Simplifi needs to import both the NAME and MEMO and combine them into Payee for my Credit Union.

Glimmer3721

I notice that Simplifi isn't pulling in all the information from my Credit Union when it creates the Payee.

For example, this is what's in my QFX file:

<NAME>Debit Card Withdrawal:<MEMO> MCDONALD'S F19013 21111 NEW YORK BLVD SHER 09/06/23Card 18 #9999</STMTTRN>

But what shows up in the Simplifi Payee is just the NAME section as shown below. Which isn't helpful because the rest of the information in the MEMO field show's the actual vendor.

Debit Card Withdrawal:

However, notice that when I use Tiller, both the NAME and MEMO are combined into the Description field:

Debit Card Withdrawal: Mcdonald's Fx9013 X1111 New York Blvd Sher 09/06/23card 18 #9999

How do I contact the team at Simplifi to have them correct their import so it takes both NAME and MEMO and combines them into the Payee for my Credit Union?

It's certainly possible because other personal finance applications are doing it.

This is really the only issue that is preventing me from giving the app 5 stars.

Thanks!

Glimmer3721

I have Simplifi setup to download my transactions automatically from my Credit Union.

However, the information in PAYEE is not complete and this makes reconciliation difficult.

I made a purchase at McDonald's and this is what Simplifi show's in the Payee field:

Debit Card Withdrawal:

You can see that the above isn't enough information to identify the Payee.

In contrast, this is the information I see in a QFX file I downloaded for comparison.

<NAME>Debit Card Withdrawal:<MEMO> MCDONALD'S F19013 21111 NEW YORK BLVD SHER 09/06/23Card 18 #9999</STMTTRN>

I need Simplifi to update their import settings from my Credit Union to combine both the NAME and MEMO field into the Payee field.

As an example, this is what a competing application shows in their Description field:

Debit Card Withdrawal: Mcdonald's Fx9013 X1111 New York Blvd Sher 09/06/23card 18 #9999

This shows that it is possible to do this, we just need the configuration for my Credit Union be update in Simplifi's import settings.

Who could I reach out to, to discuss this further?

Thanks!

Glimmer3721

I have Simplifi setup to download my transactions automatically from my Credit Union.
However, the information in PAYEE is not complete and this makes reconciliation difficult.
I made a purchase at McDonald's and this is what Simplifi show's in the Payee field:
Debit Card Withdrawal:

You can see that the above isn't enough information to identify the Payee.
In contrast, this is the information I see in a QFX file I downloaded for comparison.
NAME Debit Card Withdrawal: MEMO MCDONALD'S F19013 21111 NEW YORK BLVD SHER 09/06/23Card 18 #9999

Simplifi is only importing the NAME element.

I need Simplifi to update their import settings from my Credit Union to combine both the NAME and MEMO field into the Payee field.
As an example, this is what a competing application shows in their Description field:
Debit Card Withdrawal: Mcdonald's Fx9013 X1111 New York Blvd Sher 09/06/23card 18 #9999

This shows that it is possible to do this, we just need the configuration for my Credit Union be update in Simplifi's import settings.
Who could I reach out to, to discuss this further?
Thanks!

Coach Natalie

@Glimmer3721, thanks for reaching out!

If I understand correctly, when transactions are downloaded in Quicken Simplifi, they are showing as "Debit Card Withdrawal" instead of showing the Payee, right? If so, what does the "Appears on your statement as…" info show when viewing the transaction? Please also provide a bit more info so we can get a clearer picture of what's going on, such as:

• The name of the credit union.
• The type of account the issue is occurring with.
• Are only certain types of transactions downloading this way (i.e. only transactions where a debit card was used)?
• Is the issue unique to a specific bank/account (i.e. do you have other banks in Quicken Simplifi that don't have this problem/do you have other accounts with this bank in Quicken Simplifi that don't have this problem)?

Please let us know so we can best assist!

-Coach Natalie

Glimmer3721

Natalie,

For clarification, I have Simplifi setup to download transactions automatically from my Credit Union. I'm not actually importing a QFX file.

The Credit Union is First Community Credit Union myfirstccu.org in Oregon.

