ghost transactions

Posted by Christopher Glaeser on January 12, 2007, 8:56 pm

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> I am reasonably certain that Quicken should never offer you the

> opportunity to "Accept" a transaction with an <FITID> that has already

> been Accepted in the same Quicken file(set) ... no matter where the

> filtering takes place.

Below are the <FITID> fields for a duplicate transaction.

<FITID>24164067008694912900035-38.000701080070108TRACYS NAILS

<FITID>24164067008694912900035-38.000701080070109TRACYS NAILS

Notice the two <FITID> are identical execpt for the second date field.
Should Intuit match on the id portion only, or must the entire string match?

Best,
Christopher

Posted by John Pollard on January 12, 2007, 10:43 pm

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Christopher Glaeser wrote:

>> I am reasonably certain that Quicken should never offer

>> you the opportunity to "Accept" a transaction with an

>> <FITID> that has already been Accepted in the same

>> Quicken file(set) ... no matter where the filtering

>> takes place.

> Below are the <FITID> fields for a duplicate transaction.

> <FITID>24164067008694912900035-38.000701080070108TRACYS

> NAILS

> <FITID>24164067008694912900035-38.000701080070109TRACYS

> NAILS

> Notice the two <FITID> are identical execpt for the

> second date field. Should Intuit match on the id portion

> only, or must the entire string match?

The "entire string" is the FITID. So assuming that there were
not two real-world transactions at "TRACYS NAILS" on two
different dates for the same amount ... it appears your
financial institution is downloading duplicate transactions.

While it is conceivable that Intuit could have screwed up the
FITID in passing it along to Quicken; I think that is very
unlikely.

In any event, I think you have to begin by talking to your
financial institution. I realize that may be a significant
task, but I think you need to make them aware.

But: I think that if you can demonstrate conclusively that those
two (or any two) transactions are real-world duplicates, and
that they were downloaded to your pc by a specific financial
institution: you should definitely post the pertinent
information on the Intuit Forums (you must include the name of
the fi, if you do so). I have seen Intuit respond to this type
of problem in the past in the Forums, and to the best of my
knowledge, they have gotten the problem fixed ... if it was
fixable. (Some patience may be required.)

I encourage you to post this problem - with all the specifics,
especially the specific OFX transactions - in the Intuit Quicken
Forums.

--
John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
Please reply to newsgroup

Posted by Christopher Glaeser on January 12, 2007, 11:56 pm

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> The "entire string" is the FITID. So assuming that there were not two

> real-world transactions at "TRACYS NAILS" on two different dates for the

> same amount ... it appears your financial institution is downloading

> duplicate transactions.

The financial instituion is BofA. I manage six BofA credit cards on two
computers using two different releases of Quicken, and this is a common
problem for all these cards. BofA technical support said this problem
started last October, and that jives with my recollection of when I first
noticed the problem. The duplicate transactions are random. Perhaps one in
six or one in ten transactions are duplicated.

> I encourage you to post this problem - with all the specifics, especially

> the specific OFX transactions - in the Intuit Quicken Forums.

OK.

Best,
Christopher

Posted by Jay M Apple on January 7, 2007, 11:51 am

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> >>> SNIP >>>>>>>>>>>

> > 4.) Do you visually examine your downloaded transactions while

> > they are in the "Accept transactions into register" window

> > (before you Accept them)? If so: do you see two downloaded

> > transactions for the same real-world transaction in that window?

> > If you don't examine your downloaded transactions before you

> > "Accept" them: shame on you.

> Yes, I examine them before accepting them, but it's not easy to determine

> which credit card transactions are a) real (e.g. purchasing the same

amount

> from the same store two days in a row; which does happen on ocassion), b)

> the vendor double billed us (also rare, but sometimes happens) or c)

Quicken > duplicate that should be deleted.

> Best,

> Christopher

A word in edgewise from the checks and balances corner.....

I fully acknowledge ahead of time the convenience and time savings derived
from downloading transactions
... ** BUT ** ...
for those of us who enter (non-investments) transactions from credit card
receipts and the like at or soon after time of occurrence, subsequent
downloads result in "Match" and when "New" appears, that is a blaring
announcement all is not well. I/my wife may have forgotten to record a
transaction from paper slip or email confirmation of scheduled autopay, we
entered some detail erroneously, vendor billed twice, FI hiccuped, and so
on.

Easy then to focus on issue and solve before much harm is done.

$0.02-worth, unreconciled.

Jay

Posted by Christopher Glaeser on January 7, 2007, 8:28 pm

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> Easy then to focus on issue and solve before much harm is done.

It's not quite that easy if you manage all the credit card purchases for all
the employees in even a modest sized company. With approximately one in
eight transactions randomly posted as duplicates, it's quite tedious and
frustrating to determine that each duplicate is in fact a duplicate and not
two purchases or a double billing.

Best,
Christopher