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Is it possible to remove investment data

Art

All my investment information is corrupt. I'd like to remove the data I have and reload the correct data. Is that possible? Windows version R50.15. It's been messed up for probably 20 years. Yes years…. Never messed with it. Retired now and have time. Would like to get it right.

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Accepted answers

pekat

Right click on the account then select 'Delete'. A dialog will open, click on 'Delete Account' (button is bottom left), then type 'Yes' in the box then click OK.

Tom Young

After 20 years it will be almost impossible to "reload" the data. The typical restriction for downloading into Quicken (the Financial Institution, not Quicken, sets the limit) is 90 days. Some FIs allow for more time than that for downloading directly into Quicken and/or allow for some amount of older information to be recovered via OFX files you download from their website. But I don't think you're going to get 20 years of history right without A LOT of manual entry.

"Never messed with it."

You simply cannot - cannot - rely on downloading to keep an investment transaction history correct. Regular Buys, Sells and Dividend transactions are typically downloaded correctly in most cases (maybe less so now with so many FIs moving to the EWC/EWC+ downloading method) but "corporate actions" of any sort - mergers, acquisitions, splits, spinoffs, etc. - are very frequently NOT handled correctly in downloads or CAN'T be handled correctly in downloads and I'm sure in 20 years of history virtually every one of these corporate actions could have occurred.

There are a couple of approaches you might take here. One approach would be to get your security holdings stated as correctly as possible as of "today" and resolve to keep on top of transactions going forward to maintain, correctly, your current holdings. Another approach would be to pick a point in time in the "recent" past - 5 year, 7 years, whatever - when you know the transaction information and the correctly stated "Opening Positions" of securities is available to you, and via downloads and manual entry start from that point and get that recent history and the evolution of your holdings correctly stated. You know that most of the "plain vanilla" transactions that have been downloaded during that period probably are correct - check them, though - and fix the corporate action transactions that might very well be the source of the "corruption." Doing 20 years worth of correction might well be impossible as most FIs only have 10 years or so of statements available to you online.

Tom Young

@Art

If you delete the Account and establish a new Account, you'll be able to download information into Quicken as far back as the FI allows - typically 90 days, sometimes more. If you go to the FI's website and hunt around, or call them and ask, you may be able to find some amount of "older" information. Typically this takes the form of an OFX file that you download into your computer and then import into Quicken. A CSV (comma separated file) can't be imported into Quicken, though it could have information - older yet - that you could manually enter. So at that point you'll have some of the real account's historical information, though not all, and if the FI has mangled any corporate actions in their downloads - captured either in the "online" downloads or the OFX files - that will still be mangled. And of course "basis" information for any securities that you have had in the account from the time you opened it almost certainly will not be complete, but you might get lucky and the FI could have that information in their "customer facing" screens on their web site.

Before you do anything I'd take the time to see what's actually available from the FI, both online history and via PDF statements, (heck, they might even be able to dig out paper copies of even older statements), then decide how much "history" you want to get properly stated. You'd have to research corporate actions to see how you're supposed to account for them - "stock plus cash" deals can get pretty complicated. Then decide how much work you're willing to do.

If you're aiming for screaming accuracy of 20 years of activity then you're looking at A LOT of work as you'd want to have each and every lot of each and every security you've ever owned properly recorded and we know exactly how you're going to spend a good chunk of your retirement years.😁

ADDED: @volvogirl has added an important consideration that I didn't discuss, that being that deleting this Account means any interactions (transfers) that have occurred with this Investment Account and other Accounts will be lost - affecting those other Accounts - and losing a significant amount or correct information - dividend income, interest income, capital gains and losses, etc.

If you don't want to use the existing Account as your point of departure, i.e., editing that Account to correct some amount of history and using Adds/Removes to get current holdings correctly stated, then Close the Account but don't delete it.

Tom Young

If you've been downloading all along and your holding in Quicken are completely messed up, I would think you'd be getting "Securities Comparison Mismatch" notices. Yes? No?

If you do get Securities Comparison Mismatch notices then the easiest way to get your current holdings (Security & Number of share) would be to accept Quicken Placeholders. That should result in each security you own having the correct number of shares, though not the correct basis. Then you go forward from there.

If you want to create a new Account and leave all the transactions behind, then disconnect your current Investment Account from downloading and Close and Hide the Account. Then create a new Investment Account with a slightly different name from the old Account - I think Quicken won't accept a new Account with an existing name - and set it up for downloading. Do this tomorrow (Saturday) or Sunday so that if your Financial Institution uses one of the Express Web Connect methods Quicken's aggregator (Intuit) should have today's (Friday)close of business holdings in the account. I'm not sure if you'll get "90 days" (or whatever the FI allows) of downloads or not. (If this was a brand new file you would get those downloads, but since this is the same file as you've always used, I just don't know one way or the other.)

Quicken should bring up the Securities Mismatch Screen, I'd expect, since the Account should be essentially empty. Accept those Placeholders and you should have the correct securities with the correct number of shares.

Alternatively you could create the new file and do a series of Add Actions where you either setup the securities without regard to lots - simply Name, Number of Shares and Total Cost basis.

All comments

pekat

Right click on the account then select 'Delete'. A dialog will open, click on 'Delete Account' (button is bottom left), then type 'Yes' in the box then click OK.

Tom Young

"Never messed with it."

Art

Thanx for your prompt reply. So if I delete an account that has lots of errors in it, will I be able to download a fresh version of the account from my brokerage?

Tom Young

@Art

volvogirl

Well you won't get all of the history. And if there are any transfers to other accounts like to your checking account they will be deleted and get messed up too. I wouldn't delete any accounts yet. But whatever you do make a backup first so you can go back if it doesn't work right or you don't like the results.

Art

I'm not interested in correcting the history. I just want to have the current information. I'd like to start like as if it was my first day and I want to download my investment accounts.

Tom Young

If you've been downloading all along and your holding in Quicken are completely messed up, I would think you'd be getting "Securities Comparison Mismatch" notices. Yes? No?

Alternatively you could create the new file and do a series of Add Actions where you either setup the securities without regard to lots - simply Name, Number of Shares and Total Cost basis.

Art

Yes - get lots of mismatches. How do I disconnect my accounts?

Tom Young

@Art

"Yes - get lots of mismatches. How do I disconnect my accounts?"

If you accept all the Placeholders that the mismatches are finding - and assuming Quicken's "per the broker" number are correct - you should end up with a Holdings screen that has the correct securities and the correct number of shares.

To disconnect:

Go to the Account, click the Gearwheel (top right) and select "Edit account details." Click on the "Online Services" tab of the Account Details screen. Click "Deactivate."

mshiggins

Having recently gone through the mandatory switch from Ameritrade to Schwab and the resulting loss of of Gainskeeper cost basis data, I am very glad I have my Quicken investment data for Ameritrade going back to 1998. I would be lost without that Quicken data. Glad I have never removed any investment data from Quicken.