Linked checking account annoyances

Jeff Bean

I have a Fidelity Cash Management checking account. In order for this to be treated as a checking account with a banking style register, instead of an investment account register Quicken creates a linked checking account. Transactions that are downloaded from Fidelity via Direct Connect into the CMA account are automatically transferred over to the linked checking account. So far so good, but there are two things that don't seem to work properly.

1. The linked checking account ignores the Downloaded Transactions preference setting and always automatically adds the transactions to the register instead of letting me accept them manually, which is my preference. Changing the "Automatic entry" option on the Online Services tab of the CMA account also has no effect.

2. The Online Services tab of the Account Details screen for the linked checking account is missing the "Don't update memo when downloading" checkbox that other bank accounts have. As a result the memo field gets filled with non-useful information from Fidelity instead of being left blank.

NotACPA

Are you sure that you've got a "Linked Checking Account"?  Did it come over from MS Money, or some other product?

Because an LCA doesn't really exist ... so it doesn't have an "Online Services tab".  Such functionality is handled by the associated investment account.

Please do TOOLS, Account List and click EDIT adjacent to your brokerage account.  Is "Show cash in a checking account" checked"?

Finally,what BUILD of Q are you running?  Do HELP, About Quicken for this info.

Jeff Bean

Yes, I am quite sure it is a linked checking account. And you are correct, it doesn't have an Online Services tab. When I said it was missing the "Don't update memo when downloading", I misspoke. It is the CMA investment account that is missing that option. And yes, it does have the "show cash in a checking account" option set. I am using version R46.12.

Chris_QPW

Misread, the question.  Disregard.

NotACPA

@Jeff Bean  I just checked ALL of my investment accounts, and both LCA accounts and none of them have the "Don't update memo ...  " option.

I'd suggest that you start a new IDEA thread and see what support you can gather for adding it.

BTW, I have a Fidelity CMA also, and haven't seen your issue 1 with transactions being automatically recorded in the register.

Nor have I seen your "non-useful info" in the memo field.  Unless I've input something to that field when creating the transaction, it's usually blank.

Chris_QPW

Not surprising that the linked checking account doesn't have the "Don't update memo" account because it isn't really a checking account, and as such has to have specialized code written for it.  It is in fact, a virtual register that is connected to the investment account.

Jeff Bean

@NotACPA Strange that you don't see extraneous stuff in the memo field. Here is a screenshot of the stuff I get. You can also see that the transactions have been automatically matched in the register. Perhaps it has something to do with the way we do the update? I use the one-step update and it processes several accounts at a time. Some (like Fidelity) are Direct Connect and some are Express WebConnect. I have noticed that every once in a while it doesn't do the automatic matching, but I haven't yet figured out what I did differently in those cases.

NotACPA

@Jeff Bean

Are you inputting transactions (say, that Verizon Wireless transaction) before they download?  Or is the download the 1st instance of the transaction.

I suspect you're doing the latter, and I'm doing the former, which would be why I don't see your issue.

Jeff Bean

@NotACPA
Good idea, but I don't think your theory works. The first transaction (to Underground Sprinkler) was entered manually at the time that I wrote the check. When entered it had no memo. The second transaction (to Rita Bueno, not cleared yet) came from a manually created auto-entry recurring bill, where I later filled in the check number as I wrote the check. The third transaction (to Verizon Wireless) came from a manually created auto-entry recurring bill. So all three were in the register before the download.

Perhaps it is a case of uninitialized memory and the "Don't update memo" setting is getting carried forward in memory from the account that was processed just before the linked checking account.