Share count warning does not match actual Quicken holdings

Paul Nocero

I have a security that recently split 3-1 (my shares went from 3 to 9). The share count in the account holding list is 9, which matches my brokerage account share count, but whenever I exit this account it tells me that there is an account mismatch where Quicken shows 27 shares and my brokerage shows 9.

Boatnmaniac

Please clarify:  Was the number of shares you held prior to the split 3 or 9?

If it was 9 shares prior to the split, then a 3 for 1 stock split would mean you should now have 27 shares.  If your broker is still showing just 9 shares, then you need to address that with the broker.

If it was 3 shares prior to the split, then a 3 for 1 stock split would mean you should now have 9 shares.  In this case what may have happened is what recently happened with me with the 4 for 1 Apple stock split: 

• In my morning OSU I got a transaction which correctly entered the 4 for 1 stock split into my register.  OK, now my register showed 4X as many shares as I did before, as it should.
  
• Then during my evening OSU download I got another 4 for 1 stock split transaction entered into my register.  This transaction increased my already 4X higher number of shares by another 4X for a 16X total shares increase.

The solution for this was to delete one of those two stock split transactions and then all was good, again.

I don't know why I got 2 stock split transactions downloaded but I'm guessing that the 1st one came from Quicken's securities quotes provider because downloads from Fidelity that morning did not happen.  But Fidelity downloaded properly in the evening and then that 2nd stock split transaction downloaded from them.  When I compared the duplicate stock split transactions details, the information in them was different from each other so it was pretty obvious that the 2 transactions came from different sources.

Anyway, that's what I would first look for:  2 stock split transactions when there should have been only 1.  If there are 2, delete one and the issue should be resolved.

If you do have only 1 stock split transaction in your register, then edit it to view the number of Old Shares and New Shares entered there.  It should show 1 Old Share and 3 New shares.  Quicken then calculates your total share holdings based upon that shares ratio in the transaction.

Does any of this resolve your issue?

NotACPA

A duplicated split transaction sounds like the issue to me, also.

Paul Nocero

Thanks for the timely response.

Shares before the split was 3, now 9 after the split. Quicken “holdings” list shows 9 shares, but if I do a report on this account, it shows 27 shares. If I look at this account in the “holdings” display it shows 9 shares. And when I close down Quicken, it warns me that I have 27 shares in Quicken with 9 in my brokerage.

Thanks for your assistance

q_lurker

When you go to the security detail view, how does the price history graph appear and how does it change as you toggle the box for Split adjust.  Shown below is the info for Apple behaving correctly (recent 4:1 split).  Does your case behave similarly?

Paul Nocero

It appears to change like your examples above.

Here's how it looks in Account Overview: Holdings

When I run a standard Portfolio Value report it lists a share count of 27.

Boatnmaniac

If you double click on that security in the Portfolio Value report it should show how those 27 shares were arrived at.  What do you see for transactions there?

Paul Nocero

I did that and it appears to have included the 6 shares in the voided transaction before the split, so the total is 9 before the split, 27 after. But there are only 3 shares before the split, which totals 9 now. 9 is the total in the account details, 27 in the report. See attachment.

Paul Nocero

I went to the transaction history for this account, searched on this security, and found that it somehow added 6 shares as a placeholder. I deleted the transaction and all appears OK now. Not sure why it created the placeholder, and why it affected the report but not the holdings display, but that seemed to be the culprit. Thanks for your help.

Boatnmaniac

I'm glad you found the problem.  I'd suspected that might be the case.  There are several different ways to find Placeholders and I figured drilling down on that security in the Portfolio Value report would identify it.

Placeholders are generated when the holdings in Quicken do not match what was downloaded by the investment company.  Quicken help says that Placeholders are not included in the Holdings display but they are included in some reports and in Portfolio.  I'm not sure of the logic behind this but I'm guessing it does not show them in Holdings because that is a reflection of the actual transactions that have been entered into the register and Placeholders are only temporary/suggested transactions.  But Quicken probably also assumes that what the investment company downloaded is likely to be more accurate than the the actual transactions included in the account register so it includes Placeholders in those reports and Portfolio.  When they are included in reports and in Portfolio an asterisk will be included indicating that there is some missing information...number of shares, pricing, etc...that needs to be resolved.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it (at least until someone corrects me).