Microsoft Money and Quicken FAQs

General Information

Can I use Quicken or Microsoft Money with Online Banking?

Yes, we have three download options available—Quicken, Microsoft, and .QIF—so that you can use your Personal Financial Management (PFM) software with our Online Banking service. For our customers using a Macintosh^® (Mac), or for those who have QuickBooks^® or an older version of Quicken, the .QIF download will continue to be available. For Quicken 2005 users, .QIF is no longer a supported file format. Please see your product guide for more information about sunsetting and download instructions. Sovereign has made downloading your checking and savings account information from Online Banking to Quicken or Microsoft Money more convenient than ever before. It's as simple as the following:

Click on Quicken or Microsoft Money depending on which product you will be utilizing.
Choose the register within Quicken or Microsoft Money that you want to receive the account information.
Verify and accept your downloaded transactions.

What versions of Quicken and Microsoft Money are supported?

Sovereign Bank supports the 3 most current versions of Quicken and Microsoft Money. At this time, QuickBooks is not supported.

How does the Quicken and Microsoft Money download process work?

You may logon to your Online Banking and click on the account that you wish to download. Click the Download History button on the next page and enter the date range you wish to work with. You may then click the appropriate Quicken or Microsoft Money radio button and click Download History.

If this is the first time you have downloaded information for this account, or if Quicken or Microsoft Money cannot determine which is the appropriate account, you will be asked to identify the Quicken or Microsoft Money account you use to track this financial information.
If you have set up a Quicken or Microsoft Money account for this account, select "Use your existing Quicken or Microsoft Money account" and choose the account from the pop-up list.
If you have not yet set up a Quicken or Microsoft Money account for this account, select "Create a new Quicken or Microsoft Money account" and enter a name for this account.
Click Continue. Your recent account history is sent from Sovereign Bank to Quicken or Microsoft Money. Depending on the amount of information being sent, you may see a progress bar indicating how much of the transfer is complete.
Once your recent account history has been transferred, Quicken or Microsoft Money opens and takes you to the Online Center. You can edit the downloaded transactions, if necessary, before accepting them into your Quicken or Microsoft Money account register. For example, you may want to add categories to un-categorized transactions. For more information, see the Quicken or Microsoft Money help topic, "Comparing downloaded transactions and updating your register." Quicken or Microsoft Money will close automatically so that you may continue your Online Banking session.

Will the downloaded transactions reconcile with transactions that I have manually entered into my Quicken or Microsoft Money register?

Yes. It is recommended that you begin with a blank Quicken or Microsoft Money checking account statement, input the appropriate corresponding beginning balance and download your Sovereign information daily or weekly. This will give you the capability of then using the Quicken or Microsoft Money management tools.

What is a .QIF download?

A .QIF (Quicken Interchange Format) file is a specially formatted text file used to transfer data between different Quicken data files, from a bank's Website to Quicken, and in some cases between other financial programs. The Export function in the Quicken program (available from the File menu) automatically creates a .QIF file that can be imported into other Quicken data files. Quicken Interchange Format (.QIF) is a non-proprietary data format. Although Intuit originally developed .QIF for use with Quicken, the use of ASCII format makes it possible to download to QuickBooks, and the non-supported versions of Quicken and Microsoft Money.

How does the .QIF download process work?

The download allows you to transfer account transaction information from the Internet to older versions of Quicken or Microsoft Money so that you don't have to manually transfer all of your banking transactions.

From the Online Banking account history screen, click on the "Download History" button. This will bring up a screen where you can select a range of dates from which to download.
Select a range of dates from which to download.
After selecting the dates, click on "Download." This will bring up a box that says you have chosen to download a file of type text\qif.
Click on "Save File." Then you will need to select the directory to save the ".qif" into. We recommend using a floppy disk or creating a specific folder for all of your downloads.
Name your file (i.e., April 2005 or 043005) so that you can accurately and easily identify your files.
Once you have done this, open your money management tool (Quicken or Microsoft Money), click on the FILE tab and import the file.

What is the difference between a .QIF download vs. using the Quicken or Microsoft Money option?

A .QIF file can be edited in any text editing program, for instance, in Microsoft Windows^®, use Notepad, and in Macintosh, use Simpletext. QIF files may need to be edited when moving files from a Quicken for Windows program to a Quicken for Macintosh program.
You have to download the file from the web to your drive, and import it manually to your money management tool. You have to manually delete any duplicate transactions, and no automatic categorization takes place.
The Quicken and Microsoft Money radio button works the same as QIF data file, but automatic categorization is supported and duplicates are automatically skipped. While you must still perform a download from Sovereign Bank's Website, the import of your transaction files will happen as part of a one-way web connect transfer. Customers who have Quicken 2001or greater (and as new versions become available) can use the Quicken radio button in order to complete the download. Customers who have Microsoft Money 2002 or greater can use the Microsoft Money radio button to complete a download.

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