New problem with placeholders?

Question

I am working on a Vanguard 401k account.  Sometimes, Vanguard does not download all the transactions, and I simply use placeholders to fix the share balance.  I have been doing this for years.

Today, I run into the following.  For one mutual fund, I see the following in the Securities Comparison Mismatch window

So, as usual, I click on Details and get the following:

The part about the transactions not being downloaded since 3/18/2018 is nonsense, as the account is downloaded every month.  Be that as it may, I go ahead and create a placeholder.  What I am expecting (as in the past) is a placeholder transaction for 2.9394 shares.

But what is created is:

Quicken creates a placeholder adding the TOTAL correct share balance of 1,566.0170 instead of the DIFFERENCE of 2.9394.  This creates an incorrect new total share balance of 3,129.09462.

I do not know when this started - it was working fine for me a few months ago.

Anyone else see this?

Vital statistics - Windows 10 Pro version 1803, OS Build 17134.706

Joel Jakubson · Answer

Jim,

i am familiar with this timing issue. It occurs with Schwab and Ameritrade also. However, in my case the missing transactions NEVER download.

I suspect the the cause is as follows:

1. I download Vanguard. 
2. Later the same day, Vanguard posts the transaction. However, I suspect that Vanguard is giving the transaction a time stamp that is BEFORE the time of my download. 
3. On the subsequent download, the missing transaction is not downloaded since it is older than the previous update.

I guess next time a transaction is missing, I will reset the DSTART date and try to download again to see if I can prove my theory.

Of course, this is all independent of the original issue. I too hate placeholders (like UKR) but in this case the amounts are small and the client only cares about account value and accurate holdings. But the Quicken bug is still a bug and I am glad it will be fixed.

This is is also independent of the other Vanguard mismatch issue, where the share amounts of transactions are to four decimal places, but the holdings downloaded are only to three decimal places, causing a mismatch on every download.

Jim_Harman · Answer

@Joel Jakubson the original share balance mismatch appears to be caused when the FI has updated your share balance to include a reivestment transaction that has not been downloaded yet.

If you download again a few days later, does the missing transaction eventually download and the balances agree?

If so, I would not let Quicken create the Placeholder and try downloading again a few days later.

UKR · Answer

My recommendation is to NOT create placeholders or let Quicken create them for you. Instead, manually record the missing transaction, as it should have appeared.Personally, I avoid placeholders like the plague. All you achieve with placeholders is to dig yourself a hole that gets deeper with every new placeholder. Next Stop, China.