Security Field Greyed Out?

narvey

What situations prevent editing the "security" field on an investment transaction? In the past, I have encountered this problem where an involved account is classified as a "single mutual fund"...but I know that is not the situation on this occasion. What else will cause the security field to be greyed out? This particular security is used in several accounts over a period of several years; and I have checked all involved accounts to make sure they are not classified as single mutual funds.

Bob_L

Have not tested to verify, but check to be sure security type is not set to index.

narvey

Thanks much, Bob_L. The type wasn't set to "Market Index" and I had previously played around with the security type to see if that would help...changing it to "Other" for example. However, you pushed me to play around with the type a little more. In doing so, I became aware that new types could be set up by the user. So I set up a new type called "Test" and that solved the problem....now the security isn't greyed out, so that I can make changes on an investment transaction.

narvey

Now I'm really confused. What had worked above (changing the security type) didn't work on another security with virtually identical transactions. Apparently there is some parameter that is different on this security, but I can't figure out what is different. What are all the situations that prevents the security from being changed (i.e. the field is greyed out) on an investment transaction? Apart from single mutual funds, I'm starting to wonder about other differences among account types (i.e. brokerage vs. IRA, etc.) being the problem. Unfortunately, the ability to change account types is very limited.

Bob_L

I have not seen a greyed out security field.  Are you attempting to edit it directly in the register as opposed to editing the transaction via the edit button?  Have you tried validating your data file to see if that helps?  Do that from File, File Operations, validate and repair.

narvey

Thanks for your help, Bob_L. Whether I go at the transaction from the account register, or from the security list/security detail view/transaction history, the security field is greyed out/not allowing change. Yes, I've done the validate and repair endless times. I'm so frustrated right now that I'm letting it sit for a few days while I wait for a light bulb to turn on in my head.

Bob_L

What security type is it?  Have you tried deleting and reentering the transaction to see if that works?  What version are you running?

narvey

It's actually a money market mutual fund, but I've tried changing to different security types and right now it's a "test" type...a new type I set up to debug the problem. Changing the type to this "test" solved the greyed out problem on another security with what I thought was identical circumstances. I'm running the "subscription" version. I haven't even tried reentering transactions because there are 1,300+ with now the wrong security. Let me try to give you a little more background regarding my problem. When I started on Quicken 20+ years ago, I somehow got on the misguided track of setting up a new security for each account. In other words, I had a unique security for every account...even if the security was really the same Ticker. For example, a particular money market mutual fund (i.e. one Ticker) might be held in 5 different accounts (an after-tax account and traditional and Roth IRA accounts for both myself and my wife). Somewhere along the way, I realized my folly and now I don't duplicate securities for what is really the same Ticker. I also had cleaned up all of the old situations where duplicate Tickers existed on different securities; except for the 1 money market mutual fund vs. 5 different securities (and accounts) mentioned above...primarily because there were thousands of transactions involved. I've been using this COVID-19 indoor time to try to clean the rest of these situations up. I have now gotten the 5 securities (really all the same security/Ticker) down to 2 securities by changing the security on the transactions. In the process, I found that I had to eliminate "single mutual fund" as the account type for affected accounts; and in the case of one security, I also had to change the security type to a new one I called "test." What I really needed was a function to merge securities, but no such thing exists from Quicken. The 1 remaining security that I'm trying to merge/eliminate has 1,300+ transactions on it. The account showing in the transaction history for the security is the money market fund; but that is only one side of the transactions...the other side of these transactions involves many different accounts (the transactions being interest, dividends, etc. paid in cash vs. being reinvested). Quicken appears to set up some kind of a link between accounts and securities that can't be manipulated. I still can't get the correct money market fund security specified on new transactions that I'm entering...it's stuck on the old obsolete security that I'm trying to eliminate. For example, in the bills/income & transfers function, I record a dividend income transaction on the ex-dividend date (within an "IRA" account holding multiple stocks) which puts it in the "cash balance" of the account. At the same time, I record a transfer transaction on the payable date to move the cash from the "IRA" stock account to the "IRA" money market account. The transfer transaction doesn't allow me to specify the security; all it specifies is the accounts from and to. There is some type of link between account and security because Quicken still posts the security (money market fund) that I want to obsolete; I have no way to change it. It's as if Quicken is maintaining a unique relationship between account and security the way I originally set them up years ago. The result is that the 1,300+ transactions I'm trying to merge continue to grow in number. Note that I enter all of my transactions manually; I don't utilize the fiduciary downloads. I suspect that download requirements and the increasing focus in that area are causing some of the file requirements I'm encountering. Sorry for this long-winded account; I sincerely thank you if you've taken the time to read it. Any further ideas are greatly appreciated.

Jim_Harman

"At the same time, I record a transfer transaction on the payable date to move the cash from the "IRA" stock account to the "IRA" money market account. The transfer transaction doesn't allow me to specify the security; all it specifies is the accounts from and to." 

Is the money market account set up as a "Linked checking account" in Quicken? This would be an account grouped with your banking accounts that automatically receives any cash dividends or other proceeds in your investing account. The transactions in the investing account are automatically recorded as DivX, SoldX, etc.

If not, why do you have a separate Quicken account for the IRA money market fund? Why not have the money market fund in the same account as the stocks that are paying the dividends? Then the dividend would be recorded as a "Div", increasing the cash balance in the account, and the purchase of the money market fund would be recorded as a "Bought" in the same account. No transfers are needed.

Jim_Harman

I might add that particularly if you are entering transactions manually, you may not want to enter the purchases and sales of the money market fund at all. You can just let the dividends accumulate in the Cash balance of the investing account and the cash balance should match the balance of the money market fund on your statements. The Total Market Value of the investing account should match the ending balance of your statements.

If the money market fund pays dividends, you can set it up as a holding with a price of $1.00 and zero shares and record the income as a Div, so it will add to the cash balance of the account as it should.

Bob_L

Phew, I'm not sure I completely understand what you have.  If we just look at one of the IRAs, is it set  up as a brokerage account holding more than one security?  I  hope so.  Then when you get dividends you book each one as div income and follow up with a transfer of the cash to another account you call IRA cash income, and presumably there buy shares in a money market security?  While this is clearly not the right way to handle this, it could conceivably "work".  But it sounds like you somehow want the transfer transaction to be tied to a specific security, which isn't the way transfers work. Why do  you want that?  What am I missing?  Give us a specific example.