Steps to reconciling a large, long-term account in Windows 10 Quicken DeLuxe 2016

I trusted One-Step Update to handle things, so I did not formally reconcile the account monthly (not a wise choice!).By comparing with UBS paper statements I've managed to keep things reasonably accurate by occasionally making adjusting journal entries. Of course doing this has apparently made reconciling impossible. I have not discovered how to undo old reconciliations to go back to earlier periods. Fortunately I can continue to muddle along since data used in my tax returns is downloaded directly.
Being retired with available time I've just spent about two days trying to straighten things out - wrestling with the multiple Placeholder entries, for example. It's very frustrating. If possible I'd like to go back a couple of years or so and do a full, one-time reconciliation. I hope this will then allow me to do regular monthly reconciliations and save further aggravation.
By the way - I tried to reset R to c indicators in the transaction register. I understand that I should be able to change multiple lines simultaneously by Shift-Selecting; this works okay with my bank account but not with my stock accounts. Resetting each transaction individually is tedious. Is this a Quicken problem?
Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Comments
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My opinions:
1) reconciling in an investment account is not broadly valuable. The Quicken process is a cash reconciliation and does not specifically address if the asset holdings are in agreement. As such, I would not worry to much about that status in an investment account. Having the transactions checked as blank, c, or R can be beneficial for your own processing (comparing to monthly statements). I do not know of a way to reset them in bulk for an investment account.
2) Placeholders are a PITA - enough so that I do not let them get into my data to begin with. Unfortunately, you are a few years behind the curve on that. There are a variety of ways placeholders can creep in and they may need unique resolutions. Placeholders from a Corporate name change (Google to Alphabet) would be different than for a spinoff (Herc Holding from Hertz) and different than a stock split. The only thing I can advise you on would be to be methodical. I would likely start as far back as possible (3, 5, 10 years, your choice) and then try to work forward matching Quicken holdings to the appropriate monthly brokerage statement. I'd delete any placeholder and replace it with an Add Shares specifying the acquisition dates and cost basis as applicable. That presumes there is not an applicable Buy for that security. It may be possible to start with the latest data and work backward in time, but that seems to me to be potentially more confusing and perhaps risky to current data as you change the prior data.
Post back with more specific questions if you can.0 -
Thanks for your reply. It sounds like I may be worrying too much about the appearance of the Transaction Register.
I am careful to ensure that the stock holdings are accurate by comparing Q to the UBS paper statements. The problem usually lies with the cash balance in the account, which I correct with a Cash In/Out journal adjustment. Over the years I had to make some other significant adjusting entries that look weird in the Register. I assume from your reply that I'm okay as long as the current stock holdings statement is accurate and there are no obvious errors in the recent past. When time comes to fill out my tax returns (using TurboTax) I carefully ensure that the data downloaded directly from the banks or brokerages is accurate. .
I will follow your suggestion and delete the 20 or so Placeholders, working back to front. Thanks again.0 -
One more thing to remember:
If you want to keep your investment account in shape, these two items MUST match the brokerage statements exactly:
- number of shares
- total dollar amount investedWhen entering any buy, sell or reinvest dividend transaction, be sure to enter
- the exact number of shares, down to 5 decimal places for any transactions involving fractional shares (e.g., reinvest dividend)
- the commission, if any
- the total dollar amount
Let Quicken calculate the price per share, rounded to as many decimal places as it wants to. The price per share, as reported by the brokerage often is truncated or rounded and
number of shares * brokerage's price per share will not exactly equal the total amount invested causing your balance to be off by some cents.Make sure that your printed brokerage statement correctly reports the number shares in your holdings and in individual transactions to 5 decimal places, e.g., 0.12345
This accuracy also applies to downloaded transactions.
Anything else is unacceptable and you should complain to the brokerage.0 -
Michael, as a side issue ... do you know what there are plus signs between every word of your subject line? Is that something that you did?Q user since DOS version 5
Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Home & Business
Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP0 -
You can use a Banking/Transaction report customized to only include the investment account you are working with.
Once customized, you can do a Find/Replace selecting the "R" transactions and then doing the replace of cleared status to either blank or "c".-splasher using Q since 1996 - Subscription - Win10
-also older versions as needed for testing
-Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list0 -
I didn't add these + signs, which I wondered about when I came back to this page.NotACPA - QW HBRP 2019 said:Michael, as a side issue ... do you know what there are plus signs between every word of your subject line? Is that something that you did?
