old 401k showing balance even when hidden

Unknown

I have an old 401K account that's showing up in the accounts bar on the left, and it has a balance even though it's hidden. It was rolled over 5 years ago, and it shows the rollover transaction and a cash balance of zero. However, in the lower right hand corner of the register, it says:
"Securities Value: $19,800.78  Cash Balance: $0.00
Total Market Value: $19,800.78"

It's the $19K value that shows up in the account bar.

All three checkboxes are checked under "Display Options." I tried to close the account, but I get the message "This account has securities balances, please clear securities before you close the account." 

I just want it to be hidden as it's supposed to be, and I don't understand why it isn't.

I'm using Quicken 2017 Version R15.13 Build 26.1.15.13.

Michael Jones

Rodney, you need to find out why it thinks you have securities in that account and take care of that before Quicken will let you close/hide the account.

Maybe go to Investing -> Portfolio and see if you can see what security is in the account and then make a zeros transaction (you can just transfer out the shares).  You could also try the Report -> Investing -> Portfolio Value and then have it sort by account.

You might also scan the securities once you find them in the security detail.  Maybe Quicken inadvertently downloaded a new historical price.  It happens sometimes for reasons on the gods seem to know.

I have a similar problem sometimes with fractional shares with Quicken gets very pissy about me being off .01 share.  

Jim_Harman

Also note that hiding an account does not exclude it from Quicken's calculations, reports, etc, it just moves it to the More accounts areas of the Account Bar. If you want to exclude an account, click the gear at the top right corner of the register/transaction list, choose Edit account details, pick the Display options tab, and select Keep this account separate.

On this tab you can also choose to "Close" the account, which preserves its transactions but zeros out its balance and disables transaction downloading. I don't think there is an easy way to re-open an account once it has been closed. Search Quicken help for "account hiding options" for more info.

Unknown

Jim Harman said:

Also note that hiding an account does not exclude it from Quicken's calculations, reports, etc, it just moves it to the More accounts areas of the Account Bar. If you want to exclude an account, click the gear at the top right corner of the register/transaction list, choose Edit account details, pick the Display options tab, and select Keep this account separate.

On this tab you can also choose to "Close" the account, which preserves its transactions but zeros out its balance and disables transaction downloading. I don't think there is an easy way to re-open an account once it has been closed. Search Quicken help for "account hiding options" for more info.

Yes, as I noted above, "All three checkboxes are checked under "Display Options.""

Unknown

Michael Jones said:

Rodney, you need to find out why it thinks you have securities in that account and take care of that before Quicken will let you close/hide the account.

Maybe go to Investing -> Portfolio and see if you can see what security is in the account and then make a zeros transaction (you can just transfer out the shares).  You could also try the Report -> Investing -> Portfolio Value and then have it sort by account.

You might also scan the securities once you find them in the security detail.  Maybe Quicken inadvertently downloaded a new historical price.  It happens sometimes for reasons on the gods seem to know.

I have a similar problem sometimes with fractional shares with Quicken gets very pissy about me being off .01 share.  

I'm not sure what you mean by "make a zeros transaction (you can just transfer out the shares)." Could you be more specific or point me to instructions? Thanks.

Jim_Harman

Jim Harman said:

Also note that hiding an account does not exclude it from Quicken's calculations, reports, etc, it just moves it to the More accounts areas of the Account Bar. If you want to exclude an account, click the gear at the top right corner of the register/transaction list, choose Edit account details, pick the Display options tab, and select Keep this account separate.

On this tab you can also choose to "Close" the account, which preserves its transactions but zeros out its balance and disables transaction downloading. I don't think there is an easy way to re-open an account once it has been closed. Search Quicken help for "account hiding options" for more info.

None of the boxes in the Account details tab will have the effect of zeroing out the account. An account that still has a balance will show up with that balance in the Separate section of the Account bar.

Are you saying that this amount is included in your Net Worth if the Separate box is checked, or that the account is not moved to the Separate or More accounts sections when you check the corresponding boxes?

Have you tried entering Remove transactions for all the shares you no longer hold? That is an easy way to zero out the balance, but because it is not what actually happened in the account, performance reports will not be accurate for that account. 

If you want the reports and such to be accurate for that account, as Michael Jones says above, you will have review the transactions and fix whatever is wrong. Do a backup first in case things go awry.

Unknown

I "withdrew" the $19K and that made the account cash balance "0." It still thinks the securities worth $19K are in there, but the value no longer shows up in the account bar.

Jim_Harman

In your original post you said you had a securities value of $19k and a cash balance of zero for a total of $19k.

If you withdraw $19k, you will have a total of zero but a securities value of $19k still and a cash balance of -$19k. This may meet your needs, but now your cash reporting may look weird and if the prices of the securities change, your account balance will no longer be zero.

It would be better IMO to enter a Remove transaction for the exact number of shares you hold of each security in the account. 

Unknown

Jim Harman said:

In your original post you said you had a securities value of $19k and a cash balance of zero for a total of $19k.

If you withdraw $19k, you will have a total of zero but a securities value of $19k still and a cash balance of -$19k. This may meet your needs, but now your cash reporting may look weird and if the prices of the securities change, your account balance will no longer be zero.

It would be better IMO to enter a Remove transaction for the exact number of shares you hold of each security in the account. 

OK, I figured out how to do that and now all the numbers are zero.

Thanks for the help.

Mary Kay Kotzman

Michael Jones said:

Rodney, you need to find out why it thinks you have securities in that account and take care of that before Quicken will let you close/hide the account.

Maybe go to Investing -> Portfolio and see if you can see what security is in the account and then make a zeros transaction (you can just transfer out the shares).  You could also try the Report -> Investing -> Portfolio Value and then have it sort by account.

You might also scan the securities once you find them in the security detail.  Maybe Quicken inadvertently downloaded a new historical price.  It happens sometimes for reasons on the gods seem to know.

I have a similar problem sometimes with fractional shares with Quicken gets very pissy about me being off .01 share.  

Me too. Quicken moved me to Release. 18. I like you was on R15.

Michael Jones

Jim Harman said:

In your original post you said you had a securities value of $19k and a cash balance of zero for a total of $19k.

If you withdraw $19k, you will have a total of zero but a securities value of $19k still and a cash balance of -$19k. This may meet your needs, but now your cash reporting may look weird and if the prices of the securities change, your account balance will no longer be zero.

It would be better IMO to enter a Remove transaction for the exact number of shares you hold of each security in the account. 

Sorry I did not get back to you more quickly.  Jim's clarification is what I was suggesting, which was to find the offending stock and 'remove' it or adjust the share price if that's what did it from history!

Glad you got it fixed.