How can I edit multiple transactions in which the "action" is incorrect?

jbredmo

Specifically, my downloaded VOYA 401K weekly deposits (usually 14 separate deposits) have for the last few weeks been shown as "Bought" instead of "BoughtX". This causes an increasing erroneous cash deficit in the account. The only way I have found to correct it is to edit each transaction manually, which is a ridiculous inconvenience. This began happening on Oct 12, 2022. Before that the transactions were properly coded. What to do?

Rocket J Squirrel

Congratulations, I believe you are the first to report this bug. The Search Results window is supposed to let you select transactions to edit, but it does not. You can't even select one, much less a range as advertised.

Please report this via Help > Report a Problem.

Chris_QPW

@Rocket J Squirrel I believe it is you that have found the bug, since @jbredmo didn't mention anything about using find and replace.  What's more even though the message says that, as far as I know it has never been possible to use find and replace to change investment transactions.  BTW I don't even know how you got that Search Results, my attempts at it didn't come up with that dialog.

And that is the answer I would give to the question if you can somehow select multiple transactions and change that action, it isn't possible.  There is the Edit Multiple Transactions menu item on the gear icon for investment accounts, but it is restricted to these operations:


It might be inconvenient to have to change them one at a time, but it isn't surprising.  Because the "translations" between different security actions could be missing needed information that might even be different for each transaction.

As original problem, it might be that the financial institution changed the security action in the download.  Or maybe some bug.  I know that for some people the 401Ks coded all the buys as buys and transfers, and there is something that I no one has ever explained that triggers a 401K account to go into this mode.

Here is a thread on this happening:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7899482/downloads-to-401k-show-as-boughtx-but-convert-to-bought-when-accept

jbredmo

Thanks Chris and Rocket. This morning I downloaded yesterday's VOYA transactions. The download list, before acceptance, correctly showed the action as "BoughtX". As soon as I clicked "Accept all" it changed them all to "Bought". I would guess that has to be a bug or deliberate change to the code in Quicken, not VOYA.

Also, I could not duplicate Rocket's Search function either.

I did review the thread you mentioned, Chris. It is very much to the point. I couldn't find it when I searched for it. However, I think something is still screwy. I suppose if the download showed the transfer of funds into the account from the outside source, then the "Bought" action would be appropriate. However, it has never done that. In that case, the "BoughtX" action would seem to be correct, since, if I understand correctly, it implies that the purchase used funds from an unspecified outside source, which would not require the use of resources from within the account.

Perhaps Quicken changed the code in a recent update to employ the logic mentioned in the thread, and that created a new problem.

I did report this issue to Quicken.

I'm going to try the reconcile method, then change the balancing transaction to indicate that it's a deposit to the account, if I can figure out how to do that. That would be a band aid, but better than leaving the account with an incorrect value. I'll let you know how I make out, or if Quicken puts out an update fixing the problem.

John

Rocket J Squirrel

Chris_QPW said:

@Rocket J Squirrel I believe it is you that have found the bug, since @jbredmo didn't mention anything about using find and replace.

Find & Replace is not involved.

jbredmo said:

Also, I could not duplicate Rocket's Search function either.

It results from clicking Find at the upper right of an investment register. That presents the dialog below. Find All results in the Search Results window I showed above.

Chris_QPW

@Rocket J Squirrel thanks.  With that I was able to reproduce what you got.  I think the message at the bottom of the dialog is what is in error.  I have never seen a way to change the action of an investment transaction except for one at a time by editing it in the register.

jbredmo

I more or less solved the problem by entering a deposit in the amount of the cumulative cash deficit, returning the cash amount to $0.00. I agree that the best way to resolve this would be to report the payroll amount deposited in the download. I don't know whether VOYA doesn't download it or Quicken doesn't report it. We'll see if Quicken addresses this issue in any way.

Thanks Rocket and Chris for helping out!

John