hi Roger. There may be other ways of doing this, but the way I do this is to open the "Memorised Payee List" dialogue box in the "Tools" menu item. Once in there you can select "New" to set up a new Payee, and you can (among other things) define the category. Note that you may (probably will) have some Payees that you buy stuff from that fall in to different categories. I deal with this by having multiple Payee names with variations to make it clear what the category is - ie 'Bunnings Mornington Tools'; 'Bunnings Mornington Home Project'. Note that any Payee name you create through entering a transaction will be recorded for future use- but actually going to the Memorised Payee List to create them gives you a more structured approach. Note also that Memorised Payees are 'forgotten' after a set period of no use of the name - you can change that value in Tools/Preferences/Register (it is a pain that this is a global setting for all Payee name; would be handy if Reckon built in the ability to define Payee name ageing per payee - if you set a long period then you end up with a mass of memorised payee names, and if you want to get rid of 'one-off' payees you have to manually delete them). I will be interested in any other approaches to this from anyone else who replies to your question.
  • Roger Mayhew
    Roger Mayhew Member Posts: 3 ✭
    edited October 2016
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    Thanks Guys, I had suspected it was something like that. I've been using ACEMoney which is similar. (ACE does have a neat trick - when you set up a category rule you can ask it to scan the whole register and apply it to all entries.)

    I take it that, in Reckon, If I set up one payee "Woolworths" with category "Groceries" it will then assign "Groceries" to all instances where it finds the string "Woolworths" somewhere in the QIF payee field.?
  • Les
    Les Member Posts: 34 ✭
    edited April 2020
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    Roger, as you type in Woolworths it will do a drop down box and you select which you want as you might have Woolworths and Woolworths Fuel. You would have Woolworths in Groceries and Woolworths Petrol in Motor Vehicle -Petrol or similar.
  • Karl Baker
    Karl Baker Member Posts: 18 ✭✭
    edited December 2016
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    Karl again Roger. It doesn't work quite as you hope with a payee name. It will apply the same category as you have used before if you use the same payee name - but if there is a difference in the payee name string then it will leave the category blank for you to select a new one. This is what allows you to have multiple categories per payee by varying the payee name, as per my first post.
  • Roger Mayhew
    Roger Mayhew Member Posts: 3 ✭
    edited October 2016
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    Thanks Karl, I think I've got it now.  It is a bit of a nuisance when some regular payers (e.g. superannuation funds) append a unique transaction ID to the payee information QIF field. I guess I'll always have to enter the category manually - or maybe knock up an app to edit the QIF file before importing it. I'm just starting with Reckon so I'll wait and see how it goes.

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