Apply Split Payment to Subsequent Invoices of Equal Amount Repeatedly Fails (edited)

Dakota

I have now spent probably 10-15 hours going round and round with Quicken on two separate occasions trying to apply payments to invoices.

I create invoices weekly, and for one client I have multiple projects. My client submits payments based on a weekly billing schedule but they pay 2x per month, generally resulting in one payment being sent for all projects and all invoices submitted prior to the payment date (ex. 2 projects, 2 invoices underneath one payment.) In theory, Quicken can handle this easily with Splits (and previously has handled it with no issue) but since the beginning of December I have noticed a VERY frustrating behavior with applying payments:

Scenario:

1. I have two (or more) subsequent open (unpaid) invoices {say I have Invoice 0030.1, 0030.2, 0031.1 and 0031.2 which represent two billing weeks for two separate projects}
2. I have two (or more) lump-sum payments that cover all open invoice and project combinations
3. Some permutation of client-projects result in two invoices of the EXACT same dollar amount {Ex. 0030.1 [Project 1 on billing week 30] was for $450 and by chance 0031.2 [Project 2 on billing week 31] ALSO billed for $450}
4. I go to catch up on applying payments and make the splits on the first transaction {Payment on 12/11 was for $1000 and so I split it to $450/$550 for 0030.1/0030.2 and apply payments - no problem.}
5. I attempt to split the Payment from 12/18 of $1200 into $750/$450 for 0031.1/0031.2 and apply payments. When I go to apply payment for the $450 on invoice 0031.2 it shows me the ALREADY ALLOCATED amount for 0030.1 and does not allow me to apply the $450 to 0031.2

This has happened for subsequent invoices on same project and for invoices on different projects.

As long as the second amount is the SAME as a previously applied invoice, the bug occurs and launches me into an EXTREMELY tedious cycle, because the only way to remedy the solution is to manually remove payments for the invoices, then go back to the payment and remove splits. Sometimes the cleanup process even puts up a fight and I have to go manually delete lingering transactions on the Client Invoices account that fail to get auto-deleted. Once everything is cleaned up and back into the state I started with (invoices open, unpaid. Client Invoices cleaned up of the "transfer" transactions that get auto created, and the original payments back to how they were BEFORE the Splits) I can try again … which seems like insanity (repeating the same steps expecting different results), only that with Quicken there are often "glitches" that happen (even on a "good day") that have caused similar behavior (payments applied not getting applied correctly); so when this bug happens, it has taken me a couple tedious cycles to realize what is actually happening.

Workaround:

I have found that once I realize that a previous invoice has an EQUAL amount to a current one then I can add an ADDITIONAL split for the same project and apply a fictitious "second payment" to the invoice, which will work around Quicken's auto-allocation bug. (E.g. If the payment from 12/18 is split into $750/$350/$100 and then I apply BOTH the $350 and $100 to the invoice INSTEAD of the $450), then the bug does not occur.

—

To make this more frustrating, the "glitches" I talked about make applying payments painful even on a good day. The glitches include:

1. On transaction "Update" (after making the Split and checking the "Invoice Payment" checkbox) you are taken to the "You got Paid!" window and sometimes (probably 70-90% of the time on the web version and only 10-20% of the time on mobile) when you first click a payment to apply it, you are taken to a window which says "No open invoices" - which is a lie. You have to click "Save" to be taken back out to the payment selection window and click the payment a second time to be actually shown the open invoices. This is a minor inconvenience - possibly caused by a race condition or the underlying database not getting fully updated during one of the button clicks - but when you encounter this MULTIPLE times in the course of trying to troubleshoot the main bug, it becomes very irritating.
2. Once you have selected the "Invoice Payment" checkbox on the transaction/split, you're "Locked in" … to unselect this box clears your original Category selection and resets other transaction metadata. Again, minor inconvenience but very irritating when encountered repeatedly.
3. You can't make modifications to certain fields of the original transaction once the "Invoice Payment" checkbox has been selected and committed. Particularly troubling is the "Reports" visibility. To avoid double-counting the payment on the business report, the "Reports" needs to be checked … but this CANNOT be modified once an invoice payment has been selected meaning that to correct the PnL report, I have to UNAPPLY ALL PAYMENTS, DELETE SPLITS, CHECK THE "Reports" CHECKBOX, THEN RE-DO EVERYTHING … AGAIN.
4. The original category does not CONSISTENTLY persist into the reports. I have a category "Consulting Income" which is a child of "Business Income" and I have yet to figure out how to consistently apply payments (with split transactions) such that my invoices / payments show up correctly under "Consulting Income" on my PnL report / other reports. Even though I have ALL splits categorized appropriately BEFORE checking the "Invoice Payments" box, checking that box re-categorizes the splits to "Client Invoices" (It's creating a Transfer transaction, this is understandable) but when I go to check the PnL report on the "Income" breakdown, Quicken has Categorized my Invoice line items separately, and as best I can tell it has AT RANDOM applied EITHER my selected category for the invoice OR the parent level "Business Income" with NO WAY for me to go back and recategorize the invoice line-items. So I have roughly HALF of my income at the correct child-level category and HALF at the parent level (basically uncategorized). This is incredibly frustrating at reporting time, and there is no way I can find to do anything about it.

All-together, these "minor inconveniences" have cost me HOURS of time in trying to get my PnL report ACCURATE for year-end so I can send it to my accountant … and I am currently a solo-LLC startup with one primary client and <5 projects this year … I REALLY feel for the larger / more complex businesses trying to use this tool.

I like Quicken Business and Personal and it has come a LONG way this past year. I REALLY want to keep using it, so please address these issues because I can't afford to continue to suffer the time lost working around the bugs. Thanks!

Coach Natalie

@Dakota, thanks for sharing your experience with the Community!

We'd be happy to take a look at any issues you're experiencing when using Quicken Business & Personal. However, you'd want to address each item individually by creating a separate post for each issue/topic. Be sure to include specific details and screenshots so everyone can have a clearer picture of what's going on, and we can assist you more effectively.

Our FAQ here goes over posting to the Community:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/8/how-to-post-to-the-community

For the main issue mentioned here, it seems that Quicken Business & Personal is automatically allocating invoice payments to other invoices of the same amount — does that sound correct? It seems like you've already resolved the issue for the December payments, which is great!

In order to help track down the issue more efficiently, we'd recommend providing some screenshots, along with a timeline of events, the next time you notice this behavior. That way, the Community can help pinpoint what might be causing the issue.

Let us know if you have any other questions or need assistance with data gathering!