Editing a downloaded dividend from my brokerage account

Jeff Leisenring

When my brokerage firm pays a dividend it comes into Quicken as a dividend income with no description, thus not being able to have it hit a budget account.  I used to be able to edit the transaction by changing the type to payment/deposit and then could enter a description to match a budget category I had established.  Now when changing to payment/deposit the description field is blocked.  The only way to hit a budget category is to go to a split at the bottom of the screen and pick the appropriate description.  While no big deal, it seems that I should still be able to enter a description after changing the type to payment/deposit directly on the screen.  Thx.

Tom Young

What version/year/operating system are you using?  My response below only relates to the Windows versions.

"When my brokerage firm pays a dividend it comes into Quicken as a
dividend income with no description, thus not being able to have it hit a
budget account."

I don't understand what you've said here, exactly, nor with your problem with the "budget" aspect.

I'd think at a minimum the dollar amount would show up as a cash amount in the "Cash Amt" column with "Div" in the "Action" column.  It seems that combination, even in the absence of some name in the "Security" column, would affect budgeting/reporting.  Are you saying that all you get is a dollar amount, and nothing more?  Or something else?  How, exactly, does the dividend show up in the transaction list?  I guess dividends did have some sort of "Action" associated with them since you mention changing the "type" ("Action"?) to something else.

Jeff Leisenring

Sorry I was unclear.  I am running Mac18 version.  I wish to budget dividends for the year.  I have set up an income category for dividends in the budget. When I download a dividend from my brokerage firm, it posts to Quicken as Dividend Income in the Type column.  There is no way to have this hit a budget category.  Previously I would change the Type to Payment/Deposit and was then able to designate the Description to budget category Dividends.  

Recently after changing the Type to Payment/Deposit it is no longer possible to simply designate a Description.  Now I have to go to a split and enter the category Dividends to have it post to the budget.  Like I said, no big deal, but it would be more logical to change the Type to Payment/Deposit and then simply enter the proper Description.  

John_in_NC

Jeff Leisenring said:

Sorry I was unclear.  I am running Mac18 version.  I wish to budget dividends for the year.  I have set up an income category for dividends in the budget. When I download a dividend from my brokerage firm, it posts to Quicken as Dividend Income in the Type column.  There is no way to have this hit a budget category.  Previously I would change the Type to Payment/Deposit and was then able to designate the Description to budget category Dividends.  

Recently after changing the Type to Payment/Deposit it is no longer possible to simply designate a Description.  Now I have to go to a split and enter the category Dividends to have it post to the budget.  Like I said, no big deal, but it would be more logical to change the Type to Payment/Deposit and then simply enter the proper Description.  

Thanks for pointing this out. I do now see that you can no longer enter a category in the Description field. I don't know if this was by design or bug. Screenshots are from 2015/2018 for similar transaction:

Quicken Marcus

Sorry, this was an unintentional side-effect of a bug fix in the 5.7 release.  For now, you can add the category field as another place you can enter the category for a payment/deposit but I realize this isn't ideal because it adds another column to the register.  We're looking to see how this behavior changed and what caused it to return it back to the way it used to work.  The thing we have to be careful of is to do this in a way that doesn't re-introduce the bug it was fixing.