Fidelity Investments “banking” v/s "investing" account for Quicken check writing Qs

JPHolm

I’ve been a Quicken user for 30+ years and currently use Quicken Premier on a Windows v.10 PC. I have been moving much of my financial life to Fidelity Investments where I now have multiple accounts.

3 years ago I set up a Fidelity “banking” account in Quicken and started check writing on that account. I now know that I should have set this up as an “investing” account. My problem is that I have hundreds of transactions recorded in this “banking” account’s register (including checks written, Bill Payment transactions, Direct Deposits, Wire Transfers, dividends, etc.)

I also have a Fidelity account that appears as an “investing” account in Quicken to which Fidelity transaction updates are automatically entered.

Q-1: Is there a way to merge the data from the “banking” account register into the “investing account” register or do I have to do this manually for each transaction (ouch!) ?

Q-2: Is there a way to set up the “investing” account register so it will record the same types of information that a “banking” account register can track (expense Category, Payee, Memo, etc.)?

Thanks,

John_in_NC

Howdy, JPHolm:

I will answer Q-2 first: Yes, you can adjust the columns displayed in an investment account to make it more useful if you are processing cash transaction from it. You can display check #, print checks, etc. Click on the Columns button at the lower right to explore which columns to display/hide. Drag them around to desired order.

The biggest difference in using an investment account for cash transactions is that each transx must be of type "Payment/Deposit". Yes, all your transactions are commingled, but this is real world.

As for Q-1: Make a backup of your datafile before you attempt anything. After warning you of that, yes, you can move transactions to your investment account. Select the transactions in the banking account, and drag them over to the name of the investment account in the sidebar. They will be moved. Obviously, don't move any opening balance adjustments. 

I don't know how your accounts are setup nor how Fidelity displays it's cash transactions. But, this should get you pointed in the right direction. Good luck! You will figure this out.

jacobs

@JPHolm and @John_in_NC This is a question about Quicken Windows, but it was posted in a Quicken Mac category of the forum. I started to answer, as John did, before realizing the discrepancy. Because I'm not sure Quicken Windows behaves identically to Quicken Mac regarding these transfers, I didn't want to chime in. I have asked a moderator to move this thread to a Quicken Windows category of the forum, where it will be seen by and you will get replies from Quicken Windows users. 

JPHolm

Very helpful, but I cannot find the "Columns button at the lower right" to make the adjustments. (Not sure if it matters, but I am running Quicken Windows. Any suggestions?

Thanks

JPHolm

Also, Quicken Support / Quicken Community contains the following comment suggesting that while registry columns can be adjusted for a "banking" account (i.e., a non-investment account), it may not be possible for an investment account registry. Am I missing something on this issue? - -
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"How do I change the columns in a register?
Skip to end of metadata

Go to start of metadata

You can choose the columns to display in your non-investment account registers. Each of your registers can be customized independently.

Open the account and go to the non-investment account register you want to change.
At the top of the register scrollbar, click the icon.
Select the columns you would like to see in your register.
(Optional) Click the gear icon in the lower left corner of the column list. You can either apply your changes to all similar registers, or reset all similar registers to their default column set.
Click Done to save your changes."

jacobs

@JPHolm  Yes, as I mentioned above, John is a Quicken Mac user and his reply indicated he thought you were using Quicken Mac since your original post was filed under Quicken Mac. Hopefully a moderator will move this thread to a Quicken Windows category where some Windows specialists will chime in to offer advice. (Since I've only ever used Quicken Mac, I can't describe how to do this in Quicken Windows.)