The Community Meetup - October 2025 Edition

Coach Natalie

How to Master Returns This Holiday Season Using Quicken Simplifi
By Coach Jon

Fun fact: Did you know that January is referred to as "Returnuary"? That's because January is known as the biggest return month of the year after the holiday shopping season. This holiday season, as you shop for gifts and take advantage of deals, it's inevitable that you might need to return an item or two. To ensure you are fully prepared for any returns this upcoming holiday season, we are here to go over the Refunds feature in Quicken Simplifi!

The Problem: Lost in a Sea of Transactions

You've just returned a gift you bought online. The store promised a refund within 5-7 business days. A week goes by, and you're not sure if the refund has been processed. You're left sifting through bank statements, hoping to spot a credit that might look like your refund, but you are having a hard time. This is where the Refunds feature simplifies your life.

The Solution: Quicken Simplifi's Refunds Feature

The Refunds feature is a proactive tool that helps you stay on top of your expected money back. Instead of manually checking your account every day, you can enter the details of a refund into Quicken Simplifi, and it will do the tracking for you.

Here's how it works:

1. Enter Refund Details: When you return an item, simply create a new refund entry in Quicken Simplifi by navigating to Bills & Income and selecting the Refunds tab. You'll enter key information like the payee, the expected amount, the expected date, and the account where the refund should be credited.
2. Quicken Simplifi Does the Work: Once you've entered the details, Quicken Simplifi will monitor your downloaded transactions for the details you entered previously.
3. Get Notified: If the expected refund doesn't appear by the date you specified, Quicken Simplifi will send you a notification. This allows you to quickly follow up with the merchant, so you don't forget about your money.
4. Automatic Linking: When Quicken Simplifi finds a matching transaction, it automatically links it to your refund entry, updating the transaction's payee and category to match your refund details.
5. Manual Linking (When Needed): If Quicken Simplifi can't automatically link a transaction or makes a mistake, you can manually link it yourself. This gives you full control and ensures your finances are always accurate.

For more detailed information and steps on how to use the Refunds feature, be sure to visit our support article here:  https://support.simplifi.quicken.com/en/articles/4606217-tracking-refunds

Question of the Month

Is "Returnuary" true for you? Do you find yourself making lots of returns in January, or not so much?

Release Note Highlights

Both the Quicken Simplifi Web and Mobile Apps have received several enhancements! Here are the highlights from our latest release notes:

• We added a Planning Tools option in the navigation menu for the Retirement Planner and Credit Score
• We enhanced reports by adding a persistent views/filters feature
• The Spending Plan received a redesign that included structural changes
• We added the ability to print and export certain reports
• We released an Income & Expense Report to all users, which replaces the Net Income/Net Income by Month Report
• We added a Mileage Tracker, Estimates, and a Tax Planner to Quicken Business & Personal

You can view all of our Release Notes here!

September Top Posts

Apple Cash account balance incorrect on Iphone after latest update

Deleted Savings Goals still showing in accounts

How do I Report on Interest Earned in a Fidelity Brokerage Account

Alerus doesn’t connect, FDP-103

Cannot add First Command account - FDP-101/FDP-108

Mileage Tracker for QBP: Share your feedback here!

September Leaderboard

DryHeat: 64 points

SRC54: 43 points

RobWilk: 39 points

mikehd: 36 points

amacondray: 29 points

EL1234: 27 points

TheReal702: 27 points

“Our leaderboard showcases top contributors for the month. Thank you for all of the insight, feedback, and knowledge you share.”

DannyB

Question of the Month

Is "Returnuary" true for you? Do you find yourself making lots of returns in January, or not so much?

No so much.

SRC54

I hate to admit it but we basically give cash for Christmas these days to the nephews and my friends' kids we have sort of adopted. So not so many returns. 😀

But I do often return things I am unhappy with to Amazon because they make it so easy. I reorder from them though. I returned a pair of jeans (I got relaxed fit) and they hung on me. So I reordered regular fit and they were perfect. About the first time in my life I didn't have to get husky! (Relaxed fit sounds so much better, don't you think?)

I ordered a Spanish language Bible in large print, but I still needed glasses so returned and got an Extra Grande print. It's perfect but weighs a ton. Then I had to order a protective case for it as it was a BIG investment. LOL

DryHeat

(I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but since you discussed the Refund feature in detail…)

I created a $50 refund for Oct 3 and the matching $50 transaction downloaded posted (as pending) to my CC account on Oct 1 … (so, 2 days early).

Instead of matching the Oct 3 refund to the Oct 1 transaction, Simplifi created a new $50 transaction in my checking account and linked it to the Oct 1 transaction in my CC account, essentially treating the refund as a payment from checking.

Simplifi also apparently linked the new "CC payment" it created to the recurring series for the actual CC payment, even though the series date for that payment was Oct 8 and the amount was off by over $2,000.

I had to delete the downloaded CC transaction and the bogus one in my checking account. Then I created a new $50 transaction in my CC account (to replace the deleted one) and deleted the refund.

RobWilk

TBH, "Returngust" and "Returnember" were probably my biggest return months this year (August and September), for complicated reasons. In my case, at least 2 of these returns (maybe more) went to closed credit card(s), which was(/were) no longer linked in Quicken Simplifi (so the returns came by paper check via "Credit Balance Refunds"). Still, had I thought enough to use Quicken Simplifi's Return tracker, it might've detected the returns when I deposited the checks.

EDIT: up until now, i wasn't subscribed to this topic, but I am now.