Venmo transaction names don't include the payee

randominseattle

It looks like Venmo transactions only show whatever you wrote in the memo field. So I've got a bunch of transactions that say things like "Week of June 8" but don't say who it went to. That's not useful for categorization.

Coach Natalie

Hello @randominseattle,

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue to the Community, although I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing difficulties with your Venmo transactions in Simplifi.

The best way to determine where the issue lies is to download your transactions from the bank directly to a QFX file, and then open the file in a word doc. You'll then want to compare the Payee names in the QFX file to the "Appears on your statement as..." info for the transactions in Simplifi to see if the Payee name matches. 

Please let us know how it goes!

-Coach Natalie

randominseattle

Hi Natalie,

To clarify, this is about transactions in a Simplifi account that is directly downloaded from Venmo, not my bank account. I don't see a way to download QFX from Venmo, but when I download a CSV from them there are separate fields for "To" and "Note". Simplifi appears to be using the "Note" field as the payee. (Except when the "Note" field contains an emoji, in which case it says "[My Name] paid [Payee Name]" with [My Name] and [Payee Name] substituted with the actual names.)

Thanks!

Coach Natalie

Hello @randominseattle,

Thanks for posting back!

To clarify, do you have the account connected to Venmo in Simplifi so that transactions automatically download? If so, you'll want to view the "Appears on your statement as..." info for the transactions in Simplifi and compare them to the downloaded CSV file. The "Appears on your statement as..." info is available in the Transaction Detail view:

I'm not sure if comparing to a CSV would be the same as a QFX file, but I'd definitely suggest giving this a try and letting us know how it goes.

-Coach Natalie

randominseattle

Right, the Venmo account is connected in Simplifi so that transactions automatically download. (It constantly prompts for a 2fac code, which appears to be another known issue, but that's beside the point.)

The value in "Appears on your statement as" matches the "Note" field in the CSV. Except when the "Note" field contains an emoji, in which case it says "[My Name] paid [Payee Name]" with [My Name] and [Payee Name] substituted with the actual names. That exact text does not appear in the CSV, though it does have columns for both my name and the payee name.

Coach Natalie

Hello @randominseattle,

Thanks for confirming!

To clarify, is there anything in the Payee field when viewing the CSV file? Would you mind also sharing some data so we can take a closer look? Please provide the downloaded CSV file, as well as a screenshot of the Transaction Detail view of a few example transactions that include the Payee and the "Appears on your statement as..." info. You can either provide the requested information here, DM it to me, or I can email you a link to our Secure File Exchange -- totally up to you.

Much appreciated!

-Coach Natalie

randominseattle

I sent you a PM with a CSV and some corresponding screenshots from Simplifi. The CSV doesn't have a Payee field, but it does have a From field (which has my name) and a To field (which has the payee's name). The Note field is the one that appears to be getting picked up by Simplifi.

Coach Natalie

Hello @randominseattle,

Thank you for providing the requested information!

When viewing the way the transaction data is coming through from our end, it looks like Venmo is only sending in a memo instead of a Payee, which is the reason Simplifi is using the memo data for the Payee.

With that said, since the information is coming from Venmo this way, you'll want to contact them directly to see if anything further can be done from their end. Sadly, nothing further can be done on our end at this time. 

Sorry I don't have a better answer for you!

-Coach Natalie

randominseattle

I’m sorry, but it’s not reasonable to ask me to reach out to Venmo for this. I can’t imagine Venmo customer service will do anything other than send me back to Simplifi customer service. The root cause may be on their end, but it’s a bad experience for Simplifi users, and Simplifi should take the lead on reporting the issue to Venmo (or else remove support for Venmo).

Would you ask me to communicate with Google for you if a bad behavior in your web app was due to a bug in Google Chrome?

Coach Natalie

Thank you for the additional feedback, @randominseattle.

I understand your frustration and wish there was more we could do. If you do decide to contact Venmo, I hope you find that they're able to assist.🤞

-Coach Natalie