Securities Mismatch / Placeholder

BBLong
BBLong Quicken Windows 2017 Member
in Investing (Windows)
After downloading transactions from my 401K accounts, I often receive "Securities Comparison Mismatch notices. These show differences in the share count between those reported by my financial institution and those currently reported in my Quicken register. After clicking on "Details" it opens a "Transactions not downloaded" window and provides the option to "Create a placeholder transaction for the differences." Since these are retirement accounts I don't care much about my cost basis information and really only care about my account values, which obviously needs an accurate share count and price per share. I am noticing that when I attempt to create a placeholder transaction to fix the Securities Comparison Mismatch that the placeholder transactions appear to be duplicated (or otherwise counted multiple times) even though the share count should be fixed by the placeholder transaction.

For example, I am currently looking at one of my accounts. It has only one fund in the account. The Securities Comparison Mismatch error shows the following discrepancy:
Shares Reported: 3.432.7780
Shares in Quicken: 3,345.9944
Difference: 86.7836

The current price on this fund is $11.85. I have verified the reported balance with my financial institution. I have verified the current price by looking up a current quote. However, when I post the placeholder entry, my account value changes from ~$35K to ~$60K. This makes no sense. It should only change by $1,028.39 (86.7836 x $11.85).

Has anyone else noticed this? I have the same issue in multiple investment accounts. Anyone know how to resolve this issue? I have wasted a lot of time with the Quicken chat help and it has not done anything to help fix the problem.

I am using the following product:
Quicken - Home, Business & Rental Property
Year: 2020
Version: R23.21

Thanks in advance.

Best Answer

Answers

  • Jim_Harman
    Jim_Harman Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    The first step if you have not already is to make the Placeholders visible in your transaction list (register). To do this, go to Edit > Preferences > Investment Transactions and check the "Show hidden transactions" box. Thne you can see exactly what the Placeholder is doing.

    If this is the only fund in this account, then the account balance should be 3432.778 x 11.85 or $40,678.42, which does not match either of the numbers you show above. What do you see when you click on Holdings in the account, and how does this compare to the numbers above? 
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  • BBLong
    BBLong Quicken Windows 2017 Member
    Hi Jim,

    Thanks for your help. I should have mentioned that I did confirm that "Show hidden transactions" box is selected/checked.

    I was just using round numbers to illustrate the point. If I post the placeholder transaction my balance increases from $39,650 to over $60K. I can explain the $39,650 (3,345.9944 shares in my Quicken at the current price of $11.85) but I can't explain how it jumps to over $60K when I post the placeholder entry. It should only increase by $1,028.39 (the additional 86.7836 shares not currently in my Quicken, which the placeholder entry should be attempting to enter at the current price of $11.85).

    I'm not sure what else could be causing this problem. It happens in multiple investment accounts and seems to be primarily related to mutual funds.

    TIA
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