From: Margaret Wilson on
I've searched Quicken Help, and I can't find how to match securities in
Quicken with online securities. So here's my situation and question:

I have a 403b with Fidelity NetBenefits. I've been downloading transactions
for sometime now and am currently using QP2006. I've had this account for
years. I converted it to a 401k account type and then began using Quicken's
direct connect when each option became available. I recall that when I
first downloaded transactions (at least a couple Quicken versions ago),
Quicken prompted me to match my securities in Quicken with Fidelity's
downloaded security names. Note that I no longer manually enter
transactions, preferring to let Quicken download them from NetBenefits. OK,
there's the background. Now for the issue....

Yesterday, I exchanged funds from an existing (matched) security to a new
security. Prior to performing this morning's download, I created the
security in Quicken (using my naming scheme), entered the correct ticker
symbol, and downloaded historical prices and asset allocation. I did not
manually enter the exchange transactions, figuring Quicken would allow me to
match my newly created security with the downloaded one when I did my
morning download today. Nope. All I could do is accept the downloaded
transactions as-is or delete them. So I accepted the transactions. But
then I had two securities in Quicken that were identical but differently
named. Interestingly, the downloaded security did not include a ticker
symbol or asset allocation. To make a long story short, I had to delete the
security I'd previously created, rename the downloaded security and enter
the ticker symbol, then download the asset allocation info. Now the
security is marked that's it's "matched with online security." So future
transactions should be OK for this security. But....

Today I performed another exchange, this time into a fund that I owned prior
to when I began downloading transactions. So this security is not matched
to an online security, and there are *many* pre-existing transactions. As a
result, I will not be able to delete my security and edit the security that
will be downloaded tomorrow morning. Quicken Help mentions matching
securities with online securities, but it doesn't tell me *how* to do it.
All it says on the subject is:

"If Matched with Online Security is selected, you identified this security
as being involved in a previous download of investment transactions. If you
no longer want downloaded transactions having the same CUSIP number, ticker
symbol, or name to affect this particular security (because you now want to
do a short sale, exercise options, or some other action), clear Matched with
Online Security.
To reestablish the connection, download transactions involving the security
and select to match it again."

This implies that I will be prompted to match securities when transactions
are downloaded, but it doesn't happen. I can't edit a security and select
the check box, because it's greyed out. How do I match my security to its
online security? Do I have to manually enter transactions prior to
downloading?

Any help much appreciated!

Regards,

Margaret


From: John Pollard on
Margaret Wilson wrote:
> I've searched Quicken Help, and I can't find how to match
> securities
> in Quicken with online securities. So here's my situation and
> question:
> I have a 403b with Fidelity NetBenefits. I've been
> downloading
> transactions for sometime now and am currently using QP2006.
> I've
> had this account for years. I converted it to a 401k account
> type
> and then began using Quicken's direct connect when each option
> became
> available. I recall that when I first downloaded transactions
> (at
> least a couple Quicken versions ago), Quicken prompted me to
> match my
> securities in Quicken with Fidelity's downloaded security
> names. Note that I no longer manually enter transactions,
> preferring to let
> Quicken download them from NetBenefits. OK, there's the
> background. Now for the issue....
> Yesterday, I exchanged funds from an existing (matched)
> security to a
> new security. Prior to performing this morning's download, I
> created
> the security in Quicken (using my naming scheme), entered the
> correct
> ticker symbol, and downloaded historical prices and asset
> allocation.

> I did not manually enter the exchange transactions, figuring
> Quicken
> would allow me to match my newly created security with the
> downloaded
> one when I did my morning download today.

I would have assumed the same thing. I think the offer to match
only occurs after you click "Accept".

> Nope. All I could do is
> accept the downloaded transactions as-is or delete them. So I
> accepted the transactions.

> But then I had two securities in Quicken
> that were identical but differently named.

