Accounting Talk

Bernie Cosell · Guest

I'm thinking of opening an account with a new bank, and they tell me that
they don't support "direct connect" -- I gather that's the magic that
allows Quicken to pick up transactions from the bank by itself with "one
step update". I'm trying to understand what that'll mean if I do go with
the bank. Is this the correct sequence of events:

1) Fire up quicken and make sure it is pointing at the right account[*]
2) Fire up browser
3) go to bank's website [waitwaitwait]
4) log in [waitwaitwait]
5) navigate to the place to get quicken downloads [waitwaitwait]
6) Do the download [wait wait] and tell Windows "open the file" --
just "open"ing it will feed the info to quicken, right? [if
quicken is currently looking at the right account]
7) log off the bank website

Repeat 3-7 for each such bank.

[*] I use quicken to manage several "separate" sets of accounts: one is
my personal stuff, another several are small clubs for which I'm
treasurer, another is a set of accounts that I need to keep separate
from my personal ones [for legal reasons], etc. So when I start
quicken, unless I double click on the right QEF file it is a bit hard
to predict which of those sets-of-accounts it'll be looking at when it
starts.

Anyhow, is that about close? Is there no way to automate it? It seems
truly awful [especially so because I'm on a SLOW internet connection [in
some ways it sucks to live in the middle of nowhere]] I can't imagine
doing that for each of the nine accounts I have in my 'personal' account
set every time I want to bring things up to date [compared with click
"update" and going away and doing something else for ten minutes].
[basically, if it really is that ugly I'll likely just go with a different
bank that _does_ allow "direct connect"] Thanks!

/Bernie\
--
Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers
bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA
--> Too many people, too few sheep <--

Han · Guest

Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote in
news:o8oj74pk1scj8jfhd30pa57knk7jjrejqp@library.airnews.net:

There are multiple questions here, so bear with me, and see below in
line.

John Pollard · Guest

Bernie Cosell wrote:

Bernie Cosell · Guest

"John Pollard" <invalid@invalid.com> wrote:

} Bernie Cosell wrote:
} > I'm thinking of opening an account with a new bank, and they
} > tell me
} > that they don't support "direct connect" -- I gather that's
} > the magic
} > that allows Quicken to pick up transactions from the bank by
} > itself
} > with "one step update".

} You don't have to "filre up browser"; if you tell Quicken to
} "update" a Web Connect account, Quicken will fire up its
} internal browser and present you with the sign-in page for your
} fi.
}
} You will have to sign-in then navigate to the page for
} downloading and initiate the download. (*)

Cleaner than having to switch back and forth from quicken to the browser,
but still a bit of a pain [since I'm tied to sitting there and clicking and
typing while all this slow-crap is going on].

} > Anyhow, is that about close? Is there no way to automate it?
}
} Starting with Q2008, Quicken offers what it calls "Express Web
} Connect": it's intended to allow you to download from Web
} Connect accounts using One Step Update. It expects to "screen
} scrape" your data; that is, it attempts to do steps 2-6 for you,
} and when it works, it definitely improves the downloading
} experience over plain Web Connect.

Hmm.. Interesting: sounds like enough banks don't support direct-connect
and enough customers griped or something like that, that intuit put in some
machinery to try to help.

} Over the past couple of years, your financial institutions have
} likely modified their login procedure to require more than just
} a password (sometimes much more*) and begun using different
} (separate) web pages to collect the info.

Interesting. I haven't actually investigated in detail what *this* bank's
webpage set up is, so I"m not sure how it'll work out.

} .. I can't tell you what problems you may face with your new fi,
} but if you post their name, perhaps others here can tell you
} whether they have been able to use Express Web Connect with that
} fi. [The fi must agree to allow Express Web Connect, so you
} could ask your fi if they permit it. But even if they permit
} EWC, it may not work ... see above.]

Cool. The bank I'm *considering* is StellarOne. But it sounds iffy enough
[and I don't have q2008 yet!] so I'm probably just going to go with a not
quite so convenient bank that *does* allow direct connect [wachovia].

Thanks!
/Bernie\
--
Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers
bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA
--> Too many people, too few sheep <--

Bernie Cosell · Guest

Han <nobody@nospam.not> wrote:

} Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote in
} news:o8oj74pk1scj8jfhd30pa57knk7jjrejqp@library.airnews.net:

}
} > I'm thinking of opening an account with a new bank, and they tell me
} > that they don't support "direct connect" -- I gather that's the magic
} > that allows Quicken to pick up transactions from the bank by itself
} > with "one step update".
}
} There is direct connect and there is web connect. As I understand it,
} with Q2008 the difference is minimal, and One Step Update (OSU) does
} both. But then, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Ah, I'm still at Q2006 but this might be a reason to upgrade!

} > Repeat 3-7 for each such bank.
}
} That seems right, but some of the wait steps will often be there also if
} you do OSU.

Yes, but with OSU *I'M* not sitting there. I click OSU, minimize Quicken
and either do something else or go away for a while.

} > Anyhow, is that about close? Is there no way to automate it? It
} > seems truly awful [especially so because I'm on a SLOW internet
} > connection [in some ways it sucks to live in the middle of nowhere]]
}
} You could set your browser to log on to a bunch of your banking sites
} simultaneously. Most browsers now have that ability either in separate
} tabs, or separate windows.

Hmm. Mine doesn't. I can set it to *open* a bunch of sites all at the
same time, but it won't fill in passwords, navigate through various pages,
etc. I'll go check! Thanks!

/Bernie\
--
Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers
bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA
--> Too many people, too few sheep <--

Han · Guest

Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote in
news:1aam74lk7jsheqnqh10nsongqrv6m8kdpo@library.airnews.net: