Import security prices for multiple securities in Quicken for Mac (+6 Merged Votes)

hs

I am currently using both Quicken for Mac 2007 and Quicken for Mac 2019 in parallel to see if there's finally a version I can move to and retire 2007.  The showstopper for me at the moment is security prices.

Most of my securities are non-US or pension funds and so require manual entry of prices.  Given 2007 is relatively clunky, I only update the prices every Saturday morning for Friday's closing price.  In 2007, I can open the Portfolio window, change the date to the day before and enter each security price, hitting return to move to the next one.  Two steps per security.

In 2019, it's hideously complex - open the Securities window, double click the security, click the Price History tab, tab to the date, change the date, tab another four times to the Closing Price, enter the price, hit return, click on Done.  Repeat for the next security.  Eight steps per security, including much mousing around.

I see there's another request to bring the former 2007 functionality back to the Portfolio view (at https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/add-ability-to-manually-update-security-quotes-w...), for which I've voted, but I would like to see the ability to import multiple security prices for multiple securities at one time from a csv file.

It's trivially easy in the Windows version (see https://www.quicken.com/support/how-import-historical-security-data-quicken), but csv import in the Mac version is for individual securities only and about as time consuming as the manual process outlined above.

Please add this functionality to allow me finally to move off 2007.

Quicken Harold

Hello hs, appreciate your information.

I have switched this to an Idea so that others can vote on this request.

Respectfully,
~ Quicken Harold.

Unknown

In Quicken for Mac 2019, when your in the Portfolio view you can click on the Security Name and then click "Edit Security". That take you directly to that security for editing. This is still not straight forward but it avoids the securities window.

RickO

Depending on whether you want to spend a little to solve this, you could get a macro tool like Keyboard Maestro ($36) and program all the keystrokes need to get to the price entry field as a single-key macro. 

hs

BruceG said:

In Quicken for Mac 2019, when your in the Portfolio view you can click on the Security Name and then click "Edit Security". That take you directly to that security for editing. This is still not straight forward but it avoids the securities window.

Actually, that's even worse.  At least in the securities window, you can double click on the security or open it for edit with Cmd-E.  Going straight from the Portfolio view requires a click, a mouse over to a new window and then another click.  Which is then followed by another eight steps.

hs

RickO said:

Depending on whether you want to spend a little to solve this, you could get a macro tool like Keyboard Maestro ($36) and program all the keystrokes need to get to the price entry field as a single-key macro. 

I think I'd rather not spend.  It's available for free in the Windows version.  Why should we pay extra for basic functionality for the Mac version?

RickO

RickO said:

Depending on whether you want to spend a little to solve this, you could get a macro tool like Keyboard Maestro ($36) and program all the keystrokes need to get to the price entry field as a single-key macro. 

Makes sense. I only mentioned it because I use KM for tons of stuff. I'm very keyboard focused and hate reaching for the mouse when I don't have too. So I've created many macros for Quicken and even more for other programs.

qazwsx

In Quicken for Mac, I really need to be able to update prices (for international securities that won't update automatically) through a simpler process, ideally import through CSV like on the windows version, but also being able to enter on the portfolio screen would be a big improvement. Note I do NOT mean import price history for a single security in a CSV.
Update MULTIPLE securities through ONE csv.
Please let me know if this will be implemented within the next few weeks as if it is not I would like to get a refund instead.
Thanks.

jacobs

@qazwsx There is an existing "idea thread" for the request to be able to enter security prices quickly and easily in the portfolio screen: go here and then click on the little arrow under the vote count in the blue box to add your vote. This idea currently has 102 votes (95 "legacy", which refers to the previous platform this site was on, plus 7 since moving to this platform). Getting to over 100 votes is usually an important benchmark, but that doesn't guarantee it will get acted on. You'll note that the status in the blue box shows "no status", which means the developers haven't said this is definitely going to get done or definitely not going to get done.

I'm not sure I recall the idea of importing a CSV file with prices for multiple securities being a request before. I'm not saying it's not a good suggestion, only that I don't remember others asking for this previously.

There are probably more than 500 pending idea requests, so expecting quick action on any one particular feature request is unlikely. In terms of whether it will happen within a couple of weeks, the answer is definitely no… unless it's already been created and scheduled for the next update. That seems unlikely since the status on that older idea thread isn't marked as "planned." You might want to wait until version 5.12 is released -- probably sometime in the next couple weeks -- just to make sure, but it seems highly unlikely this will be implemented in your refund timeframe.

smayer97

This is the first request for QMac I have seen for using CSV to import multiple securities together.

[email protected]

> @hs said:
> (Quote)
> I think I'd rather not spend.  It's available for free in the Windows version.  Why should we pay extra for basic functionality for the Mac version?

You could work up an AppleScript to do all that – it's free with macOS. It would have to be using GUI Scripting (sadly Quicken is not scriptable) for which you need to grant permission. GUI Scripting can do anything in an application with commands like: click menu item "Pin Tab" of menu "Window" of menu bar 1

Quicken Anja

Hello All,

The Community Support team regularly reviews long-standing posts and Ideas for relevancy and current interest. This Idea seems to have stalled and we would like to gauge the current interest in this request. 

If you would like to see this idea implemented, please add your vote and a comment explaining how this idea would be beneficial for you. More information, including steps to vote and how to submit your own Ideas for future product features/improvements, is also available here.