Here's some additional examples from my QFX file…

NAME Debit Card Withdrawal: THE HOMEMEMO DEPOT #4015 NEW YORK 10/30/23

NAME Debit Card Withdrawal: VENMO*MEMO Visa Direct NY 11/01/23

NAME Debit Card Withdrawal: THE HOMEMEMO DEPOT #4015 NEW YORK 10/30/23

NAME Debit Card Withdrawal: MEMOWALGREENS #7665 NEW YORK OR 10/27/23

NAME Debit Card Withdrawal: MEMOMCDONALD'S F19013 21111 NEW YORK BLVD SH 09/06/23

NAME Debit Card Withdrawal: SALLYMEMO BEAUTY #20 15532 TIGARD OR 06/28/23

I'm consistently seeing only the items in the NAME element being displayed in the Payee field while anything in the MEMO field doesn't show up anywhere.

There are a few transactions that actually do only show Debit Card Withdrawl: because the vendor is in the MEMO field. For these, I have to login to the Credit Union to find out what the rest of the information for the transaction is. Additionally, in the Simplifi Transaction detail for these items, only what's in the NAME element is shown in the note at the top. For example: Appears on your PRI CHECKING statement as Debit Card Withdrawal: on Oct 29, 2023. So the MEMO element isn't anywhere in the user interface.

With the exception of when Simplifi runs its standardization algorithms to clean up the Payee. Not sure what you call that code but this example from the QFX file NAME Debit Card Withdrawal: WAL-MART MEMO #4176 21111 SW NEW YORK F SHE 11/02/23Card 18 #999 just shows up as Wal-mart in the Payee field.

I believe that your system is processing on both the NAME and MEMO elements when it uses its automatic Payee correction and automatic Categorization. In the example above for SALLY BEAUTY, Simplifi correctly and automatically updated the Payee to Sally Beauty Supply and correctly and automatically chose the Personal Care category. Even though at the top of the Transaction detail we read Appears on your PRI CHECKING statement as Debit Card Withdrawal: SALLY on Jun 29, 2023. I doubt Simplifi could have properly categorized and named the transaction from only the word SALLY which is only in the NAME element which makes me think it's actually using both NAME and MEMO.

The solution appears to be for your import code to combine both the NAME field and the MEMO field from my Credit Union and put that in the Payee field. If you are able to do this, that would really save me a bunch of head-ache.

I really appreciate you responding to me. Thank you so very much.

Glimmer3721

@Coach Natalie

Pinging you for the above response I posted. Thanks!

Coach Natalie

@Glimmer3721, thanks for posting back!

Yes, we are looking at this for automatic bank transaction download, not transaction import. So, we wouldn't want to look at a downloaded QFX file when comparing the transactions to Quicken Simplifi; you'd actually want to look at how the Payee is displayed on both the bank's website, as well as when viewing the "Appears on your statement as…" info in Quicken Simplifi.

With that, some of my original questions still stand:

• The type of account the issue is occurring with.
• Are only certain types of transactions downloading this way (i.e. only transactions where a debit card was used)?
• Is the issue unique to a specific bank/account (i.e. do you have other banks in Quicken Simplifi that don't have this problem/do you have other accounts with this bank in Quicken Simplifi that don't have this problem)?

I'd suggest comparing the payee name on the bank's website and/or your bank statement with the "Appears on your statement as…" info in Quicken Simplifi. This will give you a better idea of what's going on and how/why Quicken Simplifi is downloading the data this way. It may be how the bank is providing the info, and/or it may be how Quicken Simplifi applies its renaming logic; in order to investigate this, though, we need a clear picture. Maybe providing some comparison screenshots would help. 🙂

-Coach Natalie

Glimmer3721

@Coach Natalie

Thank you for your response.

You asked: The type of account the issue is occurring with.

All accounts from this financial institution. The examples above are checking accounts but all the transactions in my other checking and savings accounts from this financial institution are exhibiting the same issue.

You asked: Are only certain types of transactions downloading this way (i.e. only transactions where a debit card was used)?

All transaction descriptions from this financial institution are being truncated. This is a global issue with the import from my financial institution. Simplifi never imports the entire description from my financial institution. All Transaction details are truncated in Simplifi.

You asked: Is the issue unique to a specific bank/account (i.e. do you have other banks in Quicken Simplifi that don't have this problem/do you have other accounts with this bank in Quicken Simplifi that don't have this problem)?

Yes. Only with this financial institution. My credit cards look fine.

Below is a sample transaction description as shown from my financial institution's website:

This is what it looks like in the Simplifi transaction register:

You can see that the description is trucated in Simplifi.

I understand that your system may not import QFX files but use another process.

However, I'm using QFX examples because it really appears to me that whatever import process your system is using, it's only capturing what I'm seeing in the QFX file from the NAME element and ignoring what's in the MEMO element. In all transactions, whatever's in the QFX file in the NAME element is what shows up in Simplifi's "Appears on" section in the Transaction details. Any information in the MEMO field is ignored by Simplifi.

