Re: problem with a repeating payment

On Saturday, July 8, 2023 at 2:43:33 PM UTC-5, Bernie Cosell wrote:
> This with Q R50.16 on Win10/pro 
> 
> I'm completely confused. I have a repeating payment that has been in 
> place for years. I went to "Repeating Online" in Bills&Income Reminders 
> to find it there since I want to set up another just like it [just a 
> different payee] . So I clicked on "edit" look at its settings and it 
> says "frequency twice a month" but it only pays once a month on the first. 
> 
> two odd things: 
> 1) it isn't *happening* twice a month [I checked my register] 
> 2) there was no way to "edit" anything except the category. 
> Is the only "edit' you can [e.g., to change the amount] do is delete it 
> and re-add it? 
> 
> And I'm having a hard time adding that new one. I tried to do add>online 
> and in the popup I did a search for the payee.. not there. So my only 
> option was to go to "Add manual bill" and I've added it and I go look at 
> my all bills and deposits screen and my previous repeating bill is listed 
> as "repeating" [and still twice a month.. I'll see if that's actually what 
> happens] but my new one is just set for "upcoming" -- but it does say 
> monthly. So after it "pays the bill" will it change to "repeating"? I 
> guess I'll find out on August first.... 

At one time I had the ability to send billpay transactions from Quicken to one of my financial institutions, 
but I do not currently have any financial institutions that allow online billpay via Quicken, 
so I can't test any specifics about your problem.

I do note that there have been quite a few complaints about Quicken Reminders (Schedule transactions) 
over the recent months, and it may be that you're experiencing one of those problems. 
One problem particular that comes to mind is that Quicken has not been retaining the user's elected 
Reminder "frequency" or enter-method (remind or auto-enter). 
If that is your problem, I don't know of any workaround (*), and I don't recall reading about any planned fix.

When posting problems such as this one: you should include the financial institution name 
(as found on the Display tab of the Edit Account Details dialog for the Quicken account); 
and the "Connection Method" (found on the Online Services tab of the same dialog).
In order to have the ability to send online billpay instructions from Quicken to the billpayer, 
the Quicken account must use the "Direct Connect" connection method.

Personally I have never found any use for Quicken "Repeating Online Payments". 
They provide only one small benefit 
(the ability to create a repeating online payment by sending the instruction to do so from Quicken); 
it's a one-time benefit, often offset by the inability to change the payment characteristics 
without deleting the Repeating Online payment, then re-creating/re-sending it.

Once the repeating online payment has been setup in Quicken, and at the financial institution; 
the Quicken repeating online payment is of no real use; 
a regular Quicken (non-online) repeating payment will do the exact same thing.

[It's not really "odd" that your repeating online payment is still occurring at the frequency you originally set it up with. 
A repeating online payment is controlled by the instructions at the billpayer's web site - 
regardless of what Quicken shows.]

Without knowing what your underlying problem is; my best guess for how to address the problem is to:
- delete the Quicken repeating online payment, 
- do an update (OSU or Update Now) with the billpay financial institution (to syncronize Quicken and the billpayer)
- re-setup the repeating payment at the billpayer's web site
- create a regular Quicken non-online repeating payment transaction with the desired characteristics

[ (*) You can try Validate (and super-Validate), 
though I don't have a high degree of confidence in their ability to address your problem. 
If you do try a Validate, be sure to backup first in case you don't like the results.]