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The first Placeholder I've been trying to resolve is very frustrating, Here it is:UKR said:One more thing to remember:
If you want to keep your investment account in shape, these two items MUST match the brokerage statements exactly:
- number of shares
- total dollar amount investedWhen entering any buy, sell or reinvest dividend transaction, be sure to enter
- the exact number of shares, down to 5 decimal places for any transactions involving fractional shares (e.g., reinvest dividend)
- the commission, if any
- the total dollar amount
Let Quicken calculate the price per share, rounded to as many decimal places as it wants to. The price per share, as reported by the brokerage often is truncated or rounded and
number of shares * brokerage's price per share will not exactly equal the total amount invested causing your balance to be off by some cents.Make sure that your printed brokerage statement correctly reports the number shares in your holdings and in individual transactions to 5 decimal places, e.g., 0.12345
This accuracy also applies to downloaded transactions.
Anything else is unacceptable and you should complain to the brokerage.
10/6/2014 Bought 100 sh @ 140.3811
1/7/2015 Sold 28 sh @ 159.58214
Holdings as of 5/15/2016
Total shares owned = 72 $3,934.87
Shares from Transactions = 72 $3,934.87
Total 00.00
Notice that the two cash amounts shown are incorrect - I assume this means the cost of the 72 shares - this should be $10, 107.44
The Placeholder keeps asking for the missing transaction.
I even tried deleting the sale and re-entering it. What happened then is the Transaction Register refused to accept the cash received (NA)0 -
UKR said:
One more thing to remember:
If you want to keep your investment account in shape, these two items MUST match the brokerage statements exactly:
- number of shares
- total dollar amount investedWhen entering any buy, sell or reinvest dividend transaction, be sure to enter
- the exact number of shares, down to 5 decimal places for any transactions involving fractional shares (e.g., reinvest dividend)
- the commission, if any
- the total dollar amount
Let Quicken calculate the price per share, rounded to as many decimal places as it wants to. The price per share, as reported by the brokerage often is truncated or rounded and
number of shares * brokerage's price per share will not exactly equal the total amount invested causing your balance to be off by some cents.Make sure that your printed brokerage statement correctly reports the number shares in your holdings and in individual transactions to 5 decimal places, e.g., 0.12345
This accuracy also applies to downloaded transactions.
Anything else is unacceptable and you should complain to the brokerage.Holdings as of 5/15/2016
I am not sure what that is conveying, or where it is coming from, or where the placeholder is coming into play.
Total shares owned = 72 $3,934.87
Shares from Transactions = 72 $3,934.87
Total 00.00
After the sale of the 28 shares for 159/share, you should have had cash in the account of $4,468.30. Did you?
You could have all sorts of transactions between 1/7/15 and 5/15/16 that would change the cash amount in the account.
More (clearer) info please.0 -
Sorry that I wasn't more clear. I am trying to resolve one of the Placeholder items Quicken placed in my account transaction list because of a missing cost. I clicked on "Cost" at the end of the Placeholder items line. A window marked "Enter Missing Transaction" opened. There are no missing transactions for this stock. The data is what I entered in this window.UKR said:One more thing to remember:
If you want to keep your investment account in shape, these two items MUST match the brokerage statements exactly:
- number of shares
- total dollar amount investedWhen entering any buy, sell or reinvest dividend transaction, be sure to enter
- the exact number of shares, down to 5 decimal places for any transactions involving fractional shares (e.g., reinvest dividend)
- the commission, if any
- the total dollar amount
Let Quicken calculate the price per share, rounded to as many decimal places as it wants to. The price per share, as reported by the brokerage often is truncated or rounded and
number of shares * brokerage's price per share will not exactly equal the total amount invested causing your balance to be off by some cents.Make sure that your printed brokerage statement correctly reports the number shares in your holdings and in individual transactions to 5 decimal places, e.g., 0.12345
This accuracy also applies to downloaded transactions.
Anything else is unacceptable and you should complain to the brokerage.
The top two items are the only two transactions in the register for this stock.
The four lines below show the total shares owned on the date listed, and Placeholder questions relating to these shares - they are equal so the the total is 0.0
The strange thing is the cost of the the 72 shares shown is incorrect - 72 shares x $140.3811 = $10,107.44, not $3,934.87!
Nothing I tried caused this Placeholder to resolve - that is the problem. There must be something I am doing wrong,.0