How does Quicken for Mac match securities from the broker with securities in the account?

Question

I recently transferred my portfolio to C.Schwab. I created a new C.Schwab account. Then I manually transferred each security from the old broker account into the new C.Schwab account. I wanted to make sure the cost basis was maintained across the transfer.

I then set up the transaction download direct from C.Schwab. But then, after the download, I noticed that Quicken had added a new placeholder transaction for each security. It seems like Quicken is unable to match the securities reported by C.Schwab with the existing securities in the new account. The same ticker symbol is set for both the manually transferred security and the placeholder transaction. However the security name is different. What gives? Do I need to rename the securities to match?

Thanks.

FYI: I am using Quicken for Mac, Deluxe, version 6.4.2 (just installed 10/2/2021) on an iMac with macOS Catalina, 10.15.7

Rendon · Answer

The problem is not that the shares didn't come over. The problem is that, when C.Schwab reported the securities owned by the account, Quicken was unable to match them with the list of securities in Quicken.

I'm thinking that the problem is that I did things in the wrong order. I should have set up the online connection, and then had C.Schwab download the add-shares transaction, which would have the correct name and, hopefully, the cost history. Then manually remove the shares from the old account.

I found that if I change the security name in the manual add-security transaction to match the C.Scwab name, Quicken makes the match, removing the duplicate shares & placeholder transaction.

I talked to Quicken Support & they confirmed that Quicken matches securities by name. Although it makes no sense that Quicken matches by security name (which can vary from financial institution to financial institution) and not by ticker symbol or CUSIP (which does not).

Quicken Francisco · Answer

@Rendon

Thanks for the update. That is interesting that the shares didn't come over. It sounds like it might be best to try starting from adding the account again as it's become mixed. It sounds like we might want to try to delete the manual transactions so that they go back to the original account then deleting the account to be readded. Try adding the account again and see what information populates. Once this is done see if we might be able to create the transactions again and match them with the existing transactions.

Once you've had a chance to attempt this let us know if you're able to get the information input or if you're still having trouble.

Thanks,
Quicken Francisco

Rendon · Answer

I should add that the duplicate add shares transactions were not downloaded. They are labeled as placeholders. They seem to have been added by Quicken because the OFX positions (securities held by the account) report from C.Schwab included securities not in my Quicken database. The securities actually are here, but Quicken can't seem to match them.

The "Match status" column is blank for these placeholder transactions.