Creating, Editing, and Deleting Payee Rules

💡 Overview

Payee Rules help you clean up messy or inconsistent payee names that are downloaded from your bank. Banks often use confusing or varied names for the same merchant — like "WAL-MART #1234", "WALMART SUPERCTR", or "WM SUPERCENTER". This can make it hard to track your spending and run accurate reports.

Payee Rules solve this problem by automatically renaming transactions using keyword matching. When a downloaded transaction matches one of your rule’s keywords (such as “wal” and “mart”), Quicken Business & Personal renames it to your preferred, standardized payee — like "Walmart".

You'll want to create Payee Rules when:

• You’re cleaning up long or inconsistent payee names

• You want reports grouped under consistent vendor names

• You use multiple versions of the same merchant for business and personal expenses

• You want to reduce manual cleanup after downloading transactions

🔍 What’s Your Situation?

Scenario 1️⃣: You see five different versions of “Walmart” in your spending report
→ Use a Payee Rule to rename all of them to “Walmart”

Scenario 2️⃣: You run a business and want “Amazon Web Services” labeled differently from “Amazon.com.”
→ Create separate rules using keyword filters for AWS vs. Amazon.com.

Scenario 3️⃣: You want all gas station transactions renamed to your preferred vendor name
→ Use keywords like “Chevron”, “Shell”, and “76” to map to standard payee names

Scenario 4️⃣: You want to auto-categorize and rename client deposits by name
→ Create a combined Payee + Category Rule (see also: Category Rules)

Creating a Payee Rule

Option 1: From the Settings Menu

Use this method when setting up rules proactively.

Steps:

1. Select Settings from the left-hand navigation panel and select Rules.

2. Click + Rule

3. Choose to reference either the original statement name or Quicken name

4. Add keyword(s) that Quicken should look for
   (e.g., “wal”, “mart”, “superctr”)

5. Check the box to Rename Payee, and enter your preferred payee name

6. Click Continue to Review

7. Choose whether to apply the rule to existing transactions

8. Click Create Rule

Option 2: From an Existing Transaction

Use this method when you’re editing a specific transaction.

Steps:

1. Locate the transaction and click in the Payee field

2. Enter the new Payee Name

3. Check the box for “Create a rule to rename this payee”

4. A Create Rule window will open automatically

5. Choose statement name reference (original or simplified)

6. Add or confirm keywords

7. Enter your preferred Payee name

8. (Optional) Enter or confirm a Category

9. Click Continue to Review

10. Apply to existing transactions (optional), then Create Rule

✏️ Editing or Deleting a Payee Rule

To Edit a Rule:

1. Select Settings from the left-hand navigation panel and select Rules.

2. Find your rule in the list and click Edit

3. Update keywords, payee name, or other fields

4. Click Save

To Delete a Rule:

1. Select Settings from the left-hand navigation panel and select Rules.

2. Locate the rule and click the trash icon

3. Confirm the deletion

📌 Best Practices for Payee Rules

• Use partial keywords: “starbuck” catches more variations than “Starbucks Coffee”

• Avoid overly broad keywords: A rule for “shop” might mislabel unrelated stores

• Test before scaling: Try rules with a few transactions first

• Keep payee names clean: Use short, business-appropriate names for reports

• Update as vendors change: Rebranding or new store names may require new rules