Thank you,

Quicken Community Support Team

dipe_c

qazwsx said:

In Quicken for Mac, I really need to be able to update prices for MULTIPLE securities through ONE csv.

You have my support and vote. If you're still interested in a solution here's how I work it currently:

You'll need:

1. Parallels
2. Windows 10 installed as a virtual machine
3. Excel 365 (note: not the standalone version) installed within Windows
4. Excel for Mac (avoid Apple Numbers for this exercise)

Shortcut: Get access to a Windows 10 with Office 365 installed.

What you'll need to do:
In Excel 365 (Win), you'll need to set up a Power Query for each of your securities in the same file. Don't worry, results will populate in separate tabs; each security to a tab.
For e.g.:

1. In Excel, click Data Tab. Select 'From Web' > Advanced. Put in your source url (lets say for Apple's historical prices from Yahoo Finance): https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/history?p=AAPL
2. "Access Web content" > Anonymous > Connect > wait for connection
3. Navigator > Select Table 2 > Load.
4. You'll now have the data downloaded in a new tab, as a table, and a side panel of Queries & Connections will load on the left. You'll now have to format the data for Quicken to accept it. So, mouse over to "Table 2" in Queries & Connections and select Edit.
5. Select Column "Adj Close**" > Remove Column
6. Select Column "Volume" > Change "Data Type" to "Whole Number" (Quicken import won't allow commas)
7. Double Click "Close*" column and delete the asterisk
8. In "Properties" Change name from Table 2 to Apple Inc
9. Now "Close & Load"
   Your file will now have the format and headers that Quicken will require.
   Now, for adding your other securities:
10. Under "Queries & Connections", Mouseover (don't click!) to "Apple Inc" and click on "Edit"
11. Your Power Query Editor will open up again. 
12. On the left margin, click the arrow to expand Navigator Pane 
13. Under Queries, right-click Apple Inc and Duplicate
14. Rename duplicate (under Properties) to Tesla
15. Now click Advanced Editor. You'll see a box with your previous Apple query source. Just carefully edit the symbols to TSLA in the argument.
16. Click Done. Give it a few moments, and the data for Tesla will download.
17. Close & Load. Your new data will now populate a fresh tab in your Excel file.
18. Repeat this procedure for each of your securities.

Finally, you'll have an Excel (xlsx) file with all your Securities' price data. This is your master file. You can have all your prices perpetually updated (as long as your source is operational and on the same path) by simply going to the Data tab, and clicking "Refresh All". 

When you want to import into Quicken (after a full data refresh), save a copy of the xlsx file as .csv: This is your source file for import into Quicken Mac. Import this .csv file over to your Mac.

With Excel for Mac, open the CSV file: you'll see neat tabs with each one bearing the name of your chosen securities. Click on the tab of the security you want to import prices of. Save file (the selected tab is the active page: though csv shows you multiple pages, only the tab you save is the active page).

Open Quicken Mac > Portfolio > Click on security > Edit Security > Options > Import History from CSV > point to the open csv file (ensure the tab security name matches your Quicken security) > Import > Done.

Repeat for each of your securities, ensuring you've selected and saved the corresponding tab in your open csv file.

Phew!

Typing daily prices directly into Quicken Mac Portfolio would be so much easier... Better still, if data could be scraped from a more exhaustive repository. Delayed, or EOD data is usually free and would serve the purpose of Quicken users.

Quicken Anja

Hello All,

The Community Support team regularly reviews long-standing posts and Ideas for relevancy and current interest. This Idea seems to have stalled and we would like to gauge the current interest in this request. 

If you would like to see this idea implemented, please add your vote and a comment explaining how this idea would be beneficial for you. More information, including steps to vote and how to submit your own Ideas for future product features/improvements, is also available here.

Thank you,

Quicken Community Support Team

Joseph Williams

Look like I had already voted for this feature. I am definitely in favor of seeing multiple security import added to Quicken for Mac. I use Quicken to track my investments in the government's Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), and because there is no direct Quicken-to-TSP capability, I manually import security prices once every two weeks. Importing each of the five TSP funds I own one at a time is a bother, whereas I ought to be able to import all five at the same time. Thanks for the bump on this topic. Hopefully other feel as I do that multiple security import ought to be a standard feature.

[email protected]

I'm adding another post to this idea.  It's an obvious improvement and really should be higher on the priority list – recent improvements with the dashboard don't make up for difficult data entry !

inquring

I too would love to see Quicken for Mac offer the ability to import multiple security prices via a single CSV file as I have done for a long time in Quicken for Windows. It's a very time-consuming burden to import prices for many dozens of securities one by one. I have a file ready to go and import with the Windows version in seconds but now with the Mac I have to break up that one file into many dozens of individual files and then click and point and import my away across a vast number of securities and windows in Quicken for Mac. I hope it's understood how much better the experience can be if only the security name/symbol is permitted to be part of a single CSV file import.

macshaughnessy3

This would be extremely helpful especially with how I import my crypto currencies. Currently, I am using a script that individually opens and imports the price history for each currency as a security based on the current price. If I could do them all simultaneously this would allow my script to act as a true refresh as for all my crypto investments.

Joseph Williams

The recent upgrades have slightly improved the manual import of Securities a little. What used to take 8 actions now takes 6. I keep the Securities window open. Double-click on desired security to open. Select Price History tab. Click Import History from CSV File button. Click Choose CSV File to Import button. Select desired file and click Open button. Click Done. Wash, rinse, repeat for each security. Still it would be nice to do this only once for multiple securities.