> Interestingly, the
> downloaded security did not include a ticker symbol or asset
> allocation. To make a long story short, I had to delete the
> security
> I'd previously created, rename the downloaded security and
> enter the
> ticker symbol, then download the asset allocation info. Now
> the
> security is marked that's it's "matched with online security."
> So
> future transactions should be OK for this security. But....
> Today I performed another exchange, this time into a fund that
> I
> owned prior to when I began downloading transactions. So this
> security is not matched to an online security, and there are
> *many*
> pre-existing transactions. As a result, I will not be able to
> delete
> my security and edit the security that will be downloaded
> tomorrow
> morning. Quicken Help mentions matching securities with
> online
> securities, but it doesn't tell me *how* to do it. All it says
> on the
> subject is:
> "If Matched with Online Security is selected, you identified
> this
> security as being involved in a previous download of
> investment
> transactions. If you no longer want downloaded transactions
> having
> the same CUSIP number, ticker symbol, or name to affect this
> particular security (because you now want to do a short sale,
> exercise options, or some other action), clear Matched with
> Online
> Security. To reestablish the connection, download transactions
> involving the
> security and select to match it again."
>
> This implies that I will be prompted to match securities when
> transactions are downloaded, but it doesn't happen. I can't
> edit a
> security and select the check box, because it's greyed out.

Are you saying you can not uncheck the box for the security you
downloaded? That is, do you have a security designated as
"matched ..." and you can not uncheck the "matched ..." box?

> How do I
> match my security to its online security? Do I have to
> manually
> enter transactions prior to downloading?
>
> Any help much appreciated!

Not sure I can provide any help, but will try a couple of
observations ... deductions really, I can not find much info on
Intuit's intentions regarding the handling of downloaded
investment transactions.

First, I think only Quicken can designate a security as "matched
with online security", and only you can undo that designation:
hence the greyed out box for unmatched securities.

Second, I think the key to matching Quicken securities with
downloaded securities is CUSIP; I have yet to find any
downloaded investment data from any fi that does not specify the
CUSIP as the id for the security.

Third, downloaded security transactions do not contain the
ticker or the security name (ignore memo field); those may be
found in the downloaded "holdings" which I think are supposed to
be part of every download, but which are sometimes incomplete
.... and maybe even missing. The only useful identifier in a
downloaded investment transaction is the CUSIP (Other
identifiers are allowed by the OFX spec, but do not seem to be
used. Presumably a good thing as I think CUSIP is most likely
to be unique).

I notice that CUSIP used to be a visible, user-enterable,
Quicken field; now it is neither: personally, I would like to be
able to see CUSIP visible again. Now you can not tell whether
an existing security has a value for CUSIP, and if it does, what
that value is. If you could see the Quicken CUSIP, you could
check it against the downloaded transaction's CUSIP; that might
give a clue to the problem.

I may just be lucky, but I have never had the problem you
describe and I have downloaded transactions for securities that
were in my Quicken data long before I started downloading.

You probably already do this, but I would make a backup of your
Quicken data before you do the next download, so you can return
to it if the downloaded security can not be correctly matched
and some other "solution" can be identified.

And if you have a backup from before you manually added that
security that did not get matched, you might try making a copy
of that backup fileset (for a test), then doing another download
without manually adding the security to see if Quicken will
offer the option to "add" a new security or "match" an existing
security. (I have never failed to get that dialog for a "new"
security-a security never downloaded from that fi before).

--
John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
Please reply to newsgroup


From: Margaret Wilson on
Thanks for your thoughtful response, John. See comments within text.

"John Pollard" <invalid(a)invalid.com> wrote in message
news:4tP3f.246619$084.179263(a)attbi_s22...
> Margaret Wilson wrote:
>
>> I did not manually enter the exchange transactions, figuring Quicken
>> would allow me to match my newly created security with the downloaded one
>> when I did my morning download today.
>
> I would have assumed the same thing. I think the offer to match only
> occurs after you click "Accept".

That's what I expected to happen, but I received no offer to match
securities. Quicken just created a new security (without prompting),
causing the duplicate.

>> <text from Quicken Help deleted> This implies that I will be prompted to
>> match >> securities when transactions are >> downloaded, but it doesn't
>> happen. I can't edit a security and select the check box, because it's
>> greyed out.

> Are you saying you can not uncheck the box for the security you
> downloaded? That is, do you have a security designated as "matched ..."
> and you can not uncheck the "matched ..." box?

No, for securities that are already matched, I can uncheck the "matched..."
box. At least I assume so, as it's not greyed out. (I haven't tried to
uncheck the box, because I don't want to unmatch securities, and Quicken
Help says that once unchecked, I have to wait for the next download to match
them again.) Anyway, this check box is greyed out for the unmatched
security, that is, the one that failed to get matched when I downloaded
transactions. I'd hoped I could check the box and have Quicken prompt me to
match my security to the new downloaded one. It was a long shot, and it
didn't happen. Sigh....