For the Wal-Mart example above, this is what we see in the QFX download… What's in the NAME element matches exactly what's in the Simplifi Transaction details as shown above.

I think Simplifi's import process from my financial institution needs to have its field mappings reviewed.

You asked if they all start with Debit Card Withdrawl:. It appears that if the card is used as a Debit Card, all transactions are prepended with Debit Card Withdrawl: in my financial institution's register. Here's an example where my debit card is used as a credit card from my financial institutions register…

Here's what it looks like from the QFX download…

And here's what it looks like in the Simplifi Transaction Detail…

A 1 to 1 relationship from what's in the NAME element to what show's up in the Simplifi Transaction detail.

I really think the solution here is for your team to investigate what fields are being mapped from my financial institution into Simplif's Transaction details / Payee. I think you'll find that the mapping is only taking the equivalent to the QFX files' NAME element, when it needs to be taking both the NAME and MEMO element, or their equivalent, during the import process.

Since other personal financial software I've used are able to provide the full description when they do an import directly from my financial institution, I'm sure that Simplifi can fix this issue.

If it would be easier to have a conference call to go over this, I'm happy to make myself available. I can do some screensharing, etc.

Let me know how I can best help you, and thanks for looking into this!

Coach Natalie

@Glimmer3721, I don't think what you're seeing is an issue. Using the above Walmart example, is the Payee for that transaction "Walmart" or "Wal-Mart"? If so, everything looks to be correct and by design to me.

With that, it sounds like you may actually need to create an Idea post to request a change. Based on your descriptions, it sounds like you may be looking for more details in the "Appears on your statement as…" info for downloaded transactions so you can get more detail about the transaction. I'm not sure that something like this can be implemented, as the bank most likely leaves these details off when providing the transaction details, but it's definitely worth requesting. 🙂

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/998/creating-and-voting-for-ideas-in-the-community

-Coach Natalie

Glimmer3721

@Coach Natalie

You spend 8 hours a day helping users learn how to use Simplifi. I've watched your videos and read your posts. I have faith in your ability to train me how to use Simplifi.

I spend 8 hours a day mapping fields between computer systems. When I say that Simplifi has a mapping problem, I need you to exercise faith in my expertise.

I've attempted to show you why I know Simplifi isn't mapping data correctly from my financial institution to your fields. It doesn't sound like I've succeeded yet. I'm happy to have a conference call to discuss this in more detail.

You mentioned above that you feel that Simplifi is acting by design. Are you saying that Simplifi shouldn't be pulling the entire description from the financial institution?

Here's what I know…

1. The description of charges from my credit card statement match exactly what is shown in the "Appears on your statement as…" section so I know that Simplifi has the ability to pull the full description from financial institutions.
2. For my credit union, Simplifi is not showing the full description in the "Appears on your statement as…" section. It's truncating it or the mapping is wrong.
3. Other applications, like Tiller, are able to do pull the full description without issue. Why can other applications pull the description and Simplifi cannot?

Now, if your policy is to not resolve mapping issues from financial institutions for customers, then that's a different story and I'm out of luck.

But, if your team really is interested in solving my issue, you'll need to pull in your mapping person. I'm confident that when you sit down with them, and they read through this thread, they're going to say that my issue warrants further investigation.

Could you please escalate this to your mapping person for further review? I'm available for a conference call if it helps explain this issue in greater detail.

Thank you.

Coach Natalie

@Glimmer3721, thanks for the feedback. When it comes to escalating things, we would first need to prove that there's an issue. Based on everything you've outlined here, I'm not seeing an issue with how Quicken Simplifi is treating your Payees. The "Appears on your statement as…" info is provided by the bank, and then Quicken Simplifi applies a renaming logic to clean up the name for the Payee field. If you're looking for more detail, I think something like this existing request may be a better way for you to share your feedback with our product team:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/2879/full-payee-descriptions-are-needed-edited

Alternatively, if you'd like to receive more advanced assistance on this and engage in a screen sharing session with our Support Team, you can contact them directly via chat or request a callback: https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/5077917-how-to-contact-support

-Coach Natalie

Glimmer3721

@Coach Natalie

Sounds good. Thank you.

khow

Bumping this - any update on this? It is very clear that the memos are not being mapped in from my bank institution, as well. The need to manually update all transactions makes this application far less user friendly than anticipated.

Thank you!