converting-your-data

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Quicken Essentials for Mac

Converting your data from Quicken Mac | Quicken Windows | Microsoft Money

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Welcome to Quicken Essentials.

Thanks for using Quicken Essentials. We want you to be up and running as quickly as possible. So if you’ve used other versions of Quicken, or Microsoft Money, we can help you convert your data file. The process is straightforward, but there are some important steps we don’t want you to miss, so please read this guide carefully.

Before you convert your data Before you get started, we’d like you to review these notes: • Each Quicken Essentials data file can import data only from a single other file.

• For example, if you have two data files in Quicken or Money, you can’t import data from both of those files into the same Quicken Essentials file. The Quicken Essentials file will take data from only one of them.

• You can import data into a Quicken Essentials data file that already has data in it.

• For example, if you start using Quicken Essentials and create a data file that you want to keep, you can import your old data (from Quicken or Money) into that file.

• Don’t delete your old data file until you’ve reviewed your new data file.

• After you finish converting your data to Quicken Essentials, you’ll want to review the new file to make sure that everything got carried over correctly. You’ll need to be able to view the old data file so you can compare balances and transactions.

• It’s a good idea in any case to hold on to a backup of your old data file for a while, just in case you need to refer back to it.

Next steps You’ll want to read about what data gets carried over, how to convert from the application you’re currently using, and what to do to finish up.

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What data gets carried over Data that is converted from your old file to Quicken Essentials Most, but not all of your data, can be converted to Quicken Essentials.

• Accounts • All transactions except transactions in investment accounts • Scheduled transactions • Categories • Classes and tags (these are both called “tags” in Quicken Essentials) • Online banking download setups (Quicken for Mac and Windows) • If you’ve set up accounts to download data from your financial institutions into your Quicken for Mac or Quicken for Windows data file, the information about your financial institutions and your user id’s will be carried over to Quicken Essentials.

Exception: Your passwords will not be carried over. You will have to re-enter your passwords the first time you do a download in Quicken Essentials.

Data that is not converted from your old file to Quicken Essentials • Investment account transactions • Quicken Essentials gives you the ability to track the total value of the holdings in your investment accounts, but it does not track individual transactions. When you convert your data, Quicken Essentials will create an account for each of the investment accounts you have in your old data file. But it will not carry over the transactions. Instead, the balance for the new account will be 0.00 until you do an online update, at which point Quicken Essentials will update the balance to the current balance for that account.

• Custom reports • Quicken Essentials will not import any custom reports you created in your old data file.

• Online banking passwords (Quicken for Mac and Windows) • You will have to re-enter your passwords the first time you update your accounts in Quicken Essentials.

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• Online banking information (Microsoft Money) • If you have Microsoft Money, you will have to set up your accounts for statement download in Quicken Essentials.

• Data from the more advanced features in Quicken for Mac and Windows • For example, the following data is not imported: business data, rental property data, lifetime planner data, cash flow forecast data, budget data, spending plan data, debt reduction data, emergency tax records data, tax planner data, and home inventory manager data.

A few other notes about what’s different from other versions of Quicken As much as we improved the experience of using Quicken when we rebuilt it from the ground up, there are some features you may have been used to using in Quicken for Mac (or Quicken for Windows) that we didn’t include in this version of Quicken Essentials.

• Investments • Quicken Essentials lets you to track the overall value of your investment accounts and the value of specific holdings, but the software does not track individual buys and sells, nor will it provide some advanced investment performance reports.

• Direct bill pay • You can track your bills in Quicken Essentials, but the program doesn’t have the direct bill pay capabilities that allow you to pay your bills directly from the program.

• Other advanced features • Quicken Essentials does not include many of the advanced features in other versions of Quicken, including Business features, Rental Property, lifetime planner, cash flow forecast, spending plan, debt reduction plan, emergency tax records, tax planner, and home inventory manager.

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To convert your data from Quicken for Mac 1

Create a copy of your current Quicken for Mac data file.

Important: You’ll want to use the copy for the conversion. Do not use your original data file.

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Launch the Quicken File Exchange Utility (it’s located on your Quicken Essentials disk).

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Follow the on-screen instructions to locate the copy of your old data file and then convert your data from Quicken for Mac to Quicken Essentials.

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Open Quicken Essentials.

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If you want to import your old data into a new Quicken Essentials data file that you’ve already started using (optional), make sure that the new data file is now open in Quicken Essentials.

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Choose File > Import, and then select the file that you just created during the conversion process.

The conversion file has a .QDFX extension. You’ll find it in the same folder as the copy of your old Quicken for Mac file.

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To convert your data from Quicken for Windows 2010 or later 1

Open your data file in Quicken for Windows 2010 or later.

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Choose File > File Export > Quicken Transfer Format (.QXF) File.

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Save the .QXF file either to your PC or to a form of removable media (like a USB drive).

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Move the .QXF file to your Mac.

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If you didn’t place the file on a form of removable media in the previous step, do so now.

Then move the .QXF file to your Mac.

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Open Quicken Essentials.

If you want to import your old data into a new Quicken Essentials data file that you’ve already started using (optional), make sure that the new data file is now open in Quicken Essentials.