>> How do I match my security to its online security? Do I have to manually
>> enter transactions prior to downloading?
>
> First, I think only Quicken can designate a security as "matched with
> online security", and only you can undo that designation: hence the greyed
> out box for unmatched securities.

Yes, this appears to be how it works.

> I may just be lucky, but I have never had the problem you describe and I
> have downloaded transactions for securities that were in my Quicken data
> long before I started downloading.

A few months ago, I opened a Vanguard Roth IRA with one mutual fund. I
created that security using my naming scheme, and that security was matched
transparently when I downloaded my first transaction. That is, I don't
recall doing anything, and Quicken was able to match the securities just
fine.

Hopefully this incident with my Fidelity security was a fluke. But here's
how I avoided the problem with today's download:

Yesterday, I went to the NetBenefits site to see how Fidelity named the
mutual fund that I exchanged into (and that had not been matched). After
backing up my data file, I then renamed my existing security so it
corresponded with Fidelity's naming scheme. This morning I performed my
download and accepted the new transactions. The security was transparently
matched, as the names were the same. Then I edited the security in Quicken
and renamed it according to my naming scheme. The security remains matched,
and all seems fine. I don't expect to purchase shares in any other
pre-existing, unmatched securities, so I may not encounter this again. That
is, unless I change my mind sometime down the road. :-)

The really strange thing is that my naming scheme is not all that different
from Fidelity's. The security names were close enough, that I would have
expected Quicken to at least *ask* if the securities were the same. For
example, my name for the security is "F-Contrafund," and Fidelity's is "FID
CONTRAFUND."

BTW, Quicken Help (or user manual), can't remember which, mentions the
ability to edit downloaded transactions before accepting them. There is no
such option. All one can do is accept or delete individual transactions, or
accept them all. Now it does talk about editing "closely matched"
transactions, so perhaps Quicken allows editing if one has a manually
entered transaction that closely but not exactly matches a downloaded
transaction.

Another BTW, I gave up manually entering transactions, because it's just too
cumbersome now: The day I make an exchange/purchase/etc in my 403b, I don't
have the share price or number of shares, only a total dollar figure. When
I fill out Quicken's transaction form, it won't grab the latest share price
from the price history and calculate number of shares from total amount.
(Quicken used to do this when entering investment transactions directly into
the register.) So if I want to manually enter a transaction, I have to
first gather the above info. It's a pain, but even if I do this, the
transaction is based on the previous day's closing price, and won't be an
exact match. It's not worth the effort to end up with an incorrect
transaction, so I just wait till the next day and download the transactions.
This way, I end up with correct info. But ... I apparently lose the ability
to match securities, assuming an existing transaction is needed for matching
to occur.

As a test to see if Quicken would calculate shares from the latest price and
total amount when entering a transaction directly in the register, I just
entered a "sold" transaction using just the share name and total amount.
Nope. Quicken enters the total dollar figure and leaves shares and share
price empty. (If I use the form, Quicken will not allow me to leave shares
and share price blank.)

> You probably already do this, but I would make a backup of your Quicken
> data before you do the next download, so you can return to it if the
> downloaded security can not be correctly matched and some other "solution"
> can be identified.
>
> And if you have a backup from before you manually added that security that
> did not get matched, you might try making a copy of that backup fileset
> (for a test), then doing another download without manually adding the
> security to see if Quicken will offer the option to "add" a new security
> or "match" an existing security. (I have never failed to get that dialog
> for a "new" security-a security never downloaded from that fi before).

I do have these backups, so I may try your tests. I'm curious, just don't
know if I'll get around to it or not. If I do, I will post my results.

Thanks for your thoughts, John.

Regards,

Margaret


From: Margaret Wilson on
It just occurred to me that when I opened that Vanguard Roth IRA, I was
still using QP2005. So the last time I downloaded transactions that
required security matching, it was using QP2005. This incident with the
Fidelity security not being matched is the first time I've done any security
matching while using QP2006. Still don't know if it's a fluke or something
with v2006. Guess I should find the time to perform those tests you
mentioned, John. :-)

Incidentally, I took the plunge and installed R3 last night. So far, so
good.

Regards,

Margaret