QWin 2016 (R6): Change security name to new (correct) name

Scatr

Hi, I have been using Quicken for many years (20?), and I am starting to use some of the features I never used before.  For instance, I have an investment account (Roth IRA) that contains one mutual fund.  I have always entered the transaction data manually, and the security name is one I created myself.  I would like to enter the actual security symbol and use the actual security name of the mutual fund.

I have added the 'real' security information by adding it online via Tools - Security List.  Now, though, I have years of history under the old security name that I would like to change over to the newly added security.  I would prefer to keep all the history intact.

Any recommendations on the best way to do this?

I should note that I have multiple accounts that use this same mutual fund.  So, in one account where I was using my prior practice (my own security name), I changed that security to the 'real' security.  So, the process worked well for that account, and updated all occurrences of my own security name to the correct, 'real' security.

However, for the other accounts that, in reality, use the same 'real' mutual fund, I can't do the same thing, since the Edit Security function in Quicken rightly points out that I already have that security, so I can't perform the update.

Appreciate any recommendations on how best to do this.

I am using Quicken 2017, R6.

q_lurker

Any recommendations on the best way to do this?

a)  Delete the security you just created.
b)  For the original security you created, Edit the security details (You can get there from the security list, ctrl-y, and change the name to anything you want.  There is no requirement that the name in Quicken match anything in the real world.  
c)  On that same edit security detail screen, add in the correct ticker for the fund.  

All your prior transactions will now reflect the new name you gave the fund.  And that sounds like what you have done, at least for the first part.

Appreciate any recommendations on how best to do this.

Frankly, what I would do would be edit each of the transactions in the 'other' accounts to change the security name to your singular choice.  By using copy and paste, I believe you can do this much quicker than you might think.    After making those edits, I would then review any sales of that security in that account to make sure selection of the lot sold was correct.  

And before embarking in any of these directions, have a good backup at hand to give you a recovery point.  

Scatr

Thanks, I'll give that a shot...  the 'brute force' method of cut/paste for all transactions occurred to me, but it feels a little daunting.  Was hoping there was a Quicken function that I could use that I was not alert enough to unearth.  Thanks for your help - I'll work on editing the historical records.

mshiggins

Scatr said:

Thanks, I'll give that a shot...  the 'brute force' method of cut/paste for all transactions occurred to me, but it feels a little daunting.  Was hoping there was a Quicken function that I could use that I was not alert enough to unearth.  Thanks for your help - I'll work on editing the historical records.

Just to clarify, I believe Lurker was referring to copying the new security name and pasting that security name in the transactions that should be updated to the correct new security name, not to cutting and pasting an entire investment transaction.

q_lurker

Scatr said:

Thanks, I'll give that a shot...  the 'brute force' method of cut/paste for all transactions occurred to me, but it feels a little daunting.  Was hoping there was a Quicken function that I could use that I was not alert enough to unearth.  Thanks for your help - I'll work on editing the historical records.

That is correct - the pasting is just one security name over the other.  100 transactions at 5 seconds each is only 8 minutes, and it may be faster than that.  Click on the transaction, click on the security, Ctrl-V (assuming Windows hot key selection) to paste over the old security, repeat.  

You can sort your transactions list by Security (Click the security header) to have all the applicable transactions grouped together, if that is helpful. Or the Find function within the transaction list might also be useful.

Scatr

Thank you both - all done and it was not too bad.  Now I have a 'real-world' security replacing three manually updated securities in three separate accounts.  Thank you for the detailed help!