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Choose File > Import, and then select the .QXF file.

To convert your data from Quicken for Windows (earlier versions) 1

Using your Windows PC, insert the Quicken Essentials disc and install the converter utility.

The converter utility should be installed automatically when you insert the disc, but if not, for example, if you are using Microsoft Windows 7, open the application Quicken_Converter_Setup.exe.

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After it is installed, open the converter utility and follow the on-screen instructions to convert your data and save the conversion file on your PC. The conversion file has a .QXF extension.

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Move the .QXF file to your Mac. For example, you can put the .QXF file on a USB drive, and then copy the file from the USB drive to your Mac.

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Open Quicken Essentials.

If you want to import your old data into a new Quicken Essentials data file that you’ve already started using (optional), make sure that the new data file is now open in Quicken Essentials.

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Choose File > Import, and then select the .QXF file.

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To convert your data from Microsoft Money Quicken Essentials can help you convert your data from Microsoft Money 2007 or 2008.

Before you start, note that: • You will need a copy of Microsoft Money 2007 or 2008 installed on your machine. If you no longer have Money installed, you can download a free trial version of MS Money Plus Deluxe or a free trial version of MS Money Plus Home & Business to use for the process converting your data to Quicken Essentials.

• The version of the Money software you use must match the version of the data file whose data you plan to convert. For example, to convert a Money 2007 file, you must have Money 2007 installed. To convert a Money 2008 file, you must have Money 2008 installed.

• If you are in the process of reconciling your accounts in Microsoft Money, we recommend that you finish reconciling before converting your data.

• Quicken Essentials won’t know where you are in the process of reconciling if you convert your data mid-stream.

• While Money does need to be on your computer during the conversion process, it should not be running while you are performing the conversion. Quit the program before starting the conversion.

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Launch the conversion utility.

The conversion utility is on your Quicken Essentials disk. You can access it when you insert the disk into your PC.

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Follow the on-screen instructions to convert your data and save the conversion file on your PC. The conversion file has a .QXF extension.

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Move the .QXF file to your Mac. For example, you can put the .QXF file on a USB drive, and then copy the file from the USB drive to your Mac.

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Open Quicken Essentials.

If you want to import your old data into a new Quicken Essentials data file that you’ve already started using (optional), make sure that the new data file is now open in Quicken Essentials.

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Choose File > Import, and then select the .QXF file.

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After you have converted your data • Remember to re-connect your accounts to your financial institutions.

• If you moved your data from Quicken for Mac or Quicken for Windows, all the information about the connections between your accounts in Quicken and your financial institutions should have been carried over, except your passwords. You will need to re-enter those the first time you update your accounts.

• If you moved your data from Microsoft Money, you will probably need to set up your accounts again to enable them to download transactions from your financial institutions. Choose your account from the sidebar (on the left). Click Settings in the toolbar, and update the account’s information. (See the Getting Started Guide for more information. In Quicken Essentials, choose Help > Getting Started Guide.)

• The balances for your investment accounts will be 0.00 until you do an online update.

• In Quicken Essentials, investment accounts don’t track your individual transactions, only your total balance. When you convert your data, Quicken Essentials creates accounts in your new data file for each of your investment accounts in your old file.

But it won’t import the accounts’ individual transactions. As a result, the balance in each of your investment accounts will be 0.00 until you do an online update. At that time, Quicken Essentials will download the account’s current balance.

• Review your account balances.

• In most cases, they should be identical to the balances in your old data file. If they look off, refer to the troubleshooting section.

• If your overall balance (the total value of all your accounts) looks wrong: • Remember that the overall balance might not include the balances for your investment accounts.

• The balances for those accounts will remain 0.00 until you do an online update to download data from your financial institutions.

• Check to see if the balance for an individual account looks wrong. If it does, refer to the next section for the possible problem.

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If the balance for an individual account looks wrong: • Review the import log • When you import your data, Quicken Essentials creates a log of all the tasks it performs during the import process. Most of the log entries consist of perfunctory information that you can ignore. But the log also lists any problems the program ran into while during the import. Check the log for any potential errors, especially ones that say Quicken Essentials couldn’t import certain data.

• Check for “orphaned” transfers • When you transfer funds from one account to another in either Quicken or Money, your software program creates two transactions: one in the account the money came from and one in the account the money went to. When Quicken Essentials imports your data, it tries to identify both sides of the transfer. If it can’t identify the match, it logs each side of the transfer individually and then creates new matching transactions to complete the transfer. This can result in duplicate records.

• For example, let’s say you made a $1,000 transfer from Account A to Account B. If Quicken Essentials can’t identify that the transaction for the withdrawal from Account A is the match for the transaction for the deposit in Account B, then it creates one transaction for the withdrawal it found in Account A, and it creates a new match for the deposit in Account B. At the same time, it creates a transaction for the deposit that it found in Account B and a new match for the withdrawal from Account A. As a result, the withdrawal gets logged twice in Account A, causing the account’s balance to be $1,000 less than it should be. And the deposit similarly gets logged twice in Account B, causing that account’s balance to be $1,000 more than it should be.

• To fix this, simply identify the orphaned transfers and delete the duplicates.

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