Why does the "cash div" action increase the share balance?

Question

I had to import transactions into one of my brokerage accounts using a QIF format to generate investment transactions from a CSV (old data, no longer available by direct download.) Most transactions import correctly. There are some cash dividend transactions that should just go to cash. The transaction in Quicken imports correctly as a "div" action, but the share balance increases. When I ask to edit the transactions in the register, I don't make any changes, but just click "done" and the transaction is edited in the Q register so that only the cash balance is updated, not the share balance, which is just how it should happen. Is there some hidden attribute of the "Div" action that I can't see?

Chris_QPW · Accepted Answer

Most likely the problem is in how the QIF transactions are created.
For a cash dividend.
D12/01/2010NDivYKLACT54.25C*PKLA-TENCOR CORP               CASH DIV  ON     217 SHS^

For a dividend that pays in shares.
D04/17/2009NDivYUSB.PR.GI18.850100Q-435.000000T8189.58C*PUSB CAPITAL VIII              6.35% TRUST PFD SER 1 DUEO10.21^

Notice they are both Div.
The difference is one has a number for the shares and price.

Given what Quicken is doing when you edit it, I think you will find that there is an amount for the number of shares, but it is zero.  So during the import it thinks it is a dividend paid in shares, but when you edit it and it sees that there are zero shares it changes it to a cash dividend.