Manually match transactions in a brokerage account

Unknown

I am trying to import downloaded transactions in a brokerage account with the following setup:

Quicken Deluxe 2016 for Windows, Release R 12 (25.1.12.2)
Windows 10 Home, version 1703, OS Build 15063.540

Unfortunately, some of the transactions are mismatched after download.  They are associated with a dividend reinvestment entry I already have recorded instead of the appropriate LTCG reinvestment entry, also already recorded (which is itself perplexing, since the share and cost amounts match perfectly for the correct match and don't match at all for the proposed match - I think it is just interpreting everything as a dividend reinvestment, so it ignores the capital gains transactions).  I am able to unmatch the incorrect match, but then I have no option to match manually to select the appropriate one.  This option has consistently been available in other accounts (non-brokerage).  Is this something that is deliberately not included for brokerage accounts for some reason?  I guess I can just delete the botched auto-match transactions, but I'm curious why I can't match manually.

Thanks.

Unknown

The manual matching in investment accounts is extremely limited.  I can certainly understand that a bit because of all the complexities of the different action types and such.

So I'm not in the least bit surprised that you can't do a manual match.  Basically what I do in such situations is just fix things manually.  The benefits of "manual match" are dubious to start with.

Vetta

It is not uncommon to see Cap Gains or Return of Capital transactions show up as Dividends in Q downloads. I do not know if this is on Q's end or the brokerage's but this is one reason I always do a manual match.

NotACPA

Vetta said:

It is not uncommon to see Cap Gains or Return of Capital transactions show up as Dividends in Q downloads. I do not know if this is on Q's end or the brokerage's but this is one reason I always do a manual match.

It's on the brokerage's end.  Check your OFX Log to see for yourself.

Unknown

I think I going to expand on this a bit.

First off I might say that I don't usually have any manual matching, because I almost never manually enter transactions into investment accounts.  So I'm not really the "best expert" on the subject.

But I do know a few things.

One is just what I eluded to, and that is what seems simple is complex.

In a non investment account a transaction is a transaction.  About all you have to deal with is a date and an amount.

In an investment account each different action type can have different data in the transaction.
Some transactions like a buy involve shares.  Other transactions don't.  So for instance clearly you can't match a buy with a cash withdraw.

So when the action is coded wrong, there is no guarantee that the downloaded transaction even contains the needed information for changing it to another action type.  Or even making the "judgement" that the two actions can be matched.

Also recently I ran into something I didn't expect (as in a bug, actually a couple of bugs).

This behavior you are going to see is quite different if you are using automatic transaction entry mode or not.

With automatic entry mode I notice that the "un-match" option was available even when the downloaded transaction wasn't matched to an existing transaction.  What's more if I selected un-match it put it back into the Downloaded Transactions tab, which was hidden!  I had to go out of automatic transaction entry mode to see the transaction.

If you are doing this from Downloaded Transactions tab it has "better" chance of doing a match, and the right thing, but "not really".  As in I have had times where I get a match or a near match, and I need to tweak some little part of it (or maybe even a "big part" like change the action), but as I change the transaction then Quicken doesn't think it is a match, and I end up creating a new transaction and have to just delete the downloaded one.