DivX Disappeared

samuel491

I am using Quicken Premier for Windows version R40.21 build 27.1.40.21 with an active membership.

I have 81 DivX transactions in my Traditional IRA retirement account going back to 1-13-12 with the most recent being 1-14-22.

All of a sudden I cannot create a new DivX transaction in my retirement account. I tried entering it manually, using a memorized investment transaction and via “Enter Transactions”. None created the DivX transaction that I’ve been creating for many years. Now I can only create a Div transaction. And when it creates a Div transaction the dollar amount of the cash dividend does not display in the line as it used to with DivX. I have to edit the transaction to see it. I have “Show hidden transactions” checked. Nothing new showed up when I checked it.

There is no cash balance displaying in my Traditional IRA account. There is no “Cash Amount” column and there is no “Cash Balance” column and no option to display such columns. When I click on “Update Cash Balance” I get the message “You cannot reconcile or update the balance of a CMA-linked investment account, because its cash balance is always zero. To reconcile the cash balance, go to the linked bank account.” This is the message I would expect because I set this retirement account with a Cash Management Account and the account I set up as the CMA account appears as grayed out in the “Transfer Account” option when selecting the “Inc – Income (Div, Int, etc.)” transaction type. But the new dividend dollars are not showing up in the Cash Management Account anymore because I can’t create a DivX transaction – only Div. In the Investments section the cash balance for this account is the sum of my linked CMA account plus the new Div transaction. So the dollars are in there somewhere. They just don’t display in the CMA account or the retirement account or anywhere else unless I edit the transaction. In my retirement account one of the options listed is “Checking Account”. When I click on that it does bring me to my CMA account. Similarly in my CMA account one the options listed is “Investment Account”. When I click on that it does bring me to my Traditional IRA account. So they are still linked. I checked to see if there was an option to transfer cash out of the account but I don’t see one, probably since this CMA linked account is designed to always have a zero cash balance.

Retirement account set up displays as Account Type: Traditional IRA, Tax deferred = Yes, Single mutual fund account = No. Linked CMA account set up displays as Tax deferred = Yes.

Any assistance would be appreciated.
Thank you.

Rocket J Squirrel

I'm not 100% sure what's going on here, but I'll provide some possibilities rather than let your question languish.

In Quicken, retirement accounts may not have linked checking accounts. In Quicken, a transfer out of a traditional IRA is considered to be a distribution, counted as income at tax time.

The fact that your IRA has a linked checking account suggests you converted from Microsoft Money at some point in the past. Money apparently allowed this, and Quicken didn't prevent it during conversion. But maybe something recently changed and the transfer-out transactions such as DivX are no longer allowed.

Do you really write checks from your IRA? That would be pretty unusual. I suggest you get rid of the linked checking account in Quicken and track the IRA's cash within the IRA account itself.

samuel491

That's correct. I did convert from Microsoft Money many years ago. I didn't even realize that Quicken didn't allow this with retirement accounts since my linked money market account has been working fine with my retirement brokerage account all this time. No, I don't write checks from my retirement account or the linked cash management account. But, of course, it has transactions in it such as dividend income, interest as well as money transferred in and withdrawn.

So maybe the issue now is how to get my brokerage retirement account unlinked from the money market account. There is no option to do this that I can see. I'll try moving the money market transactions into the brokerage account if it will accept cash transactions and delete the money market account. Maybe then a cash balance will begin to display in my brokerage account. And maybe a “Cash Amount” column and a “Cash Balance” column will show up also in this traditional IRA account as they do in my Roth brokerage account. I guess I need to save a backup and start experimenting. Thank you.

Jim_Harman

Please click on the gear at the top right of the account's Transaction list (register) and select Edit account details. Is there an option "Show cash in a checking account" with Yes selected?

If so, back up your data file in case something goes wrong, then select No for the Show cash in a checking account option.\. This will remove the linked account and change all the DivX's to Divs with the cash in the brokerage account. This takes time, be patient!

 

samuel491

In the retirement brokerage account on the "General" tab there is, unfortunately, no "Show cash in a checking account" option. Just "Tax Deferred = Yes" and "Single Mutual Fund = No" options. In the "Display Options" tab there is "Keep this account separate - account will be excluded from Quicken reports and features" which I don't have checked. Also "Hide in transaction entry lists" which I don't have checked. Also "Hide account name in account bar and account list" which I don't have checked.

Over in the linked money market account the only option in the "General" tab is "Tax deferred" which I have set to yes. The account type is "Checking". Display options are the same three unchecked as the brokerage account. I have "Account Intent" set to "Savings".

In the retirement brokerage account I just brought up "Account Overview" which I hadn't looked at before. One of the items in the list of values is "Linked Cash Balance" with the correct balance from the linked money market account. And if I click on the dollar amount it puts me in the transaction list for that linked account. Also in the list is "Cash Balance" with the correct amount from the one Div transaction that was recently created instead of the DivX transaction. There is also an "Account Attributes" section with the same info as on the "General" tab of the account details.

Over in the linked money market account I also just brought up "Account Overview". One of the items in the list is "Linked Acct Balance" with the correct amount from the retirement brokerage account. And if I click on the dollar amount it puts me in the transactions list for the brokerage account.

So Quicken knows these accounts are linked. Just isn't giving me the "Show cash in a checking account" option so I can turn that off.

Rocket J Squirrel

If the only transactions populating the linked checking account are the 81 DivXes, you could edit them each in the IRA and turn them into Div transactions. If it works, that should land all that cash back into the IRA and leave zero in the linked account.

Pour a cold one and take frequent breaks to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome.

Rocket J Squirrel

Rocket J Squirrel said:

that should land all that cash back into the IRA and leave zero in the linked account.

Except for all the other transactions in the cash account. Oops.

mshiggins

If I recall correctly, temporarily changing the IRA to Tax Deferred = No will expose the Show Cash in a Checking Account controls. 

As with any Quicken experimentation, you'll want to backup your file before beginning the experiment. 

Sherlock

For what it's worth, we have an old IRA account created with Quicken 98 (not from MS Money) which has a linked checking account.  There are no controls that can be temporarily enabled.  My suggestion is take the registers offline, create a new IRA account, and move the assets over.  You may hide the old accounts when they're no longer needed regularly.

samuel491

Thank you for all the suggestions which I will try. Of course, since Quicken clearly has functionality built in to support a linked money market account for retirement brokerage accounts it would be nice if they would simply restore the ability to enter DivX transactions. Perhaps they will see this discussion.

Jim_Harman

Building on @Sherlock's approach, you would

• Back up your data file in case something goes wrong
• create a new IRA account in Quicken
• Click on Enter Transactions and use Shares Transferred between Accounts to move your current holdings from the old account to the new one. This will create one Removed transaction for each security in the old account and one Added transaction in the new account for each lot of each security. 
• Transfer the cash from the linked checking account to the new account.

The new account should end up with the same cash balance as the old linked account. Future dividends will be entered as Divs in the new account and should add to its cash balance.

To track performance over a period that includes the transition, be sure to include both the old and new accounts.